Where taste meets boldness

Bus Whisky's bold journey to the world's most sustainable whiskey.

In 2019, Bus Whisky proudly entered the Dutch whisky scene as a fresh and bold brand. In just three years, we have grown from a modest Brabant start-up to the second largest whisky producer in the Netherlands, and we have earned our place as one of the world's most sustainable distilleries. Our efforts were rewarded with a gold sustainability medal at the Global Green Awards in Hong Kong. Discover more >>

But how do you actually make sustainable whiskey? Here are some of our practical steps:

1. Sustainable Cultivation: Our whiskey starts with malting barley, which we grow ourselves in small fields near the hamlet of Bus. We aspire to regenerative agriculture, avoiding fertilizers and chemicals and experimenting with clover cultivation to enrich the soil and promote biodiversity.

2. Eye for Heritage & Culture: We cherish local traditions and work with a threshing club of antique farm machinery enthusiasts. They help with the harvest and seed the flowery field edges around our barley fields with antique tractors.

3. Green Fuel: Our tractor is powered by blue diesel made from renewable vegetable oils and waste oils, including frying oil. We are also experimenting with oil seeds in our cropping plan, such as sunflowers and rapeseed that we can use in part as biofuel.

4. Energy neutral: We use green electricity from our own solar panels, we have heat pumps and a "biomelier," a compost pile from which we derive energy. Even the heat from our distillery boiler is efficiently reused for brewing water and other purposes in the building.

5. No Waste: We reuse methanol for various applications, such as coolant and lighter fluid. Even our waste streams are converted into valuable products, such as beer grist concrete, sheet material and straw for energy-efficient construction.

6. Electric Driving: Our company cars are all electric and charged with solar energy. We also offer electric 4x4 jeeps for ecotrails in the beautiful surroundings.

7. Innovation: We continue to pursue improvements, such as capturing CO2 for an algae reactor to grow spirulina, drying organic material, and creating alcohol-free beer from waste streams.

8. Collaboration: We actively involve our partners and suppliers in our sustainability ambitions to make the entire chain more sustainable.

At Bus Whisky, we want to set the standard for sustainable whisky production. Our manifesto describes our DNA, mission and vision. Do you have your own suggestions, would you like an internship or are you looking for a sustainable graduate project? Let us know at sustainability@buswhisky.com.

Join us on our bold journey to the world's most sustainable whiskey!