By Amber Milne
LONDON, Feb 20 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The world's
first 'climate positive' gin made from peas has been developed
by a Scottish distillery, which also makes vodka from wonky
potatoes to reduce food waste.
Arbikie Distillery said that its Nadar gin, meaning nature
in Gaelic, avoids more carbon dioxide emissions than it creates
because its peas do not need synthetic nitrogen fertilisers - a
source of carbon emissions - unlike wheat, barley or maize.
"We're continuously looking for ways to innovate and
reinforce our sustainability focus," Arbikie Distillery's
spokeswoman Rachel Thomson told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"For each decision we make, we try and consider the
environmental impact and how we can do things better."
The Scottish ginmaker, founded in 2014, is the latest in a
string of companies pledging to cut their greenhouse gas
emissions to combat climate change, like furniture company IKEA,
and tech giants Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc.
Some trailblazing firms have pledged to become carbon
positive - cutting more emissions than they emit - to avoid the
most catastrophic scenarios of rising seas, uncontrollable
wildfires and erratic weather foreseen by climate scientists.
Arbikie Distillery's director, John Stirling, said
sustainability was "vital" to the business, which sees climate
change and biodiversity loss as "the biggest challenge humankind
has ever faced".
The firm's Tattie Bogle vodka - named after the Scots name
for scarecrows that deter birds from eating potato crops - uses
misshapen vegetables, which cannot be sold by large retailers,
to reduce food waste.
"Our Nadar gin goes one step further and looks to make a
positive, instead of neutral impact, in terms of long-term
sustainability", Stirling said. "It also tastes fantastic."
(Reporting by Amber Milne; Editing by Katy Migiro. Please
credit Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson
Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s and LGBT+
rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate change.
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