Going Green

Holocene Distilling Project is our home-based business, nestled just off the highway in Cobble Hill. We opened just over a year ago after six years of planning and preparation, which included rezoning our residential property to allow for alcohol production. My business partner, Aisling, has a background in herbal medicine and bartending, while I come from mechanical engineering, spending eight years designing gas fireplaces at Sherwood Industries. Growing up in Victoria, we both developed a deep appreciation for Vancouver Island’s natural beauty—oceans, forests, lakes, and rivers, you name it. It’s arguably one of the most beautiful places on earth, and we want to honour that with our products and operations.

From the beginning, Aisling and I have aimed to operate Holocene with an eco-conscious approach. Our name, "Holocene," reflects our commitment to sustainability, named after Earth’s current epoch, which scientists debate may be shifting toward the Anthropocene due to human impact. We’ve set an ambitious goal for our grassroots distillery to achieve net-zero emissions by 2030 because we want to keep Earth in the Holocene.

What does net-zero mean for us? We’re still exploring what this looks like, as sustainability takes many forms, and defining “net-zero” can be complex. So far, our journey has included practical steps, such as sourcing grain within a 20-kilometer radius and working with local vendors for ingredients. Beyond these essentials, we’re innovating with energy systems to harness, store, and repurpose energy generated during distillation. For example, we can heat 1,000 liters of water to 50°C using heat that would otherwise go to waste. Additionally, we process our distillers’ waste onsite through a specially designed treatment field, which naturally breaks down effluent using organisms found in bark chips.

Collaboration is a big part of our journey to net zero:

For example, we partner with Two Crows Mustard to make unique jellies and marmalades using our spirits. Local artist Amanda Key designs our labels, and our Lady Grey liqueur features Westholm Tea. Our Sweet Tease liqueur is flavored with cascara, a typically discarded byproduct of coffee production, sourced from a family-run organic farm in Costa Rica and brought in by Morningstar Coffee in Langford alongside their beans. We complement it with a hint of lemon zest using peels from Good Life Juice in Nanaimo after they’re done with their delicious juice-making lemons.

Last month, we were thrilled to release Lost and Found, a limited-edition brandy crafted entirely from salvaged wine and cider. After Affinity Ciderhouse closed post-pandemic, we rescued 3,000 liters of cider that had soured and combined it with wine from Blue Grouse Winery that didn’t meet their standards. We distilled the alcohol to a high purity and let it soak in blueberries from Silverside Farm, allspice, lemon, and vanilla for three months. The concept of repurposing other businesses’ waste has developed into an exciting realization that we hadn’t planned for.

While these upcycling initiatives are fun, the meat and potatoes for me as an engineer is refining our energy conservation systems. Identifying the right areas to target and finding innovative ways to reduce energy consumption is an ongoing challenge. Fortunately, during the planning stages of our heat recovery system, we ensured it was designed to allow for future expansion, as the budget permits.

We’re continuously developing projects, big and small, to help achieve our sustainability goals. Holocene boasts a combination of existing systems and those in various stages of planning, poised for both short-term and long-term implementation. Our major goals over the next few years include capturing CO₂ emissions from the fermentation process, using spent grain to heat our space, and integrating solar energy to supplement our overall energy needs.

Green Business BC’s certification program has been invaluable, helping us explore the steps toward defining our path to net-zero. Before our first anniversary, we were proud to be recognized as a leader in green business through their awards program.

You can find Lost and Found, along with our other products, at Liquor Plus (Cobble Hill). To find other locations, and to follow our journey from earth to bottle, and back again, visit www.holocenedistilling.com