Agenda item

6.1.                The Chair referenced the paper on business case studies and the Climate Response Engagement Officer advised that case studies are shared as behavioural science has shown that people are more likely to take action if they see their peers are doing so and also as an opportunity to celebrate what is happening in Medway.

6.2.          The Climate Response Engagement Officer introduced Stephen Russell, the founder of the Copper Rivet Distillery and Commercial Director of Russell Distillers Ltd to present on how their business is responding to climate change and the barriers faced.

6.3.          Stephen noted the value of hearing what other businesses are doing in relation to climate change and grants accessed and how the recent working business lunch also provided useful links.

6.4.          An overview was provided on the Copper Rivet, a fully family funded and run distillery, and their sustainability goals in relation to carbon, water and community.

6.5.          It was noted that a distillery is an energy intensive business with four big negative impacts: Transport of goods and liquid; the use of energy to heat liquid in distilling process; the use of water in cooling condensation process and waste.

6.6.          Actions taken to date include bringing a derelict building back to life, providing a variety of local jobs, using locally farmed grain and storing barrels only a mile from the distillery, hand bottling at the distillery,  optimising work flow to reduce energy consumption needed for the heating and cooling process, utilising the waste product of spent grain by sending it directly back to the farm to feed cattle (which was found to have lower carbon impact than using grain to create biomethane) and converting all lighting to LED.

6.7.          A key action the Copper Rivet would like to undertake is to use water from Basin No.1 for cooling which would reduce energy and water consumption.  Initial feedback has shown support for the scheme and the engineering and costs involved are being looked at.

6.8.          The business is also keen to use heat generated to create a mini heat network for their restaurant and other local businesses; to use by-products for either anaerobic digestion for biomethane or as nutrition for marine life in the Medway (as done in Scotland), to generate energy by capturing solar and wind power; to secure barrel storage and bottling facilities within Medway; and to switch from natural gas to green hydrogen. The main barriers to progressing these actions are technology maturity, energy availability and funding.

6.9.          The Chair highlighted potential links with the River Medway heat source system and it was noted that the Copper Rivet is in close contact with the team looking at this.

6.10.      The Chair thanked Stephen for providing an insight into how a business approaches the climate change issue and invited questions.

6.11.      Cllr Maple gave a declaration of interest as a Trustee of the Chatham Maritime Trust. 

6.12.      The group noted how hearing the experiences of this case study will be positive for other small business owners and how organisations like the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and The Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce (KICC) also need to be hearing about this. The group also noted the Council’s key role in supporting small and medium enterprises and shouting about the positive work.

ACTION: Economic Development to ensure the FSB and KICC are aware of Medway Case studies and opportunities to promote further.

6.13.      The group commented on how the Copper Rivet appeared to be ahead of the curve in relation to sustainability and asked if this translated into a market advantage, noting that it is not on their website.  Stephen highlighted how the company is conscious of avoiding PR chasing and green washing and would rather undertake promotion once work is secured however they will now update their website to reflect work undertaken to date.