It was not two years ago when we went to London and picked up a price. This price has meant a lot to us. Not the quality of our fires was assessed, but our commitment to sustainability and the environment. We were honored with the Amorim Sustainability Award of the magazine The Drinks Business. At the time, our energy management team really took off the jury. Last week we harvested Miscanthus again and proudly thought back to the winners gala in London.
11 acres of Miscanthus for the energy
We operate 45 hectares of organic farming. On 11 of them we build Miscanthus. The grass is also called elephant grass or sometimes miscanthus. Miscanthus is a man-high grass, which is also an extremely efficient energy supplier. To understand the extent of its potential, here is a brief comparison: 1 hectare of Miscanthus provides the same amount of energy as 6,500 liters of fuel oil. For our acreage this means a volume of over 70,000 liters of fuel oil. But not just the fossil fuel, which will not be available any longer in the foreseeable future, but energy from grass, which is growing year after year. With the material we harvested last week, we heat the distillery’s boilers for a year. We feed in surplus energy into the municipal network, ensuring that the children in kindergarten and the firefighters in the ready rooms are warm.
The harvest itself was a pleasure. With blue skies, blooming pear trees and summer temperatures, working on the field is even more fun. The videos show impressions of the harvest day.
For us, sustainability is not just a buzzword. Nothing is more important to us than the respectful treatment of our nature. It is the basis of our work. Without an intact environment, the production of outstanding products – in our case these are just our distillates and liqueurs – is not possible.
