Downton Distillery's sustainability Drive

The last year has seen a series of article and films produced about the effects of climate change and how we are impacting the environment around us. However, as a business, it is hard to know where to start, how to implement the change and how customers will react to change.

Sustainability is something that I value and am keen to learn more about as I look at ways to improve our own sustainable approach to business. Lockdown has changed how businesses are interacting with their customers as online sales booming. This is turn has seen increases in waste packaging.

In 2019 we removed all metal and plastic straws at events and have been promoting the use of bamboo straws since. At the tail end of 2019 we started the process of  identifying where we were using plastics and the size of our carbon footprint.  Our plastic shock packs have now been swapped out and all our Explorer Gin bottles are now dispatched using recycled cardboard, with a honeycomb protection sleeve. Together with other distillers we have removed 805km of plastic wrapping between us.

We launched a refill service during lockdown, where customers could bring their bottles to Downton Brewery and save 20% in refilling their bottle. This has been a huge success.

Now we are just about to make one of our biggest changes. The launch of our eco-refill packs.  These will come as 700ml, 2L and 5L in size. Inevitably these packs do have some plastic within them, however these are recyclable through the Terra Cycle scheme. This means our customers get to keep their bottle and no longer need to keep buying new gin bottles. This change helps reduce our carbon footprint, as customers in saving money will be encouraged to buy the eco pack ensuring their bottles do not end up in the landfill.