Royal Brackla Distillery goes green

The Royal Brackla Distillery in Nairn has become the fourth Scottish distillery to reap the rewards of funding by the UK Green Investment Bank with the instalment of an eco-friendly biomass boiler.

The Royal Brackla distillery is the latest Scottish distillery to receive GIB funding

Replacing the Bacardi-owned distillery’s existing heavy fuel boilers, the biomass boiler will reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions, with an expected annual target reduction of 5,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

“The installation of the biomass will mark a significant change in the environmental performance of the distillery,” commented Iain Lochhead, operations director of John Dewar & Sons Royal Brackla distillery.

“This goes hand-in-hand with our company’s larger ‘Good Spirited’ goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally by 50% by 2017.

“By happy coincidence it also marks the return of Royal Brackla as a single mal with a range of expressions being released early next year.

“ So all in all, 2015 promises to be an exciting year for the Royal Brackla distillery.”

The Dewar’s Aberfeldy distillery in Perthshire, Balmenach distillery in Speyside and Tomatin distillery near Inverness have already benefited from the £5 million funding for energy efficient projects made available by Green Investment Bank (GIB).

“Scotch whisky is a critically important part of the Scottish economy,” said Lord Smith of Kelvin, GIB’s chairman at the GIB conference in Edinburgh. “That’s why I am delighted that we are able to help another distillery to save money and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

“These projects have been structured so that the distilleries can start saving money from day one and don’t need to find the capital up-front.

“This is an investment to help one of our most iconic industries to modernise, become more efficient and reduce its carbon footprint.”