Connie Baker’s monthly water bill is enviable by any commercial business standard, but especially when you consider that she’s running a distillery with a tasting room and boutique hotel.
Baker—cofounder, CEO, and head distiller at Marble Distilling in Carbondale, Colorado—pays just $100 per month for the water she uses to make her signature vodkas, whiskeys, and Gingercello—and no, that figure isn’t missing a zero.
Baker’s secret to cost savings is a custom water reclamation system—she calls it the Water Energy Thermal System, or WETS—which she designed ahead of the distillery’s opening in 2015. In brief, the system works by collecting the water that Marble uses to cool vapor during distillation, extracting the heat so the water can be recycled for future use.
Marble stores the water—which never touches its spirits—in a blue tank on the distillery floor, and it stores the energy removed through 14 heat exchangers in a red tank. Both tanks are responsible for heating and cooling water throughout Marble’s complex, as well as maintaining the temperatures in the five dog-friendly rooms at the attached Distillery Inn.
Baker says she invested about $750,000 in the WETS, with help from a $197,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Besides saving hundreds of dollars per month in utility costs, Baker says she estimates that Marble annually saves 5 million gallons of water and harvests 2 billion BTUs of energy.
“This entire building uses less energy than a 2,000-square-foot home,” she says.
Marble’s model may seem novel, but it is not unique. Distilleries across North America are going green to help not only the planet but also their bottom lines.
The Payoff
While it’s easiest to integrate sustainable practices when first constructing a facility, beverage makers say it’s never too late to become more efficient and reduce your company’s carbon footprint, all while crafting a brand story. Most sustainability measures require a significant up-front investment, but including those costs into your budget ahead of time will help ensure that you reap the rewards for years to come, experts say.
Becky Harris, president and chief distiller at Catoctin Creek Distilling in Purcellville, Virginia, says she has seen that payoff by investing in solar power. When she and husband Scott Harris founded the distillery in 2009, integrating solar was not top of mind. By the time they were ready to upgrade to a new facility in 2013, the couple were more familiar with the possibilities—they’d researched what it would take to get an array at their personal residence.
Their home wasn’t a great fit because of the way it was oriented. However, the former Buick dealership where she planned to relocate Catoctin Creek had a roof that angled south—perfect for absorbing sunlight year-round, and especially in the limited daylight hours during winter.
Catoctin Creek worked with a Virginia company to install a 48-panel solar array for $170,000, which paid for itself in about eight years. Today, Scott says, it generates about four megawatt hours per month— enough to power 10 homes.
Because Catoctin Creek’s demand for electricity fluctuates with the seasons, energy generated by the array covers about 85 percent of the distillery’s annual needs. Its biggest power expenditure is its chiller, Becky says, followed by internal heating and cooling systems and lighting.
The distillery’s electric bill typically hovers around $1,000 per month. (That’s less than half of what the owners say they paid at their previous facility, which was smaller.) However, in the spring and fall—when the distillery often doesn’t need heating or air conditioning—the bill is less than $200 per month.
“It’s not only a decision about the environment but also about the pocketbook,” Becky says. “Especially if you can finance it correctly, you can make it so it pays you back.”
That will take years, she says, so don’t expect returns in the short term. Harris compares investing in solar to making whiskey: It requires time and patience to one day see your ROI.
More Ways to Save
Besides large projects, there are small things that distilleries can do to optimize efficiencies and pinch pennies. Just ask Will Drucker, operator of Appalachian Gap Distillery in Middlebury, Vermont, which in 2021 became the first climate neutral–certified distillery in the United States.
To earn such that certification, Drucker worked with an organization called Change Climate Project, which helped the distillery measure its carbon footprint and find opportunities to cut back. Each year, Appalachian Gap commits to sustainability initiatives that reduce its emissions and environmental impact. For example, the distillery eliminated all plastic from its packaging, and it ships using only recyclable and recycled cardboard. It also has shifted to renewable sources of natural gas to power its still, eliminating its use of fossil fuels. The distillery also works with a company that uses a methane digester, which turns its spent grains into renewable natural gas.
“It’s still methane, but it’s bio-based,” Drucker says. “There are all sorts of bio-based and agriculture-based by-products they can run through the process and turn into renewable natural gas.”
While renewable natural gas is more expensive, Drucker says they’ve found other ways to offset the cost. For example, they installed a solar array that generates about 97 percent of the energy needed for production. But even more important—if “less sexy,” as Drucker says—are the insulation added to pipes, walls, and windows and the LED motion-sensor lights that reduce energy loss. He refers to those as “low-hanging fruit” that can make a big difference.
“Once we invested up front in those measures, we saw … lower electricity bill,” he says. “It’s effectively zero dollars because not only do we maximize efficiency, we’re also generating most of our electricity on-site with solar panels.”
Getting Started
At Marble, Baker makes the case that more distilleries should embrace sustainable practices in response to shrinking resources—namely, the dwindling availability of water in the American West—even if that kind of pivot can seem daunting. That’s why she says she’s willing to openly and enthusiastically share information about Marble’s water reclamation system.
“Our deal is, we share our data with every distillery,” Baker says. “Anyone who comes asking, we help them.”
Another way to get started, Drucker says, is to contact state and federal agencies for expertise as well as grants, rebates, and other incentives to make the transition easier. Many of those resources are free. He also suggests finding an eco-friendly angle that resonates most with your brand identity, creating a message to earn repeat customers and thus boost revenue.
Harris agrees. “There’s very little downside to it,” she says of installing solar. “Something people think is cool is when you say, ‘We offset the impact of our operations with solar power.’ It makes sense in both the messaging and … financially.”
At Appalachian Gap, Drucker produces a second portfolio of products under a brand called Split Spirits, billed as single origin because each spirit ages on wood unique to a specific state. The Vermont spirit, for example, features sugar maple, while the New York recipe ages on black-cherry wood; the Illinois recipe highlights white oak. The wood comes from already-felled trees unfit to be used in lumber or furniture, so it’s cheaper and more sustainable, Drucker says.
Back in Colorado, almost everything used to construct the Marble Distilling facility is recycled, Baker says, from the stone bar top in the tasting room to the concrete on the floors to the wallboards. Materials used to outfit the inn’s rooms are recycled, too, though you’d never guess from the sleek aesthetic and modern touches.
“What we’re trying to show is that you can do it sustainably,” Baker says. “You’re not compromising anything for doing it the right way.”