We are delighted to have appointed Sarah Lyons to a newly created position of Environment Manager. We pride ourself on our distillery’s environmental credentials and have ambitions to further improve its sustainability.
The environment is very important to us and we really strive to continually improve on our impact.
Appointing Sarah to the role was a good logical move!
Sarah has been a valued member of our team for the last 5 years, in charge of finance. She has a degree in Mathematics & Oceanography and, whilst she has enjoyed her finance role with us, and in the past larger financial institutions, this is her dream job. She said: “I’ve always longed for a career in the environmental sector, and I am delighted to have been given the opportunity.”
We are excited about this new role and believe Sarah is the perfect candidate given her passion for the environment and her knowledge of the company. She embraces the ethos. It was the logical next step for us as we are always striving to ensure that we remain environmentally conscious. To that end, for instance, to our knowledge we are the first company to have created recyclable refill pouches which can be returned by Freepost to ensure re-use of our iconic ceramic bottles.
Sarah will be looking to make small changes as well as larger ones, for example, we are transitioning to using paper tape instead of plastic tape on boxes. This isn’t the cheaper option but it’s the better option. She has taken the initiative of working towards Planet Mark certification. The priority will then be to develop a long-term strategy to support decarbonisation, waste initiatives, and the circular economy.
We already try to be as environmentally friendly as possible and already have policies whereby food waste is composted and used in the Distillery gardens; and the botanicals used to create Rock Rose Gin and Holy Grass Vodka are sent – with permission from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) – to a local farmer to benefit agricultural land. For much of the year, we abstract water from the burn, that runs behind the distillery, to cool the distillation. This water is returned, completely clean, to that same burn.
We are also self-reliant regarding energy. The Distillery’s solar panel system has generated 74MWh since it was installed. In 2020, it generated 22 MWh – more than the 18 MWh required for distillery production, heating, and the Distillery Shop.
Ensuring the coastline is pristine is important to us and our team. We have decided to incentivise our team to take part in regular beach clean-ups starting this Spring on Earth Day. We will be starting a year-long challenge collecting plastics and other waste found on the shores near here. It’s not just the large, obvious pieces of waste such as single-use bottles for which we’ll be combing the beach, but smaller particles, too, as these microplastics are often ingested by seabirds and marine animals.
