Distillery wins UK’s highest eco-award
One of Perthshire’s famous Scotch whisky distilleries has been awarded the UK’s highest eco-tourism award.
Blair Athol Distilleries has received the prestigious gold certification from Green Tourism for its sustainable practices, both in the brand home visitor experiences and the distillery operations.
Only eight distilleries in total in Scotland have this accreditation.
The local distillery, located on the south edge of Pitlochry, was praised for its dedication to recycling across the business, including the recycling of its pot ale syrup for animal feed, which saves 850 tanker movements and 15,000 litres of water annually.
Adding to its eco-friendly credentials, the distillery was also commended for using old pallets and discarded materials to create wildlife boxes to improve biodiversity for native birds and insects.
The facility is owned by British multinational beverage alcohol company Diageo.
Barbara Smith, managing director of Diageo’s Scotland Brand Homes, said:“To receive the gold Green Tourism award for not just one, but six of our Scottish whisky brand homes and distilleries in just under six months is an incredible achievement.
“These awards are credit to the people at our distilleries and all the work they’ve done to build the environmental sustainability of our business.
“This is just the start of our journey and we will be going for gold accreditations at our other distillery brand homes and will continue to raise the bar for sustainable whisky tourism.”
Zero waste to landfill, biodiversity enhancement, energy efficiency, local sourcing, community engagement and plastic reduction were among the achievements praised by the assessors across the whisky attractions.
Andrea Nicholas, chief executive at Green Tourism, said:“The investment and support from Diageo in incorporating green technology and operations has been impressive and one of the best examples of corporate commitment that we have ever seen.
“This along with the dedication, hard work and creativity of the on-site teams at all of these distilleries has been crucial to achieving their well-deserved Gold Awards.”
Perthshire yoga teacher Tina Logan has been helping sports teams stay connected and fit during lockdown while the athletes are unable to meet to train.
Aberfeldy-based Tina is a CYS qualified yoga teacher and PE teacher.
In recent weeks, Aberfeldy Rugby Club has signed up to her online programme of sports yoga and through neighbour and professional football coach Gavin Price, her yoga sessions have been taken up by Elgin City Football Club.
“Sports yoga is whole-body flexibility and functional movement training. It’s inspired by yoga, but adapted for sport,” she explained.
“Sports yoga has a proven record of success with football players, such as Ryan Giggs, who attributes his long and successful playing career to his regular yoga practice.”
Tina was initially approached by the clubs to keep the players connected with each other and now has about 30 athletes taking part at any one time.
She is totally convinced it will benefit all players in ways they expect and in ways they may not have anticipated.
“I am really keen to encourage sports players to get involved with sports yoga as it offers huge benefits and will help them to be ready to return to training and competition strongly and safely when they are allowed to do so,” Tina explained.
“And hopefully prevent them from picking up injuries having not been able to train for so long.”
She hopes that participants will quickly discover the amazing benefits of yoga as a means not only to prevent and recuperate from injuries but also to recover more quickly from hard training sessions and matches.
She also believes it will enhance physical performance through improving strength, core, flexibility and balance and will improve mental factors such as focus, concentration and resilience.
In addition, yoga is renowned for promoting good quality sleep which is vital for peak performance.
Tina believes a regular yoga practice will extend players’ careers and allow them to retire from their sport in good physical shape so they can go on and enjoy other activities.
“It builds a stronger, sharper, more supple and balanced body. A body that can stay at its peak for longer.”
For many, this is the first time they have experienced yoga.
Gavin Price, Elgin City manager and coach said: “I personally started joining
Tina’s yoga classes last February and very quickly started to feel the benefit.
“As we entered the first lockdown, thankfully Tina posted eight online routines on YouTube and I continued to practice these and still do so regularly today.
“The improvement to my flexibility and health has been remarkable and I only wish I had found this years ago when I was playing professional football. As a result, I encouraged our players at Elgin City to follow Tina’s YouTube programme.
“And now we are back in another lockdown, we have all the squad together on Thursday nights to do a live Zoom yoga session.
“The players have been raving about it, and there is no doubt they will reap the rewards of this when we return to full training.”
For more information contact Tina yoga@ fernbankhouse.co.uk
These awards are credit to the people at our distilleries and all the work they’ve done to build the environmental sustainability of our business Barbara Smith