Our footprint explained

At Two Drifters we put carbon avoidance before carbon removal. We're so passionate about limiting our carbon emissions that we financially penalise ourselves for creating emissions. We have a self-imposed carbon tax on the business, any emissions we create we pay to permanently remove them with Climeworks (note this is not the same as offsetting, this is permanent carbon removal. Visit Climeworks website for all information on their process). However, the point of Two Drifters is that we don't use much Climeworks, our business wouldn't financially work if we did. We only use them for unavoidable emissions, and because we consider our complete footprint (from cradle-to-grave) there are parts of our process that have no carbon free alternative, yet.

The list is long, but some of the ways we avoid carbon emissions is to have an all electric distillery, run on 100% renewable energy (most distilleries are gas fired and create a lot of carbon), we have a closed-loop chiller (most distilleries cool with mains water that goes down the drain), we only use electric vehicles, we have very lightweight glass bottles, made in the UK with labels made from waste sugarcane fibres. We chose a label printer based on geography rather than price, so the labels travel a shorter distance (less emissions). We even chose French Oak casks for our Signature rum as the emissions to get the casks to the distillery are lower than American Oak. We can't list it all, as it's huge, but EVERY decision we make factors in the carbon emission impact on the business. Once we know the 'hotspots' we work hard to find a lower carbon alternative. You can now see how there will still be some emissions left after all this. For instance, the transport of our raw ingredients and all transport of our rum, the production of our bottles, we even account for the recycling of our glass bottle once you have finished all the delicious rum. It is these emissions that we remove with Climeworks. We then spend a lot of research finding/asking about more sustainable options for these processes, because if we can lower these emissions, we can pay less carbon tax. See how it works? Avoiding carbon makes more financial sense, over removing it.

Just simple carbon avoidance and then certified carbon removal for all unavoidable emissions.

Through avoidance and sustainable thinking, we have managed to get our total footprint down to 1.20 kgCO2e (cradle-to-grave), most rum distilleries have a footprint of 2.95 kgCO2e (cradle-to-gate, they account for less of a footprint). BUT, we then permanently remove this 1.20 kgCO2e (and more) with Climeworks. So our total footprint is less than 0 kgCO2e!

Wherever in the world (or on a plane) you enjoy our rum, the footprint will still be less than zero. So after this lengthy lesson, you had better pour yourself a rum! Cheers.