Brewery buys a forest to offset carbon

BrewDog’s plans for the forest include planting a million trees over the next two years and restoring 550 acres of peatland

Spotted: Scottish craft brewer BrewDog has taken a bold step towards becoming not just carbon neutral, but carbon negative. The company has recently purchased 2,500 acres of forest in the Scottish Highlands. The land is currently used for grazing livestock, but BrewDog hope to restore the area to native forest, allowing it to sequester around 300,000 tons of CO2.

BrewDog’s plans for the forest include planting a million trees over the next two years and restoring 550 acres of peatland. The company also hopes to build a sustainable campsite on the land and host retreats and workshops for the public. Its 130,000 “Equity Punk” investors will be invited to help with tree planting from early 2021.

When complete, the company’s plans should make it carbon negative, meaning it removes more carbon from the atmosphere as it emits. This is not the first time BrewDog has made a serious commitment to sustainability. Its Scottish brewery runs on a combination of wind power and gas made from malted barley.

But BrewDog wants to go even further. The company has recently unveiled a climate action programme with £30 million of green investments across its business: “We thought we were doing our bit when it came to sustainability,” says CEO, James Watt. “The more we dug into this, the more we found out that we weren’t doing nearly enough. We are facing an imminent climate crisis, and we think carbon neutral is no longer enough.”

At Springwise, we are at the forefront of covering innovations in sustainability. Some ideas that we have recently taken a look at include the use of solar-powered refrigerators to prevent food spoilage in developing countries and water-filled windows that can reduce energy usage.

Explore more: Food & Drink Innovations | Sustainability Innovations