Our own carbon tax

Our own carbon tax

At Two Drifters, producing CO2 costs us money. We treat every kilogram of carbon as a bill we will have to pay, because for us it is one: whatever we emit, we pay Climeworks to remove from the atmosphere. Removal is expensive, which is exactly the point. It makes avoiding emissions the cheapest option, so we do everything possible to avoid them first.

Measured, not claimed

Every bottle's footprint is measured cradle to grave, from the sugarcane field to the end of the bottle's life. For a 70 cL bottle of Lightly Spiced that came out at 0.893 kg of CO2e, in a life cycle assessment independently verified by My Carbon in 2023. Our updated assessment is with My Carbon now.

For the emissions that remain, we charge ourselves an internal carbon tax and use that money to pay for direct air capture and permanent carbon removal.

Built so energy and water go round again

The distillery is all electric. Most distilleries are gas fired, so this is the biggest single decision we have made, and it runs on 100% renewable electricity. The cask room, the offices and the tasting bar run on solar panels on our own roof.

Heat we recover from moving liquid between vessels is used to clean those vessels. Our chilling runs on a closed loop, where most distilleries cool with mains water that goes straight down the drain. And because we make our own water by reverse osmosis, we need fewer cleaning chemicals than we used to.

Low carbon procurement

The carbon tax changes how we buy, not just how we make. A bottle or a cork from the other side of the world can look cheaper on the invoice, but the transport emissions arrive with it, and we count those as ours. If we ordered it, we created them. Add the cost of removing that CO2 from the atmosphere and the cheap option usually is not cheap any more.

So we weigh every supplier on their carbon as well as their price. It is why our glass is made in Britain rather than shipped halfway around the world, why our labels are printed close to the distillery rather than wherever is cheapest, and why Signature Rum ages in French oak rather than American: the casks simply travel a shorter distance to reach Devon. Most businesses stop measuring at their own gate. We think if you are serious about your footprint, you take responsibility for all of it.

Glass is the largest single part of our footprint, so it was the first thing we went after: a lightweight bottle, made in Britain.

Nothing goes to waste

Everything left in the tank after fermentation goes to a dairy farm about three miles away in Broadclyst. It is mostly water and the sugars the yeast did not get to, and they take all of it, most weeks. It does not replace their feed and we would not claim it does, but in a dry summer a tank of sweet liquid is a welcome thing on a dairy farm.

Our spiced rums take their colour from cacao husks, the shells left over when chocolate is made, saved from independent fair trade chocolatiers around the UK. Once we have used them they are composted.

Our labels are made from waste sugarcane fibre, 95% of it, with 5% hemp and linen.

Avoiding CO2 wherever possible

• An all electric distillery powered by 100% renewable energy
• Solar panels on the cask room, the offices and the tasting bar
• Recovered heat from vessel transfers, used to clean those vessels
• A closed loop chilling system, rather than mains water down the drain
• Reverse osmosis water, so we need fewer cleaning chemicals than we used to
• Electric vehicles for deliveries and operations
• A lightweight British made glass bottle, the largest single part of our footprint
• Plastic free packaging
• Sustainable merchandise, printed in the UK and remade at end of life

Addressing the unavoidable

Some emissions we cannot avoid yet: shipping molasses, growing sugarcane, making glass. For those we either keep looking for a lower carbon alternative, or we pay Climeworks to capture the CO2 from the air and Carbfix to turn it into stone underground, permanently.

Our products

It's not just the making of the rum that we take into account. We think about every part of the packaging too.

• Natural cork
  FSC wooden top
• Tamper seal
  100% compostable
• British rum
  Made from scratch in Devon
• Glass bottle
  Light and British made
• Label
  95% sugarcane fibre (waste material) and 5% hemp & linen

Our partners

To remove the CO₂ we cannot avoid, we partner with Climeworks, experts in direct air capture, and Carbfix, who turn the captured CO₂ into stone and store it underground. Permanently.