Sustainability is quite a buzzword these days. It’s becoming one of those words that is used so frequently that its true meaning or intention is being lost. In the face of very obvious climate change, jumping on the sustainability train in the spirits world seems to be on trend. As long as these spirit brands are using this for good and actual positive change in the world, we are all for it. It’s when real action is not being made while shoving these “sustainable” competitions and activations at us that makes it all feel disingenuous and really drags down the rest of the brands who are doing the real work.
One of these spirit brands who are leading the force in making real positive environmental change in this world is Torres Brandy. We had the pleasure of traveling to Barcelona to see their initiatives up close and it was such a relief to see what they are not just talking the talk. They are truly walking it. And have been for a long time. In 2007, they started initiatives to help study climate change as over the years with the planet warming, their grapes were ripening faster and not always with the best results. They began asking around in their community if anyone had any unknown grapevines to give them a clipping and they began growing and identifying these native grapes. They began experimenting with different ways of training their grapes, cover cropping, canopy management and using nets – all in an effort to slow maturation and adapt to a changing climate. The direct impact of climate change on their grapes, the very basis of all that Familia Torres makes was the obvious marker for them that things needed to change. They have since looked at many other ways of playing their part in bettering the world by using electric vehicles in their production, capturing C02 that is then reused in their production and collecting water to reuse (while on this trip, Barcelona was in a state of water emergency due to a lack of rain water).
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The 2024 Torres Brandy Zero Challenge that just took place was the 2nd since its inception. The first began in 2021/2022 with the finals being delayed until 2023 due to the pandemic and on-going conflict in Ukraine. The Torres Brandy Zero Challenge is the only one of its kind in the world: competitors are asked to submit essentially a business plan for a Sustainable Bar Project. A project that not only helps their bar but also helps their community and the planet. The grand prize? Thirty thousand euros to make that project come alive.
This year, 10 countries participated in the Torres Brandy Zero Challenge. Hailing from different parts of the world, we quickly learned how each country is facing its own challenges when it comes to climate change. Due to geography and the varied way governments run countries, all of us are dealing with pressing issues in our local communities. Leading up to this global competition, each participating country hosted a national competition with four finalists and one winner from each of those travelled to Barcelona to present their project to the judging panel and make a Torres Brandy cocktail in hopes of getting that top prize.
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In 2023, Giacomo Giannotti of Paradiso in Barcelona won with his Zero Waste Lab. Through the project, he has aimed to make all of his businesses zero waste and not just in the usual way of reusing every component of an ingredient but by also doing things like taking plastics from the bar and making them into coasters and other usable objects. On this trip we got to visit the lab and see his project in motion. People doing that thing instead of only talking about it will forever be our favourite kind of people.
We were blown away by the projects that were presented for the 2024 Torres Brandy Zero Challenge. We were blown away by the care that these bartenders and bar owners have for their communities and for the industry as a whole. It was inspiring to be in a room full of people who truly care about the future of our planet. It felt so great to know that a brand like Torres Brandy has committed so much to making true impactful change.
Below are the 10 final competitors of the 2024 Torres Brandy Zero Challenge and some information about their projects. We hope that this inspires you to think more deeply about what you can do in your own bar – and to enter the Torres Brandy Zero Challenge when applications open this coming fall.
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2024 Winner of Torres Brandy Zero Challenge
José Alberto del Toro of Mexico
Project: Taller Zero
Using glass instead of plastic is great. Using glass over and over is also great. Alberto has organised a program where instead of used glass bottles being collected by truck and returned to a facility that produces many emissions to recycle that glass, he has hired people in his community to collect, clean, cut and polish the glass that his bar already uses. These bottle are then reused as drinking vessels and light fixtures. This cuts down on producing new glass. This also gives people in the community that are having employment difficulties an opportunity to continue making money.
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Regor Siiner of Estonia
Project: Using Local Raw Materials
Using locally grown fruits instead of importing citrus creates interesting cocktails for Estonia. The emissions involved in shipping standard cocktail ingredients is harmful. Regor’s idea involves harvesting locally grown produce, like apples, berries and rhubarb at times when they have more acid and less sugar. That extra acidity makes for interesting cocktail ingredients without all the extra emissions. He then juices these fruits and pasteurizes them so that they become shelf stable creating ingredients to use in cocktails in place of traditional citrus. This project could expand to many places with short growing seasons and no locally grown citrus exists.
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Felix Cohen of United Kingdom
Project: Yes We Can
This project is based around the idea that aluminum is forever recyclable so why not make all to-go containers from cans? Beyond that, Felix has organised with other businesses in Margate (England, where he is based) to offer tokens as compensation for returning crushed cans. This help keep used cans off of beaches as well it involves the community in a genuine way. He has even gotten in touch with different local artists about designing art for the can crushers at local beaches.
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Giedre Bielskyte of United Arab Emirates
Project: ReWild
The most striking thing for us during this presentation was when Giedre said “we assume the desert is dead, but there are many desert plants that can be used in bars.” Many of the plants that grow in areas immediately surrounding Dubai can easily be made into bitters and tinctures and can be used in other ways around bars and restaurants. She has plans to grow even more of these plants in a lab-style setting and compile a lexicon of growth times, tasting notes, historical issues etc… for all in her bar community to share in.
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Jason Strohan of Canada
Project: Within Reach
At Jason’s spots in Saskatoon, St. Tropez Bistro and Parlor, they have been working towards being more environmentally conscious and sustainable for many years. They make every effort possible to use all parts of the ingredients they use in their kitchen and bar so that little goes to waste. A part of that goal was starting a rooftop garden 20 years ago that has now grown to cover over 1000 square feet of the roof of the building in the centre of downtown Saskatoon. The rooftop garden has let them grow a large amount of herbs, vegetables and edible flowers for use in St. Tropez and Parlor, thus reducing the reliance on food transportation. They have been able to reduce food waste by picking fresh from the garden and use only what is needed. The garden is also a micro ecosystem and green space in the middle of the downtown core for migratory birds to nest and for bees to gather pollen. Jason’s reason for entering the Torres Brandy Zero Challenge was to expand upon this concept of growing most of what is needed right where they use it. He wants to set up a rain catchment system to reduce the use of the city fed water to irrigate the rooftop garden and expand the garden into the 1000 square foot attached garage/storage area, so that they’re able to grow year round. With the use of grow lights that are powered by solar panels and by installing large south facing windows for passive solar energy catchment they would essentially be able to double the amount of food that they can currently grow while further reducing our carbon footprint.
Another part to this Indoor Garden Project is their conscious choice to grow mostly heirloom varieties of herbs and vegetables. By doing this it has allowed them to collect seeds throughout the growing season. By carefully selecting seeds from plants that thrive in the growing conditions of their climate, they have been able to ensure the viability of their garden. Seed collection is an important step towards increased biodiversity and the future of food security.
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Loni Lewis of United States
Project: The Ikoko Room
This bar would go into a space that is currently being used as a short-term rental apartment with very little renovation. This secret bar (attached to Okan in Bluffton, South Carolina where she currently works) would function using mostly what could be grown in the area immediately surrounding it. The gardens in and around the complex where the bar and apartment are are currently growing manufactured and cute greenery, but with this project she would change the landscape to be edible. She has already started working with local farmers to develop plans as to what could grow well. This is extremely important in this area of South Carolina as the population has ballooned in that last 3 years and having readily available food as part of the landscape would aid in reducing the amount of food being shipped in and water being used on plants that are not edible…but look pretty.
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Juho Tuppurainen of Finland
Project: Make Tropical More Topical
Juho focused on how successful recycling programs have been in Finland and how as a society the country is very open to novel ideas about how to be more efficient. He tied this into modifying juices and ingredients that could be grown in Finland to recreate flavours found in tropical drinks. Finland has a very short growing season and so techniques around preserving produce have existed for a long time and using some of those techniques, combined with new information about food science could eliminate the need for tropical fruits in cocktails in Finland. Juho’s plan includes using fruit grown from his own property.
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Marco Crobu of Italy
Project: So Fresh, So Clean
Before we all used chemicals as cleaners there were many different natural cleaners, among them ash. Marco wants to bring back old methods of creating cleaners to use in bars and restaurants by reusing much of the organic waste from bars and restaurants. He got the idea when he realized how much ash is left from the pizza oven at his bar. By creating these cleaners there would be less chemical waste being produced in bars and restaurants which of course leads to cleaner water and a healthier planet all around.
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Alberto Díaz of Spain
Project: Territorio Circular
Alberto’s idea revolves around training people in the community to work with gardens, both natural and hydroponic, to produce food for bars and restaurants. Then if there happens to be more of any one kind of fruit/herb etc… produced than needed by one person, there is a network set up so that is someone is short on that ingredient has access to it. In the end whatever waste is leftover is compostable and goes back into the gardens that produced these plants in the first place. This creates a circular program where everything is being used and nothing goes to waste.
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Rokas Tolvaiša of Lithuania
Rokas plans to set up a system where all organic waste from bars, hotels and restaurants can be collected and turned into usable ingredients for those same bars, restaurants, hotels and cafes. Something he said in his presentation that stuck out for us was that we pay for the food we throw away and we need to give all food the respect it deserves. He presented the judges with a tepache made from foods at his bar, and the bottles were sealed with wax that was gathered from the small amounts leftover from candles at his restaurant.
