The whisky distillery that’s green in spirit

Powered entirely by renewable energy, Ardnamurchan Distillery is one of the greenest whisky distilleries in the world.

Part of its eco-friendly spirit was determined by its location on the remote – and stunningly beautiful – Scottish Ardnamurchan peninsula, on the shores of Loch Sunnart.

“The whisky industry has been going for so long that it’s quite difficult to innovate. Having said that, because of our remote location, we’ve been able to look at the way we heat and power the plant,” managing director Alex Bruce told CNN.

Ardnamurchan Distillery —

The Ardnamurchan Distillery is located on Scotland's Ardnamurchan peninsula, on the shores of Loch Sunnart.

It's a wild location, with forests, moorland and beaches.

The remoteness of the location was an incentive to look to power the distillery with renewable energy.

Its buildings were design by the British studio Organic Architects to match local architecture.

"All the raw materials are local and there's no harm to the environment at all," said managing director Alex Bruce.

Its biomass boiler is fueled with wood chip harvested from a nearby forest.

The main access route is a single track road for much the way.

The location is even more scenic after snowfall.

The whiskey distillery that's green in spirit

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Ardnamurchan Distillery, which opened in 2014, fuels its biomass boiler with wood chip harvested from a forest located just a mile and a half away. Its electricity is comes from a hydro-generator on by a nearby river.

At the moment 88 per cent of Scottish distilleries use fossil fuels such as oil and gas but the Scottish industry aims to reduce this number by 20 per cent by 2020 — and Ardnamurchan is leading the way.

“It has to be one of the most natural distilleries around,” said Bruce.

But the distillery’s eco ethics don’t stop with its energy sourcing.

Its buildings were designed by the British studio Organic Architects to match local architecture and were constructed to be compact enough not to annoy its (human) neighbors.

Ardnamurchan also tries to reduce its waste by using the leftovers from the mashing process to feed the local livestock, while the remainders from the stills are used as fertilizer.

“To be able to show that your spirit is unique because of its location, right from the barley to the water, is great, and you will always then stand out on the crowded shelf,” Bruce said. “The story actually means something, you can taste it.”