Cape Byron Distillery has been certified with B Corp one of the most demanding certifications with a criteria of over 350 benchmarks concerning operations, employee treatment, community, and environmental impact.
The globally recognised certification is awarded to businesses that:
- demonstrate high social and environmental performance,
- make a legal commitment by changing their corporate governance structure to be accountable to all stakeholders and
- exhibit transparency.
“I am incredibly proud of our team in achieving B Corp certification. It is in our company DNA and at the very core of everything we do here, to support our community, the environment, and our people. We see business as a force for good. We go beyond industry norms, creating and implementing innovative solutions with the goal to make the Australian distilling industry a world leader in sustainable practice,” said Co-Founder of Cape Byron Distillery, Eddie Brook.
Other distilleries and breweries in Australia that are B Corp certified are Team Unico, Four Pines and Stone & Wood.
Cape Byron Distillery was founded in 2016 on the now regenerated 95 acre family property. In 1988 Pam and Martin Brook purchased the property, which was a desolate, run-down dairy farm. The Brook family set about planting 4,500 macadamia trees and 40,000 native rainforest plants. Today the property is a thriving regenerated ecosystem, home to a rich biodiversity of native flora and fauna, including koalas.
The on-farm closed-loop distillation process where whisky wash and botanicals are mixed with mulch to create a nutrient dense soil conditioner that is reused on the Davidson Plum orchard, diverting waste from landfill by utilising black soldier flies to consume organic waste, and implementing various waste diversion streams and energy monitoring systems is one highlight for the distillery. Another is the 30 per cent decrease in landfill waste which dropped from 3.3kg per 100 bottles in January 2019 to 2.1kg per 100 bottles in December 2021.
“Whilst we are ecstatic to achieve this level of certification which solidifies our sustainability journey to date, we have an exciting road ahead. For us, sustainability is about establishing your baseline and then looking at your business practices through a transparent lens to tackle the tough issues head-on and create innovative solutions. We hope that the work we are doing can lay the foundations for other distilleries in their sustainability journey,” said Sustainability Manager, Alex McManus.
Cape Byron Distillery achieved B Corp Certification by exceeding B Corp Standards not only in reforestation efforts, but across five categories of the B Impact Assessment: Community, Customers, Environment, Workers, and Governance.
