Sustainability Spotlight: Two Drifters Distillery

This month we’re shining our Sustainability Spotlight on Two Drifters Distillery near Exeter.

About Two Drifters Distillery

Born out of an idea whilst working in Canada and brought to reality in 2019, Two Drifters is a distillery founded by Russ and Gemma Wakeham – a husband and wife team from Devon.

From Gemma and Russ’s first date (rum tasting) through to their honeymoon (St. Lucia) rum has been at the heart of every major event (and most Friday nights).

What have you done to make your business more environmentally friendly? 

Where do we start!

We began Two Drifters with our environmental impact at its core. I don’t believe any product/business is important enough to harm the planet.

We use 100% renewable energy to run our distillery; we have a closed-loop cooling system to avoid water wastage; we only have electric vehicles; we source suppliers that are close to the distillery to reduce transport emissions.

We have imposed a carbon tax on the business. If we product CO_2, we have to pay to remove it with Direct Air Capture.

So it is in our best interests to avoid creating it, so far we have removed over 35 tonnes of CO₂ and avoided over 120 tonnes.

What would you like to change in the future to improve your sustainability credentials further? 

We received our B Corp certification this year. We now plan on improving our score each year.

We hope to install solar panels on the distillery soon. It won’t reduce our emissions as we use renewable energy, but if the sun is there giving us energy…we should use it!

What tips do you have for other businesses that would like to become more sustainable?

Sustainability isn’t just about using less plastic.

At Two Drifters we’re plastic free (that is easy to do), but we’re all about CO₂  emissions. How you power your computer, your mobile phone tariff, what turns the lights on, what internet search engine you use… all of these can use a lot of CO₂ but they could also use none… if you care enough to find the right provider.

Find out more about Two Drifters Distillery HERE