Sustainability

Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do at home and at work. 

The process for our whisky begins with water drawn from a borehole, and the water used to cool the condensers is filtered across a field before returning to the burn. Heating and cooling between the mash tun, washbacks and still is done through heat exchangers, with the bulk of the heating done through the solid-fuel biomass. The biomass boiler also heats the building through underfloor heating. We are currently looking into alternative electricity production in the form of PV panels and a small on-site wind turbine.

The wood for the biomass is sourced less than 5 miles from the distillery, with plans to plant a coppice on-site by 2024. This will provide enough wood through a 3-year crop rotation to power the stills and the biomass.

Barley for our whisky is grown by Crafty Maltsters about 100 miles north of Moffat. They also malt and mill the barley. Being a small producer and having a specialty supplier means that we can trace each distillation to the field where the barley was grown. Draff and spent lees are collected by a local farmer and goes towards feeding cattle and the fields. 

In addition to making our process as sustainable as possible, we also want our products to be sustainable. We believe increasing the quality and decreasing the quantity of what people consume is key to sustainability. Our ingredients are sourced as locally as possible and only within the UK. We work closely with our suppliers to ensure sustainable practices are adhered to. 

All bottles produced by the Moffat Distillery or Dark Sky Spirits can be returned to the distillery to be refilled or recycled. Our market stalls and bar is zero waste, using only glassware to serve tastes and drinks that can be washed and reused. We also reuse and recycle all packaging that comes to us and use paper-based packaging for shipping out all our products.