Bacardi mixes perfect cocktail of water, energy and waste reductions

Bacardi’s 2015 CSR report also reveals a strong reduction in total waste and energy use, highlighting the firm’s ability to integrate sustainability into brands to support business growth and ensure responsible, sustainable sourcing practices.

Bacardi president Michael Dolan and chairman Facundo Bacardi said: “Our ambitious global sustainability initiative introduced in FY2014 ‘Good Spirited: Building a Sustainable Future’ has supported our promise to strive for continual improvement in minimising our impact on the natural world around us and help to build a more sustainable future.

“In fiscal 2015, we exceeded our targets in improving water and energy efficiency and recycling and have clear action plans in place at each of our manufacturing sites.”

Good spirits

Water use in production fell by 3.9% and water use efficiency improved by 3.2% from the previous year, with a 45.4% reduction achieved since 2006. Bacardi confirmed that action plans are in place at each of firm’s manufacturing sites in order to continue to improve water use efficiency.

Energy efficiency measures have driven a 33.2% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions since the benchmark was set in 2006. The installation of three biomass boilers later this year is set to enable the firm to convert from the use of heavy fuels to biomass materials including wood chips and pellets and is expected to reduce 15% of total GHG emissions once they are in full operation.

Moreover, Bacardi has built on progress at its production sites to reduce landfill waste with only 0.74% of total waste sent to landfill in the previous fiscal year, and continued to maintain certification of all production facilities to the ISO 9001, ISO 14001 management system standards by passing all planned surveillance audits.

Sustainable distillery

A long-term ambition for all of its raw materials and packaging to come from sustainably sourced, renewable or recycled materials has seen Bacardi set a number of targets, including a goal for 40% of its sugarcane-derived products to be certified as sustainable by 2017, and 100% by 2022.

The spirits giant has demonstrated a strong record on adopting sustainable policies which minimise the environmental impacts across its value chain. The firm has built three new warehouses at its rum distillery site in Puerto Rico from construction waste destined for landfill.

It was recently announced that a Bacardi distillery in Scotland could reduce its carbon footprint by up to 90% with an energy efficiency project with new funding from the UK Green Investment Bank (GIB).

George Ogleby