Ellers Farm Distillery was championed as the winner of the Economic Sustainability Award. This award celebrates organisations in the foodservice industry for their sustainability and responsible business practices, and Ellers Farm Distillery’s processes are exemplary.
The distillery became a Certified B Corp® in September 2023, and as a B Corp, the company is part of a global community of businesses putting impacts on people and the planet on an equal footing with profit. This stance naturally aligns to that of Ellers Farm, with the brand ethos: Good People, Good By Nature, Always In Good Spirits.
From local roots to global aspirations, the company’s mantra remains steadfast: to pursue perfection sustainably – this is the principle and value at the heart of everything they do. To balance people, profit and the planet and to make sustainability tangible and accessible through its products, driving positive change in a lively and enjoyable context.
Good People:
It’s Ellers Farm’s people who truly drive its mission forward. From guaranteeing living wages and sharing profits through a unique employee profit share scheme, to fostering a culture of carbon literacy, its team embodies its values and shares its vision. All employees benefit from an Ecologi Climate Action subscription, supporting climate projects to compensate for their personal carbon footprint.
Traditional business models focus on maximising profit for shareholders, but Ellers Farm wants all employees to share in the success of the business. That’s why it has a unique employee profit share deed that distributes 20% of business profits among employees.
Approximately 2.3% of revenue in 2023 was dedicated to offsetting emissions and funding environmental projects.
Good By Nature:
Whatever Ellers Farm Distillery takes from the planet, it wants to give back more. The distillery’s journey began humbly in 2020, amidst windfall apples in a North Yorkshire orchard. From those overlooked fruits the team saw an opportunity too precious to waste, quite literally, and began crafting an exceptional spirit, Dutch Barn Vodka.
It makes its vodka from 100% British apples – reducing its carbon footprint. By cultivating its own orchard next to the distillery, Ellers Farm has taken the first step in reducing its land and water footprints while enhancing local ecosystems.
The company also plants a tree for every new subscriber to its email newsletters. As a result of this they have already planted over 8,800 trees (and counting) since inception. The team has also contributed to financing for over 51 climate projects through Ecologi, avoiding 420 tonnes of CO2 from being emitted.
As SME Climate Hub members and signatories of The Climate Pledge, Ellers Farm Distillery plans to halve its emissions by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2040. Through its partnership with Ecologi and Climate Partner the distiller is also offsetting another 840 tonnes of C02, planting thousands of trees and conserving thousands of hectares of old forests.
In 2023, Despite a 117% increase in production volume, Ellers Farm Distillery achieved a 24% reduction in its corporate carbon footprint, compared to 2022. This success can be largely attributed to energy efficiency enhancements implemented and optimized purchasing practices.
Always in Good Spirits:
The spirit is at the heart of everything Ellers Farm Distillery does, and it does things differently. The liquid is carefully crafted using its own ethanol from apples, as well as using some imported potato spirit. This matters because making the alcohol is the most energy-intensive step in spirit-making. While the Distillery’s journey to decarbonization therefore presents unique challenges compared to many of its peers, who simply blend their flavours with someone else’s ethanol, Ellers Farm embraces this responsibility wholeheartedly.
One of its most-loved spirits, and the one that stared it all, Dutch Barn Vodka, is committed to making planet-friendly choices in every step of its creation.
Its trademark brown glass bottles were chosen because they use a higher percentage of recycled glass (68%); recycled glass mitigates C02 emissions by avoiding the extraction of virgin raw materials and by reducing the energy required in the furnace. The bottles also contain 40% less glass than the average spirit bottle, reducing the weight from 900g to 550g, meaning that when they travel the under 60 miles journey direct from the Sheffield-based manufacturer, Ellers Farm is cutting down transport emissions and paving the way for a new gold-standard in sustainable vodka production. And the team has also gone without labels, minimising materials needed and reducing packaging weight.
In an award-winning industry collaboration for the UK spirits sector, a number of Ellers Farm Distillery’s products were made available this year in the 5cl “Alumini” bottle, made from 100% recycled European aluminium.
At 90% lighter than glass, infinitely recyclable, compact and shatterproof, this format is particularly suited to travel retail, reducing fuel costs and space on board flights. Thanks to the well-established recycling infrastructure, a recycled aluminium package can be back on the store shelf in as little as 60 days. Recycling aluminium saves over 90% of the carbon and energy used to make primary aluminium.
In April 2023 the company introduced the 10 litre Poly packaging for On Trade customers (bars, restaurants, hotels, etc). Available for the entire range of spirits, this light yet durable packaging can be refilled and reused multiple times, saving CO2, energy and resources in the process.
Looking forward:
In developing its strategy, Ellers Farm conducted a thorough evaluation of its entire value chain, from sourcing raw materials to production, distribution and beyond, scrutinising our business practices and ambitions through the lens of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and pinpointing areas where it could make meaningful contributions. Ellers Farm Distillery has set ambitious targets across all 3 pillars of sustainability (environmental, social and governance) and these targets are the backbone of its 2030 strategy. Each year, it will measure and report progress. The strategy is deeply rooted in: “Good people, good by nature, always in good spirits”.
Ellers Farm Distiller was also shortlisted for the Sustainable Use of Raw Materials Award.
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