Earlier this month, Global Drinks Intel announced the winners of its inaugural ESG Awards. Here’s a look at why the winners won.
Resource Reduction Achievement – Good Liquorworks
Ahead of the release of the Good Vodka brand, Good Liquorworks commissioned Netherlands-based ecological consultant EcoChain, to undertake a life cycle assessment of its full supply chain. The subsequent report was “pivotal in how we built our company”.
Good Vodka takes the full stream of wastewater from coffee production and boils it down to a sugar-rich syrup. Almost 70% of the carbon dioxide equivalent [co2e] is a direct result of the wastewater disposal. Because the company uses a by-product, it is able to eliminate the need for artificial irrigation.
At the same time, the furnaces that power the concentration process are powered by chaff, the thin material that surrounds the coffee bean.
“One litre of Good Vodka has an offset of -21.76kg co2e, compared with +0.736 kgco2e of production-related emissions. The net footprint, therefore, is -21.024 kgco2e per litre [-15.76 kgco2e per 75cl bottle].”
EcoChain noted in its report to Good Liquorworks that the “climate impacts of the [coffee fruit] concentrate are slightly higher compared to maize and a bit lower compared to potato. However, the benefits of using the wastewater at all are clearly proven by the avoided greenhouse gas emissions of not discharging the wastewater.
“Huge climate impacts are avoided by not discharging coffee wastewater but instead utilising it as a feedstock for vodka production.”
Special Commendation – Beam Suntory
Beam Suntory took a ‘kitchen sink’ approach to its submission, highlighting a raft of targets and achievements centred around its ‘Proof Positive’ group-wide sustainability strategy. Like many of its peers, the company has aligned its targets to the United Nations’ ‘Sustainable Development Goals’.
Among the achievements that swayed the judges were:
- reducing its water usage by 10% in 2022 [versus 2021] by introducing closed-loop cooling systems at two distilleries in Kentucky
- Contributing financially to a project run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds [RSPB] that restores and regenerates peatland in Scotland, and
- Installing anaerobic digestors for the production of renewable natural gas at the Booker Noe distillery, also in Kentucky.
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