Ireland makes a united pledge to reduce environmental impact in whisky distilleries

The Irish Whiskey Association is ambitious to make Irish distilleries the most sustainable in the world and has published a roadmap on how the industry will reduce its environmental and carbon impact, strengthen its role in the regenerative and circular economy, and deliver a positive impact for communities.

The all-island roadmap supported by enterprise agencies both North and South Ireland. Entitled, Irish Whiskey Sustainable Together the plan towards sustainability includes:

• Reducing water usage – The roadmap supports the principle of ‘less-water-in, less-effluent-out’ and sets a target of reducing the volumes of water used per litre of whiskey distilled. The Association and Irish Water have agreed plans to deliver bespoke, accredited Water Stewardship training days for distilleries
• Supporting Irish farming – The Irish whiskey industry purchases over 100,000 tonnes of Irish barley and malt annually and the roadmap commits to buying even more from Irish farmers
• Supporting the circular economy: Every year, over 350,000 tonnes of co-products from Irish whiskey production (spent grain/pot ale) are re-used to become high-quality animal feed and the roadmap commits to strengthening Irish whiskey’s place in the circular economy
• Energy efficiency – to support innovation on energy efficiency within the industry members sharing with members to share best practice on energy efficiency with state agency and key stakeholders support
• Tree planting - The Association has nominated Trees on the Land as their all-island tree-planting partner, at least 50 per cent of which will be oak trees.
• All-Ireland Pollinator Plan – The Association has signed up to support the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan (AIPP) to implement actions on distillery and maturation sites.

Director of the Irish Whiskey Association, William Lavelle, said, “The roadmap is about an industry working together and sharing knowledge with a shared ambition to make Ireland the home of the world’s most sustainable distilleries. We are committed to minimising the life-cycle environmental impact of our production practices and our supply chains while maximising our support for Irish farming and local suppliers.

“This roadmap will actively support the delivery of national climate targets. Some Irish whiskey distilleries will reach net-zero very quickly and through the knowledge transfer projects set-out in the roadmap we will support all distilleries to make the transition, particularly the two-thirds of our members who are SMEs.

“This is not just an environmental strategy. The roadmap also addresses the importance of economic and social sustainability. People and place have been at the heart of Irish whiskey’s renaissance and our industry is proud of how we support communities and local economies across the island of Ireland.”

As Irish whiskey is of one of Ireland’s leading all-island industries, the new roadmap is being supported by state agencies both North and South.

The roadmap also outlines how the growth of the Irish whiskey industry in recent years has supported both urban regeneration and rural communities by creating high-quality jobs in communities across Ireland. Vacant buildings in 17 towns and villages across Ireland have been re-purposed for the development of distilleries with the tourist dollar for visits to distilleries in 2019 sitting at AUD$94 million.