Distilling Change: What Carbon Negative Rum Can Teach Us About Planet, Profit and Scale

About this episode

Russ Wakeham discusses how Two Drifters Distillery integrates sustainability into its business model to create carbon negative rum.

What happens when you build sustainability into a business from day one? For Russ Wakeham, co-founder of Two Drifters Distillery, the answer is a rum that’s not just delicious but also carbon negative. His approach could help rewrite the rules for how companies think about profit, planet, and scale. In this episode of Balancing the Future , Micah and Chai speak with Russ about how his background in chemistry and carbon capture research led to a distillery powered by renewable energy. They explore how Two Drifters measures and reduces its emissions across every stage of the supply chain, from sugarcane fields to bottle packaging, and why Russ treats carbon removal costs like any other line item in the business. They also dig into the practical realities of tackling Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, from shipping and distribution to the hidden carbon costs of glass bottles. Russ’s advice for other business owners is clear – if you implement sustainability right from the beginning, it becomes easier to maintain and grow that practice later on. LINKS Russ Wakeham on LinkedIn Two Drifters Distillery Website METTLER TOLEDO Laboratory Solutions Website METTLER TOLEDO Laboratory Solutions on…

People in this episode

Hosts: Micah Schweizer, Chai Nussbaumer

Guest: Russ Wakeham

Topics covered

• sustainability
• carbon negative
• business practices
• distillery
• emissions reduction

Keywords

• sustainability
• carbon negative
• rum
• emissions
• renewable energy
• business model
• supply chain

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Two Drifters Distillery, METTLER TOLEDO

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