Winner – Copalli Rum
We’re off to southern Belize to hand the Sustainable Spirits Producer of the Year to Copalli Rum.
While the namesake brand owner earned credit from its use of spent sugarcane – either as fuel for the biomass boiler or as fertiliser for the fields – what really caught the eye was the thorough documentation of the brand’s carbon-negative status.
Through an independently verified Life Cycle Assessment, the company calculated a CO2e of 1.155kg per bottle in 2023. Factoring in greenhouse gas reduction efforts in the fields as well as in “other agricultural areas”, that figure dropped to -5.5kg per bottle. Indeed, Copalli expects its per-bottle CO2e level to stay at -5.5kg for each of the next three years.
Our judges said: Copalli mightily impressed by demonstrating their rums are climate-positive, rooted in community benefit and produced utilising measurable ecosystem protection– a powerful combination that few of its competitors could match.
Gold Medal – Clonakilty Distillery
Clonakilty Distillery is no stranger to Global Drinks Intel‘s ESG Awards: In 2023, the privately-owned company emerged victorious in the Sustainable Marketing Campaign of the Year category. Two years on, and the south-west Ireland-based distiller has “built on past success” by not only securing B Corp status earlier this year but also through a partnership with environment specialist – and B Corp peer – Climeaction to assess its carbon footprint across all aspects of the business.
The latest project has resulted in the foundation of a five-year decarbonisation strategy that covers emissions across scopes 1-3, “ensuring a holistic-business approach rather than isolated initiatives”.
Gold Medal – Downton Distillery
With its flagship brand named after the great bustard, UK-based Downton Distillery was always going to have an environmental focus to its business. Indeed, the company’s efforts in the areas of regenerative practices, habitat restoration and circular design caught the judges’ eyes.
Credit was earned for the Great Bustard Gin producer’s ‘Bottle for Life’ programme, offering purchasers a pouch that can be returned free of charge by post to Downton Distillery for reuse. There’s also the funding of three local nurseries with a view to replanting juniper groves, along with per-bottle sales contributions to support growing the number of birds in Downton’s local county of Wiltshire.
