BrewDog has revealed that it is looking into the possibility of building wind turbines on its Lost Forest estate in the Scottish Highlands.
The company announced at the time of its acquisition in 2020 that the land would be used initially to offset its carbon by restoring the peatlands and planting trees.
Chief executive James Watt said: “We've got a whole host of things that we want to do there - we've got peatlands work we're doing, then there's the afforestation, and we're also looking at the potential of wind turbines as well.
“Then we've got the lodges and campsite to create, to try and get as many members of our community to come to the site, along with the lake at the bottom, where we plan to do some water activities and fun stuff.”
BrewDog has come under criticism from environmentalists since the land purchase for not planting any trees yet. The recent BBC documentary into the company also brought up the disconnect between tree planting promises made on the side of Lost Lager cans, and the reality on the estate.
Neil Crookston, regional manager at Scottish Woodlands, explained that BrewDog was going through "an immense" due diligence process to ensure this was done correctly.
He explained that the UK forestry sector was heavily regulated, which meant the company had to go through lots of environmental standards and legislation, as well as some voluntary standards, before work can begin.
Crookston said that BrewDog will start preparing the ground this week for planting the trees in the autumn and winter this year.
Following phase one of the afforestation project being approved by Scottish Forestry, there will be 100 hectares of natural regeneration woodland planted.
The second phase has already been surveyed and consulted and will also include various methods of deer management, from fencing to culling, in order to stop overpopulation in the area - something which was criticised by PETA.
Separately, Watt published a letter sent to him by BrewDog's lead independent scientific advisor Professor Mike Berners-Lee, who stated: “We have followed some of the recent media calling into question BrewDog’s authenticity in a general sense and specifically over its intentions with regard to this piece of land.
“With my team at Small World Consulting, I have been advising BrewDog in its approach to the management of this land for the joint benefits for both people and environment, taking into account the many complex environmental factors that need to be considered, as well as the sometimes apparently conflicting wishes and needs of different groups of people.
“We feel able to reassure that as far as we can see BrewDog’s approach to the management of the Lost Forest, is thoughtful and sensitive as we would wish to see, taking care to understand the complex issues and to turn the Lost Forest into a much needed exemplar of good land management.”
He also pointed out that BrewDog is not seeking to remove carbon in the Kinrara Estate as a substitute for cutting its own emissions.
Addressing criticisms around government support, Berners-Lee said it is "entirely reasonable" for BrewDog to seek financial assistance, in just the same way that farmers and other land owners routinely seek subsidies to support expensive environmental stewardship activities.
In terms of the speed of action, he added: “It would not have been responsible for BrewDog to have immediately embarked on a mass tree planting exercise on the Kinrara Estate, since it was first essential to carefully understand the complex environmental and social issues, then put together an intelligent and sensitive environmental land management plan, and then obtain a range of approvals from Peatland ACTION, Scottish Forestry and other bodies.”
Sarah Warman, director of sustainability at BrewDog, also stated: “I think a lot of people thought that because BrewDog has always done things very quickly, we would start planting immediately - and obviously that's not possible.”
Crookston added: “It’s about site assessments, survey work, engaging with government regulators, engagement with the neighbours, consumers and clients on policy standards.
“Early 2021 we kicked off a quite extensive consultation process, including bodies such as SEPA, Cairngorm National Park Authority and other stakeholders like the RSPB, bike shops, councils, local communities - with signage and QR codes so people can find out what we are doing.”
BrewDog is ultimately aiming to plant more than 1.1 million trees in the Kinrara Estate, which borders with Rothiemurcus and CraigEllachie.
It has also had to carry out archaeological surveys on the land, but phase one of its peatland restoration is nearly completed, with more than 150 hectares restored.
Scottish forestry coverage at the moment is under 19%, with the Scottish Government hoping to increase it to 21% by 2030 - although this is still well below the European average of about 37%.
When asked about if the Kinrara Estate will be enough to offset the company's carbon as it gets bigger - and the possibility of buying more land in order to do so - the director of BrewDog's Lost Forest subsidiary Neil Simpson said: “This is a long term project, until 100 years in the future.
“We are a brewing company, not a landowner, but the estate itself won’t be able to offset the carbon as we grow bigger, so we have other projects like planting trees in Colombia to help with this.”
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