Spirits and beer manufacturer Diageo announced the opening of its first distillery in North America to achieve carbon neutral status in Lebanon, KY this week. The 72,000-sq-ft Bulleit Bourbon production site includes electrode boilers powered by 100% renewable electricity across its cooking, distillation, and dry house processes.

In addition, the distillery utilizes virtual metering technology to keep tabs on the site’s water, electricity, and steam usage. The company will source power from the Inter-County Energy and East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC) from wind and solar sources to supply electricity to lighting inside and outside the facility, electric vehicles, and the boilers.  

“Two years ago, we set a vision and commitment to build our first carbon neutral distillery in North America. Now that the Diageo Lebanon Distillery is operational, I’m incredibly proud of the innovative actions from our teams and partners to fully electrify the facilities and power them with renewable electricity,” said Perry Jones, president, North American Supply for Diageo, in a company release. “This is a significant step in our journey to create a low carbon future and be part of the solution to tackle the ongoing climate crisis.”

The eco-friendly technologies and partnership with EKPC will help the company to avoid over 117,000 mt/yr of carbon emissions.

About 30 new jobs were created with the opening of the Lebanon site. The distillery can produce up to 10 million proof gal/yr.