UNDERSTANDING NET ZERO AND ITS IMPORTANCE

Guest author: Helen Sprakes, Director at Environmental Strategies Limited

I am delighted to be writing this blog to celebrate the net zero achievement of the team at Cooper King Distillery. “Net zero” is still a relatively new term for organisations to understand and apply to their activities, which emphasises even more the distillery’s success!

What Is “Net Zero”?

To put it as simply as possible, “net zero” is a condition in which an organisation has taken all possible (technically feasible) actions to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, so that only residual emissions are left being emitted. These residual or left over emissions, caused by the organisation’s activities, are then removed from the atmosphere either by some form of direct air capture and storage technology, or by vegetation planting which sequesters the emissions. Therefore, the net figure of emissions left in the atmosphere at the end of this is zero.

Why Is This Important?

Many scientists, governments and environmental practitioners around the world now agree that achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions as a population, is the only way we can limit catastrophic warming of the planet and protect people, animals and flora from devastating floods, draughts and crop-loss. The UK Government has legislated that the UK must reach this “net zero” condition by 2050, so everyone has a part to play in achieving this. Cooper King Distillery have taken an early lead on this journey by achieving a net zero status for the emissions associated with the energy used to make all its products. Contracting renewable electricity; removing gas-fired heating; improving process efficiency; and harnessing solar energy for maturation, are just some of the actions taken to reduce energy-related emissions to a residual level.

These residual emissions have then been removed from the atmosphere via direct air capture and additional afforestation planting both in the UK and overseas. The distillery demonstrated a belt and braces approach to ensuring a transparent and justified “net zero” status was achieved and could be maintained into 2024.

So, What’s Next?

Carbon emissions are discussed and classified into three scopes. Scopes 1 and 2 relate to an organisation’s energy use and it is these scopes that Cooper King have achieved a net zero condition for. This leaves the third scope of emissions for them to tackle next. This will involve substantial engagement with the distillery’s suppliers, staff and customers, who will all need to play their part to assist in reducing the Scope 3 emissions. Alignment with sector best practice and national targets is a likely starting point, and I look forward to observing and supporting what the team at Cooper King achieve next.

Explore further:

• We engaged the services of Environmental Strategies Limited to verify our net zero status across Scopes 1 and 2. Read more about Environmental Strategies Limited on their website www.esltd.co.uk.

• Discover more actions we’re taking to reduce our environmental impact on our Sustainable Spirits page.

• Buy a bottle of sustainable spirit through the online shop.