Cape Byron Distillery wins sustainability award

Cape Byron Distillery, producers of Brookie’s Byron Gin, has been named ‘Sustainable Distillery of the Year’ at the Icons of Gin Awards 2020 in London.

“We were absolutely stoked to hear the news!” said Eddie Brooke, Co-founder and CEO of Cape Byron Distillery. “We have picked up a few awards along our journey, however the Icons of Gin’s ‘Sustainable Distillery of the Year’ holds an extremely special place in our hearts. Sustainability and having a positive impact on our environment flows through our family and the company’s veins and is implemented in every part of our business, hence why the team was so excited to receive this award.”

Located in the hinterland of Byron Bay, the distillery is positioned on a farm with over 35,000 native subtropical rainforest trees, and offers a guided tour of the rainforest, a tasting of their spirits and insights into the distillation process. The tour aims to educate visitors about the importance of the Big Scrub rainforest, the journey of rainforest regeneration and the range of indigenous rainforest foods that are grown in the Northern Rivers.

“The distillery has achieved some amazing milestones on our sustainability journey,” said Alex McManus, Sustainability Officer at Cape Byron Distillery. “All 25 botanicals along with the spent wash from gin and whisky production are composted onsite in a closed-loop system. This not only reduces our waste to landfill, but once complete is used to build soil structure and biodiversity throughout our regenerated rainforest and macadamia orchard. In addition, we have also diverted over 120 kg of soft plastics from landfill over the last four months. Sustainability is an ever-evolving process to improve our impact on the environment and our community. Within the next 12 months we have projects to implement solar power for over 90% of our energy needs, implement innovative heat recovery solutions, a new eco-storage whisky warehouse and we are also on the exciting journey towards B-Corp certification.”