If ever you needed proof that sustainability has moved from the fringe into the mainstream, there you have it. It’s been long touted, and with some cynicism, that it would take consumers speaking with their wallets to inspire the bigger companies to shift to a more sustainable approach, and that could be partially driving the current trend.
According to Capgemini, 53% of global consumers have switched to lesser-known brands because they were deemed more sustainable. These trends are stronger among younger consumers. An AdAge report found that 82% of Gen Z would be more likely to buy an environmentally friendly product, and 90% believe it is the responsibility of companies to act on environmental and social issues, according to a Porter Novelli study.
It’s not easy for alcohol brands to be completely green, with waste an inevitable result of production. To combat this, bars have been recycling waste ingredients into homemade cordials, liqueurs, shrubs and syrups for some time now.
Some alcohol brands are scaling up this concept to commercial levels. Brussels Beer Project and London’s Toast Ale both make beer from surplus fresh bread, and Dairy Distillery, based in Ontario, uses by-products from milk production to create vodka.
Discarded, owned by William Grant & Sons, produces a Sweet Cascara Vermouth, Banana Peel Rum and Chardonnay Vodka, all of which are entirely made from recycled waste ingredients – save for wormwood and a few botanicals in the vermouth, and some blending in the rum for consistency.
They follow a motto borrowed from the late American folk singer Pete Seeger: “If it can’t be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, resold, recycled or composted, then it should be restricted, redesigned or removed from production.”
The concept was hatched by Joe Petch, the global brand ambassador of Monkey Shoulder, who upon receiving a bag of cascara (the skins of coffee cherries), created a vermouth using a sherry-style spirit wine that had been used to season whisky casks.
Calum Fraser, Discarded’s UK brand ambassador, says: “He had been playing around with the idea of exploring vermouths and sherries, and joined that with the lovely flavours you get in cascara. He created a product and pitched it to the company. That initial iteration of cascara and spirit wine was really similar to what ended up in the bottle.”
There’s no shortage of cascara, given that processing 1,000kg of coffee results in about 400kg of waste and the world has a billion-kilogram-a-year coffee habit. A er the success of the Sweet Cascara Vermouth, Discarded launched a rum using the waste seasoning rum from Balvenie 14 Year Old casks infused with waste banana skins.
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Sam Trevethyen, global brand ambassador at Discarded, adds: “Often, we would ship this [rum] back to the Caribbean to be blended and sold on, which was a shame because it has a unique flavour profile. Also, it’s just not great to ship stuff halfway across the world. If you’re building something from the ground up it’s easy to build it to be as sustainable as you want it to be. Smaller operations have a lot of control. When talking about giant spirit companies, it can be a little more challenging.”
MAJOR PLAYERS STEP UP
It turns out many are willing to rise to the challenge. Moët Hennessy is reducing emissions across its portfolio. Belvedere has reduced energy-related CO2 emissions by 42% since 2012, with the goal to increase this to 80% by 2022, by capturing “biomass from distillery waste to create its own green fuel – and by 2025 aims to be self-sufficient, generating 100% renewable energy from the distillery and surrounding business,” according to Ali Wilkes, consumer engagement director.
Ruinart too has launched a 100% recyclable paper bottle casing, which is nine times lighter and has a 60% lower carbon footprint than previous incarnations. The brand’s mission is to be “the most conscious Champagne house in the next 10 years”.
Wilkes adds: “Research published last year shows sustainability has reached a tipping point. Consumers are increasingly embracing social causes, and seek products and brands that align with their values. Nearly six in 10 consumers said they were willing to change their shopping habits to reduce environmental impact and 80% said sustainability is important to them, but it is up to companies and producers to ensure that they start the process by supporting sustainability themselves.”
Recognising this shift in the ideals of customers, Zamora Company created a “conscious company” department two years ago. With a focus on social and sustainable planning, it believes communication is key.
“We are completely open with our employees and our customers about what our goals are, and we have created a set of certifications that help us show what we are working to,” says Marisa Almazán, conscious company manager.
“As consumers increasingly embrace social causes, they look for products and brands that align with their values – and reducing their environmental impact is an acknowledged factor to make them change their habits.”
Awareness is a symptom of the information age. Consumers are more influenced by their values in part because they are more informed.
“In the age of communication and the spontaneity of information, there is every reason to believe that solutions will emerge collectively,” says Serge Barbarin, manager of Château Biston-Brillette. “It will be necessary to break free from a form of individualism because success will be collective.”
The future will bring techniques and technologies to facilitate efficient, low-impact production, but it is the responsibility of producers to incorporate them into their processes.
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According to Stéphanie Francisco, manager of Château de la Croix in Bordeaux: “Since 1870, our property has evolved with new technologies while respecting our tradition and our know-how. Indeed, we carry out certain work in the vineyard and cellars with traditional methods such as working the soil and ageing in French oak barrels.
“We have always had the concern of working while respecting the environment, nature, and certain traditions of our ancestors by combining modern techniques, particularly in the way we vinify our wines. The old and the new are a great blend.”
While the châteaux of Bordeaux have the task of blending modernity with the 19th century, new brands can build sustainability into their foundations.
The chemical reaction at the centre of the drinks industry, fermentation, converts sugars into ethanol and carbon dioxide, so naturally there will come an expectation on producers to actively lower their carbon footprint.
New York City’s Air Company claims to produce the world’s first carbon-negative vodka. By combining captured CO2 with hydrogen obtained through solar powered water electrolysis (by which H2O is split into hydrogen and oxygen), ethanol and water are produced.
“We distil the ethanol to make it very pure, then mix it with water from New York that has a better flavour and body to it,” says Gregory Constantine, co-founder of Air Company.
While it sounds like science fiction, the resulting vodka won a gold medal in the 2020 International Spirits Challenge. This is important – who cares how your vodka is bettering the planet if it doesn’t taste good?
Constantine adds: “That is part of our larger mission – to prove you don’t need to relinquish quality when purchasing a sustainable product. We’re past the point of needing to do the bare minimum. It’s important for the industry to consider how they can make each step of their production process more sustainable, even if that means paying a higher price. Everyone needs to be doing their part to help create change and work toward solving climate change.”
Ocean Beer has a similarly unflinching approach to championing sustainability. All profits from its lager, IPA and alcohol-free beer go towards ocean conservation initiatives: carbon offsetting; fixed yacht anchorage sites in the Mediterranean preventing anchors from destroying seabed habitat; a flush-less and chemical-less toilet that aims to clean up Manila Bay; and a campaign to stop people tossing cigarette butts.
“There’s no separate company, no shareholders, all of the profits of the beer go right into the foundation,” says co-founder Martin Schwab. “We wanted to create a new income stream for ocean conservation and clean up.”
Sustainability will always be a journey for the drinks industry rather than a destination, and while it’s comforting to see the multinational companies championing environmental responsibility, progress must continue even if the message slips out of vogue.
Trevethyen sums it up: “Educating people by inspiring them and then getting them to amplify that message, that’s how we will win at this.”
