Whisky packaging firm offsets CO2 by planting Argyll wood

Port Glasgow-based McLaren Packaging, a specialist supplier to the Scotch Whisky industry, has invested £150,000 in a carbon offsetting project in Argyll.

 

Managed by Forest Carbon, the new mixed woodland planting project at Millhouse will create a predominately native woodland of 68,000 trees over 34.5 hectares, which is expected to capture some 9,500 tonnes of CO2 over the life of the project.

 

Founded in 1979, with annual revenues of £38million and group employees totalling 300, McLaren Packaging supplies a range of paper-based packaging to the Scotch whisky industry.

 

Michael McLaren, sales and marketing managing director, said: 'Having signed up to the United Nations Race to Zero campaign ahead of the recent COP26 climate change conference, we are committed to halving our emissions before 2030 and achieving net zero before 2050.

 

'The Millhouse project allows us to offset operational emissions, such as from the use of natural gas for heating and diesel for transport, as well as emissions from our employees’ commutes to work and business travel, which are difficult to avoid today.

 

'We believe emissions should be sequestered where they are created, via a verified nature-based scheme, which is why we have invested in woodland creation in Argyll and Bute, less than 25 miles from our production sites in Port Glasgow. Not only will this help minimise our carbon footprint, it will also help our customers achieve the same.'

 

The UK needs to plant 32,200 hectares of new woodland every year (roughly 53.2 million trees) for the next 30 years (equating to 1.5 billion) to meet Net Zero aspirations by 2050. The Scottish Government aims to plant 18,000 hectares per year (30 million trees) by 2024 with a target to have trees covering 21 per cent of land compared to 19 per cent currently.