Winner of The Gin Guide Environmental Sustainability Award in 2020, 2021, 2022 & 2023.
Winner of North West Family Business: Equality, Diversity & Inclusion, 2023
Winner of Cumbia Food Awards: Ethical and Sustainable Business, 2024
All our packaging is recycled, recyclable, reusable, and/or compostable. We invested in a cardboard shredder which is a lot of fun! It shreds cardboard into nets which we can then use to wrap our bottles in. Cardboard comes in from goods ordered, we shred what we can't reuse as is, package the goods we send out in it. After more than two years we were finally able to source 100% recycled glass bottles (50cl). In March, 2024, we took delivery of 70cl (100% recycled glass) bottles. We will be fazing out the 50cl and replace with 70cl bottles. We continue to search for a recycled glass alternative for our 5cl, 10cl and 20cl bottles.
In order to save thousands of litres of water every time we distil, we have installed an innovative closed loop cooling system. We use the "waste" water from filtering to water the plants in our pallet garden and clean equipment. We also capture the water used in our MYO gin experiences and use to water our plants. Our water bill is now lower than the one for our home!
We maintain a high quality and that means some botanicals have a fairly high carbon footprint. The best cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg for example, just don't grow well, or in the quantities needed in the UK. Juniper does grow here, but the quality and quantity can't be relied on. However, we buy from UK growers and brokers. Our chillies start their life in Warton, Carnforth in our friend's, Erda Botanicals, market garden. We continually research sources for our botanicals and recently found a British company growing high quality coriander, Beacon Commodities.
And the wax that seals all our bottles comes from the British Wax company.
As for our Festive Bramble Gin Elixir, we forage every blackberry from Ulverston and all the apples and plums come from another friend of ours who has an orchard in the town. Colin's doing his bit to keep rare, Heritage Apples alive and we love being able to make use of them.
All the ingredients, except the juniper, have been foraged for our Ulverston Gin. Plus, we collaborated with local groups and employed two students from Furness College to design the label and pamphlet. Part of every sale goes to our Marmalade Fund and is then donated to charity. Our Ulverston '23 gin won a Bronze in the World Gin Awards, 2024.
We have free rein to use botanicals grown in Ford Park, Ulverston, and their walled garden. Our Quince Botanical Spirit only used ingredients from Ford Park and won a Bronze in the World Vodka Awards, 2024.
Every month we buy trees and invest in various CO2 and Humanitarian projects around the world and you can watch our forest grow here. For every online order we buy an extra tree. This initiative is only a small part of our Environmental toolkit. Our main aim is to be as environmentally-sustainable within the business. However, we are proud to be able to support both carbon avoidance and humanitarian projects. Here is a snapshot from our Ecologi dashboard.
We employ local people for our design and printing needs including Furness Media, StramPress, Fingerprints and Pixeltweaks. We're lucky to live in a town and a county that embraces new ideas, supports tradition, and holds out a helping hand to people and the environment. We're proud to be a part of that.
Lindsay and Thea have completed ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY IN THE WORKPLACE - LEVEL 1 AWARD - ETC AWARDS, at Lancaster & Morecambe College. It was led by Tim Maiden, founder of Green Small Business and our auditor.
Andy has completed a course run by one of our charity partners, Cumbria Action for Sustainability: Climate and Carbon Literacy training course.
Zoe has completed courses in Mental Health in the Workplace, Unconscious Bias, and Level 4 Tourism and Visitor Economy Management Course via Carlisle College. This includes a unit of Mental Health in the workplace, plus giving practical help in how to analyse and adapt not only for the good of the business but also for employees and our visitors.
We feel it's important to continue to learn and keep up to date with all these issues. Knowledge is power, as they say.
We continue to research and implement green initiatives and have more plans coming soon.
*Graphic designed by Freya Gray, a local of Ulverston who is currently studying graphic design and animation.
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Ulverston's Award Winning Gin Distillery launched in a Garden Shed on the outskirts of the English Lake District.