Chivas Brothers: carbon neutral distillation by 2026

“Across the industry, 44 bottles of scotch whisky are sold every second in over 180 countries - that's 130 billion bottles of scotch whisky per year. The whisky we distill today may not be sold for another 25 years or even more, so we need to think about sustainability in the long term.” - Sandrine Ricard, Head of Sustainability & Responsibility at Chivas Brothers

Chivas Brothers’ award-winning portfolio features some of the world’s most revered Scotch whisky brands including Chivas Regal, Ballantine’s, Royal Salute, Aberlour and The Glenlivet, comprising 14 Scotch distilleries, two bottling facilities and more than 300 warehouses across its sites in Orkney, Scotland and London.

In line with Pernod Ricard’s 2030 Sustainability and Responsibility roadmap ‘Good Times from a Good Place’ and its commitment to follow a net zero by 2050 trajectory, Chivas Brothers is working to achieve carbon neutral distillation by 2026.

A major step towards this ambitious target is the implementation of high-efficiency Mechanical Vapour Recompression (MVR) technology for distillation.

During distillation, boiling the stills is a very carbon-intensive process. MVR technology allows Chivas Brothers to recover energy from the spirit vapour and use it to boil the still, thereby significantly reducing carbon emissions. Last year, a trial of this technology at the Glentauchers distillery in Mulben, Scotland resulted in a 90% energy reduction on a single pot still. Once it is fully implemented at Glentauchers, Chivas Brothers intends to roll out MVR technology across all viable sites by 2026, which will be significant in reducing the impact of its operations.

As well as transforming the distillation process, Chivas Brothers is taking steps across its value chain to eliminate waste and reduce carbon emissions in the growing of natural ingredients, packaging and transportation.