Happy Earth Day!
Happy Earth Day! 🌍️
Sustainability is hugely important to us here at Darnley's Gin, not just today on earth day, but every single day.
Ever since we opened our cottage doors, we've been looking at how we can make our sustainability practices even better. Here's what we've been doing since the start, and more recently, to reduce our impact on the planet and give back to the environment around us.
1. Fife Grown
We recently started our own gin garden to make growing our botanicals more sustainable and local to Fife than ever before. Through this we hope to grow botanicals in our back yard that can replace the ones we have sourced from around the world in the past.
Of course, the climate conditions in Scotland mean we will never be able to use the exact same flower, or root, or peel. But, we are embarking on a mission to produce new gin recipes which utilise the botanicals we are able to source locally or grow ourselves in our cottage garden, significantly reducing our air miles and our carbon footprint.
Watch this space!
2. Darnley's Bees
We're so proud to have beehives nestled at the back of our gin cottage garden! Our resident beekeeper (and fantastic Darnley's tour guide) Mandy, looks after our bees and their hives, keeping them happy and healthy all year long.
Mandy has owned and cared for bees for more than 15 years, and she tends to four hives - one of which we are very lucky to have on site with us! In the height of summer, we will have up to 10,000 happy bees buzzing around and pollinating the botanicals in our gin cottage garden, which will help them to thrive! We help them, they help us!
3. Gin Refill Pouches
Our first step on our drive to reduce our carbon emissions was to review our packaging, beginning with extending the life of our existing glass bottles. To help combat single use glass, which involves vast amounts of energy to produce, we’ve launched a range of refill pouches across our core gin series. We fill these ultra-light pouches by hand at the gin cottage, which are substantially lighter to transport than our glass bottles, using less energy to ship to you. Plus they’re fully recyclable too!
4. We Recycle Our Gin Bottles
We are happy to have a recycling scheme in place to offer our 70cl glass bottles a second life by transforming them into candles. The candles contain eco-soy wax making them not only environmentally friendly but vegan friendly too.
5. We've Switched to EVs
Our sales team has now moved to 100% electric car use, and we're also proud to say that we've recently installed our own electric vehicle chargers in the cottage car park, making it easier for our visitors to charge up when they visit.
6. We Have Our Own Hydro Schemes
We're proud to announce the transition of our Kingsbarns and Darnley's Gin distilleries to 100% renewable energy sourced from our own hydro schemes. By harnessing the power of nature, we're not just reducing our carbon footprint – we're setting an example for the industry. Sustainable practices are not only essential for our planet's well-being but can also seamlessly integrate into business operations.
This is just the beginning, and we're so grateful to you for coming along on the journey with us.
Join us in raising a glass to a greener, more sustainable future!