When we built the distillery, we installed energy and water efficiency measures, uncommon in the industry at the time:

• Thermal Vapour Compression (TVR) systems were installed on both stills. This allowed for the recycling of 35% of the energy back into the stills.

• A heat recovery condenser on the wash still allows for all the energy rejected by the wash still to be reused elsewhere in the process.

• We preheat of the feed stock to both stills by utilising waste heat from elsewhere in the process.

• A hammer mill, mash conversion vessel and mash filter system as opposed to more traditional roller mill and lauter tun system. This reduced the water consumption, increased the raw material extraction efficiency and increased the resultant wash alcohol strength leading to a more energy efficient distillation process.

• The cooling function at the distillery is a recirculating cooling tower which reduced the water demand of the distillery.

• A gas economiser on the boiler which increased the boiler’s efficiency.

• We have secured Fife grown barley from Kingdom Farming, Balgonie Estate in our brands since day one, recognising our brand motto of ‘Fife Grown, Fife distilled, Fife Matured’

• Muntons have been our provider of malted barley (apart from peated) since 2015, due to their strong sustainability credentials. When they opened a peated malt site, they then provided 100% of our malted barley, peated and unpeated.

• We supply all our co products (pot and ale and draff) to a local Anaerobic Digester where it is converted to bio methane which is put back into the grid. Regrettably it is not commercially feasible to use this gas as the distilleries main fuel source as the subsidy received by the AD plant would not be transferable to the gas supplied to the distillery. The digestate from this AD plant is spread on local farmland.

• We built our warehouses with rain capture, which is then fed to a pond for storage. In addition, we have located the distillery next to two springs. Currently the pond water would require a lot of processing before it would be ready for use in our production. We currently use 100% mains water, but we know that with increased likelihood of drought there may be water restrictions and therefore want to ensure we have adequate supply.

• We had tried to purchase Fife grown Rye since day one, but this was not possible so we had been using 100% Scottish Rye.  From 2019 we are pleased to now source 100% Fife-grown rye for our brands.

• We commissioned our first carbon footprint analysis. With assistance from Scottish Enterprise, we commissioned Eunomia to carry out an initial carbon footprint calculation in 2019, based on the 2018 distillation year.

• Findings showed that our malt was responsible for approximately 56% of our carbon footprint, and 32% from burning gas.

• Always looking for opportunities to make more energy related changes, we switched our electricity supply to 100% renewable energy towards the end of this year.

• In this year we could start to compare our energy efficiency with an industry average. In this comparison we found we used 40% less energy per litre of pure alcohol. Note this is from a Chivas Bros Vibe Awards Case Study 2020.

• The carbon footprint report was updated in 2020 to account for the switch to renewable energy.

• From the report, the growing of barley was a higher proportion of the greenhouse gas emissions than the malting of the barley. This is due in large part to the emissions related to the production and application of nitrogen-based fertilisers. Therefore, we sponsored research in the Yield Enhancement Network Net Zero programme to better understand where the emissions come from in a field, and how they can be reduced.

• With 32% of our greenhouse gas emissions coming from burning gas for distillation, we needed to look for alternatives. Therefore, we commissioned a hydrogen feasibility study with ARUP, who looked at using hydrogen as our primary fuel source, displacing natural gas. This research led to our decision to switch to green hydrogen in the future.

• We switched our peated malt supply to Munton’s, who are actively reducing their greenhouse gas emissions in the malting process

• We commissioned a heat pump feasibility study which looked at recovering the waste heat from the final condenser on the spirit still. This is currently on hold as the impact was relatively low in reducing the carbon footprint, and the economics still had to be fully understood.

• From this year onwards we sponsor two bee hives on our distillery grounds, managed by Kinross based Webster Honey. We want to boost biodiversity in the distillery grounds, and so this is one of the first measures we will take on site

• Triggered by the findings in the carbon footprint report, and with a greater understanding of the need to support wider environmental aims in agriculture, we sponsored a cover crop trial at Balgonie Estate through Scottish Agronomy. This research is designed to see whether cover crops can reduce nitrogen fertiliser use in subsequent cereal crop, improve soil health and reduce carbon footprint.

• The UK government awarded funding to 11 successful green hydrogen projects under its first hydrogen allocation round (HAR1) – and InchDairnie Distillery was one of them, which means from 2027, Scottish Power will provide us with a green hydrogen supply.

• Electric charging units were installed on site at the distillery

• We installed a Bosch hydrogen ready boiler, with a deaerator for increased efficiency, reduced chemical use. Therefore, we are ready for our green hydrogen supply in 2027.

• Recognising the increased need for a wider portfolio of sustainability related activities beyond looking at energy and emissions, we employed a Sustainability Manager.

• We were delighted to win a Fife Business Award for Sustainability & Net Zero, recognising our early and ongoing efforts to be an energy efficient distillery.

• We undertook a double materiality assessment to understand our impacts on the environment and people, and their impact on our business