Today we celebrate World Sustainable Spirits Day!
World Sustainable Spirits Day was founded on 28th August 2020, in-conjunction with the launch of our second climate positive spirit, Nàdar Vodka - the perfect spirit to toast to a greener, more environmentally sustainable future!
This day was launched to reinforce the importance of reducing 'spirit-miles', operating in a sustainable and ethical manner whilst taking responsibility for the impact we have on our planet. World Sustainable Spirits Day aims to connect and encourage those in the food and drinks industry to become as sustainable as possible.
ETHICAL CONSUMPTION
Ethical consumption is one way to address our own sustainability. We can all positively impact our environment by changing what and how we consume. Like food, alcohol also has environmental implications and so it's important to trace where our spirits come from and how they are being produced.
🌎 A GOOD DRINK SHOULDN'T COST THE EARTH 🌎
Kirsty Black, Arbikie Master Distiller:
"At Arbikie we’re continuously looking for ways to innovate and reinforce our sustainability focus. For each decision we make, we try and consider the environmental impact and how we can do things better."
Although we are very much focused on making sustainability a priority within the drinks industry, it is not something that we can achieve alone. This is why we created #WorldSustainableSpiritsDay to encourage others to join in the movement!
Scroll to read about some of our sustainable achievements:
WORLD'S FIRST CLIMATE POSITIVE GIN AND VODKA
While all of our spirits are produced sustainably, we reached a key milestone when we launched the world's first climate positive gin & vodka, Nàdar. These revolutionary spirits are thanks to our Master Distiller, Kirsty Black, who researched and ultimately distilled Nàdar as part of her PHD. This project took a total of five years of research with academic partners, the James Hutton Institute and Abertay University. Kirsty also worked with Bangor University and Trinity College Dublin on Nàdar's lifecycle analysis.
Nàdar is distilled using homegrown peas and saves >1.53 kg of CO2e per 700ml bottle.
Check out our short film ‘Going against the Grain’ to find out more about the creation of Nàdar:
WORLD'S FIRST DISTILLERY TO BE POWERED BY HYDROGEN
A pledge by the UK government and a positive legacy from the hosting of COP26 last year, has matured into our distillery becoming, what we believe to be, the first in the world to be powered by green hydrogen.
Last week, we were given the green light to install a green hydrogen energy system at our distillery, comprising a 1 MW wind turbine, electrolyser, hydrogen storage and hydrogen boiler system. This project is in collaboration with hydrogen experts, Logan Energy, and sustainable specialists, Locogen.
This will allow us to move away from traditional distilling processes and instead, use zero-carbon green hydrogen generated on site.
ARBIKIE X ECOSPIRITS
Last year, we partnered with ecoSPIRITS and became one of the first UK brands to adopt their closed loop distribution technology, which aims to eliminate single use glass in the drinks industry. ecoSPIRITS 4.5 Litre reusable TOTE replaces the standard six bottle spirits case, as well as a semi-automated facility that sanitises, refills, and seals spirits.
While our Nàdar spirits already achieve an impressive carbon saving of over 1.53 kg per 700ml bottle, partnering with ecoSPIRITS helps us reduce that carbon footprint even further, saving an additional 1.004kg CO2e solely through the elimination of single-use glass!
It has been great to see several other drinks brands since adopt the ecoSPIRITS technology and we hope others continue to come on board.
Watch the video below to see how an ecoTOTE works in the bar:
COLLABORATIONS
Our commitment to sustainability has opened up some incredible opportunities for us within the hospitality industry such as our collaborations with The Savoy London and Hilton:
'FLORA' COCKTAIL - THE SAVOY LONDON
In March, we worked with The Savoy London and ecoSPIRITS to create a sustainable Arbikie cocktail. Named 'Flora', this incredible Nàdar Gin cocktail was created using seasonal, sustainable ingredients and revolutionary techniques to herald spring:
NÀDAR LAUNCHED ACROSS THE UAE WITH HILTON
We recently teamed up with luxury hotel partner, Hilton, to welcome our climate positive Nàdar spirits to the UAE. We created a sustainable menu with four bespoke Nàdar cocktails which are now available in 30 bars across Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Ras AL-Khaimah with Hilton: