A SPECIALIST architect for whisky distilleries believes the industry in Scotland has yet to see its “golden age” as demand for the national drink can help boost local communities.
Gareth Roberts, the founder of Organic Architects, specialises in eco-distilling which focuses on sustainability and conservation and has helped some of Scotland's best-known distilleries achieve their green ambitions.
The process of distilling whisky is energy intensive as stills consume around 17 kilowatt hours (kWh) per liter, in comparison to brewing beer which only requires 0.5 kWh per liter, and the industry is looking at new ways to offset their carbon footprint.
Some Scottish distilleries are exploring the use of green hydrogen as an alternative energy source that could help them achieve net zero emissions.
Earlier this month the Scottish Government announced £3 million in funding for distillers in Speyside to explore green hydrogen technology in a bid to help decarbonise the industry.
Roberts, who has 30 years of experience as an architect and is a qualified distiller, believes it's not just the change towards green energy consumption which benefits Scotland.
“My particular interest is the benefits that you see to the communities that you put these things into,” said Roberts.
“If you put a distillery in a place, it’s there for generations, and then it comes to represent that place. “Can you imagine Speyside without distilleries, think of Isla without distilleries.
“You know obviously with tourism, there’s something like 2 million visitors a year (to distilleries in Scotland), each of them spending what is an average of 40-something pounds, it is a massive boost to the economy.”
According to the Scotch Whisky Association, the industry generated £5.3 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA) in 2022 and helped support 41,000 jobs in Scotland.
Roberts made the point that many distilleries across Scotland offer local communities, skilled and well-paid jobs and used Bruichladdich on Isaly as a key example of realising their social responsibilities.
Instead of automating their bottling process the 143-year-old distillery still does it by hand and is one of the biggest employers on the island.
“They have a responsibility to the community, and they are committed to it,” Robertson said.
The architect has worked with a host of Scottish distilleries including Nc’Nean, Ardnamurchan, Lindores Abbey and Dunnet Bay to name a few.
He said that although the industry is making great headways to become carbon neutral, they can look over the water to Ireland for inspiration.
Ahascragh Distillery in Galway was designed by Roberts where he repurposed a derelict old flour mill into a state-of-the-art distillery that doesn’t lose heat.
“One of the issues with distilling is, it's very, very energy intensive and everybody knows it, the industry knows it, and it's something that everybody's working very hard to fix,” Roberts said.
He added: “What these guys in Ireland did is they did this unprecedented thing they used.
“They have this closed loop heat system, so they don't throw away any heat when they're boiling the stills or anything like that through the process, they reuse all the heat.
“Nobody's done this in the world before.”
Robertson is a firm believer that with the industry’s collective commitment to move towards net zero and the continuing boom in trade Scotland has very well yet to see its golden era for whisky.
He attributes the “old fashion-ness” of building distilleries which last for generations with the social consciousness of the communities they find themselves anchored in provides huge opportunities still for Scotland's economy.
“It's that fact that the business relies upon the place.
“It's not like you know, your old thing of you had your computer company come in, and the grants went so then they move off to Malaysia.
“These companies are going to be there for generations because their whole identity is that place.
“A lot about distilling is back to the future, by which I mean it's the best of old-fashioned ways being done today.”
