New Bacardi Gin Distillery Uses Renewables to Achieve Net Zero Sustainability

Sustainability-related trends are transforming the way businesses manage economic, environmental and social opportunity and risks to achieve global competitive advantage and long-term stakeholder value. Challenges such as climate change and resource scarcity are redefining societal expectations, and hence business environment and strategy.

Bacardi’s premium gin brand Bombay Sapphire is setting new standards in industrial sustainability at its new distillery at Laverstoke Mill in England. From the outset, Bacardi had drawn up ambitious plans to create an outstanding model of sustainability when it set out to redevelop Laverstoke Mill. Now Bombay Sapphire has made sure that nothing is wasted at the distillery, and it fulfills Bacardi’s company-wide vision of a net-zero impact on the environment.

The distillery’s eco-conscious design includes a simple system to collect used gin botanicals and deliver it to a biomass boiler that can burn any suitable organic matter. This process generates immense heat that is required to distill the gin. Apart from generating energy from leftovers, the distillery has embraced a sustainable approach in various other ways to do its part to fulfill Bacardi’s net-zero environmental impact goals.

BREEAM, the world’s leading environmental rating system for buildings, has conferred the coveted 2014 BREEAM Industrial Award to the Bombay Sapphire distillery. BREEAM gave the project top marks for the lowest possible environmental impact because of its use of renewable materials and the low-carbon energy it generates from the biomass boiler.

Bacardi’s “Good Spirited” platform to promote sustainable business practices across its various brands reinforces the company’s leadership in corporate social responsibility. The company is consistently improving operational efficiencies to reduce water and energy use and cut down GHG emissions. Bacardi has made an industry-first pledge to obtain 40 percent of its sugarcane-derived products from certified, sustainable sources by 2017, and 100 percent by 2022.

In terms of sustainable packaging, Bacardi plans to reduce the weight of its packaging by 10 percent by 2017, and 15 percent by 2022. The company’s commitment to improve operational efficiencies includes a goal to reduce water use by 55 percent and GHG emissions by 50 percent by 2017. Additionally, it aims to eliminate landfill waste at all of its production sites by 2022.

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