Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. announced the formation of its Craft Distiller Sustainability Taskforce to collaborate and share effective strategies to maximize resource utilization and eliminate waste at every step of the production process.
“The distilled spirits industry remains deeply invested in protecting our environmental and natural resources,” said Chris Swonger, president and CEO of DISCUS and Responsibility.org. “This new task force will exchange ideas and share best practices on preserving the water that craft distillers use to produce their wonderful spirits, finding more efficient ways to use energy and identifying alternative uses for byproducts.”
Co-chairs of the task force are Connie Baker, co-founder, CEO, and head distiller at Marble Distilling Co.; Carey Shanks, co-founder and spirit advisor at Marble Distilling, and Carlo Luri, director of government affairs at Bently Heritage Estate Distillery. Taskforce leadership will participate in DISCUS Sustainability Committee meetings and report back to the full task force on relevant developments for discussion or further action.
The task force will focus its efforts on tasting room practices, benchmarking and reporting, policy and legislation, marketing, tourism, supply chain, regenerative agriculture and farming, recycling, shipping and packaging.
In announcing the task force, DISCUS said spirits producers already employ a range of sustainability strategies including:
- Land Stewardship: Producers are reducing the impact on local ecosystems by making better use of soil nutrient availability, reducing fertilizer use and maximizing crop yield through spatial efficiency and planting methods.
- Responsible Water Use: Producers are updating their facility design and irrigation methods for more efficient water use and re-use of water resources in crop growth and production. Wastewater is continually managed and even reused in some cases.
- Energy Reduction: Whenever possible, facilities are employing renewable energy sources, such as hydroelectric and solar power, to maximize the use of an environment’s natural renewable resources. Investment in new equipment and energy-saving technologies are reducing the amount of energy used in ethanol production.
- Circular Material Syncing: Producing distilled spirits affords many opportunities to reuse valuable resources. Spent grain from distillation is often provided back to farmers as a nutritionally rich food source for animals. Water byproducts from the distillation process is stripped of organic matter, then reused in irrigation for new crops.
- Waste Reduction: The industry is dedicated to the reduction of plastic and single-use products and packaging. Producers and manufacturers aim to exceed mandated waste reduction efforts with an end goal of zero-waste generated.
- Evaluating Transport Burdens: In order to alleviate greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), producers are taking steps to reduce the burden on transportation systems by increasing truck fill rates that reduce vehicle time in transit and increasing container fill rates in ocean freighters to reduce their carbon footprint. Low-Sulphur and Compressed Natural Gas fuel types are encouraged to reduce carbon emissions.