Sustainability

Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do at home and at work. We are proud members of the Galloway and Southern Ayrshire Biosphere, and feel that everywhere should be a earth-conscious as the Biospheres!

We built our distillery to be a passive as possible, and on brighter days, we often don’t turn our lights on at all! It’s super-insulated and retains warmth really well. Our lighting conforms to Dark Sky specifications, and we have one of the darkest spots in Dumfries and Galloway.

We have budding partnerships with RAW (Restoring Annan’s Water) along with  other environmental groups who are helping us maximise our land to benefit of nature.

Water

The process for our whisky begins with water drawn from a borehole. Water used to cool the condensers is either reused for cleaning or filtered across a field before returning to the burn.

Energy

Fire is at the heart of our gin and whisky-making, and also at the heart of our building. Our chunk-wood biomass heats the building through underfloor heating. We use a heat exchanger for heating and cooling between the mash tun, washbacks and still. And always aiming to become more efficient, researching alternative electricity production in the form of PV panels and a small on-site wind turbine.

We source our wood for the biomass boiler less than 5 miles from the distillery. Plans are in place to plant a coppice on-site starting in 2024. This will provide enough wood through a 3-year crop rotation to power the stills and the biomass.

Barley

Our malt comes from the lovely family-run farm in Fife, 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. Our neighboring farmer collects the draff and spent lees to feed his cattle and put minerals back into the fields. 

Ingredients

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. 

Packaging

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.