Sustainability
At Shakespeare Distillery
Carbon Neutral Spirits
with a twist of history
We are proud to be certified as a carbon neutral business. Our aim is to minimise our environmental impact and become a truly sustainable business. It’s the right thing to do and it supports the UK government’s target of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
How are we doing this? Firstly, with the help of ClimatePartner, we calculated our carbon footprint. This gave us a plan showing where we could make immediate positive change; where we needed to plan further and how we could offset emissions that we couldn’t reduce straightaway.
There’s still a lot to do but we have started our sustainable journey and we’re already making an impact. Learn how by choosing a category below...

- Glass bottles: fully recyclable
- Cardboard boxes: removed plastic display windows so now fully recyclable
- Tamper seals on bottles: made from compostable PLA/biodegradable material
- Reduced fuel costs
- Minimising carbon emissions
- Salary sacrifice scheme to help staff to buy electric vehicles
- We try to use as many locally grown ingredients; for example, honey is sourced from a local beekeeper for use in our Gin and Rum Schools
- Most of our used botanicals are collected and go to create electricity through anaerobic digestion
- The rest of our used botanicals go to a local charcuterie to cure meats
- Our plants attract bees and other insects to help pollination
- We don’t buy brand new if there’s a perfectly acceptable refurbished or second-hand option
- Staff fridge, office furniture and coffee machine are second-hand
- Our waste is collected by a fully carbon neutral waste management company
- Pallets are taken away and reused – some are made into furniture such as benches, tables… even rabbit runs!
- All lights are LED
- Our website provider runs on renewable energy
- Lights regulated automatically by a motion sensor to save energy
Sustainability at Shakespeare Distillery
Carbon Offsetting
We are embracing as many sustainable strategies as we can and, while we have reduced our emissions, we know there is still a long way to go and we are continuing to look at new ways to reduce our carbon footprint. For now, the remaining current carbon emissions are being offset through three projects offered by ClimatePartner so that we are fully carbon neutral.
Supporting three projects gives us the opportunity to spread our impact and use our financial investment to offset in three different locations.
Offsetting project 01:
Biomass Project
This project promotes the use of biomass instead of coal. Due to a rapidly expanding population in Soacha, Colombia, more houses, consisting of mudbrick, are being built, requiring increased brick production. While brick manufacturing supports the livelihoods and the economy of the regional residents, the coal-fired kilns are not sustainable and worsen carbon emissions. The Santander brickyard company switched to more energy-efficient kilns that run on 80% renewable biomass, saving up to 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per year.
Socially, this project reinforces health and wellbeing in Soacha, as well as accessibility to clean energy. It saves carbon emissions, benefitting the environment, whilst also incentivising the economy’s production and consumption patterns.
Offsetting project 02:
Clean Drinking Project
This clean drinking water project in Kono, Sierra Leone supports the maintenance and restoration of wells to ensure adequate water supply and quality in the region. Traditionally, water had to be boiled to make it clean and safe to drink and wash with; it’s estimated that burning wood to boil water contributes to 10,000 tons of CO2e emissions.
Centuries ago, people drank alcohol because it was considered purer and safer than the water that was accessible to most of the population. Just as our alcohol has to be purified and cleaned, we consider clean and accessible water for everyone as crucial and vital to moving towards an equal, fair and sustainable future community.