James Angus returns with his unique enthusiasm for whisky and here at The Sipping Shed we love his honest approach even if we do legally distance our Shed from it.
There’s a lot of talk in the industry about getting greener and having less impact on the environment and James reckons we can have our cake and eat if we start by making some simple changes…
Being friendlier to the environment.
By James Angus
Macallan.
Off you fuck first of all.
I’ll give a nod to anCnoc however as according to their advertising and in line with advertising standards law their not allowed to tell big fat porkie pies and it seems that they are doing the right thing.
1. Get rid of shitty cardboard boxes and tubes
They will almost always end up in the recycling bin and they slow me down when wanting to get to the bottle. I just want to buy the bottle and whisky. That also includes boxes made from recycled casks, metal with holes in, back box from a ford exhaust, tube made to look like a warehouse and my personal favourite the bottle in a box with glasses with plastic inlay because it’s gift.
Charge me the same price. Take that 30p saving and do something good with. Do a PR exercise with the money and a giant cheque.
2. Less labels
One label giving me the contractual information I need. But then use a smart arsed bastard QR code and or NFC tag. No booklet, no front and back label, no bottle label essay about how it’s a collaboration with some recognised arty person.
This QR stuff and clever shit is catching on.
I was on a conference call last year with people from We do Verify, Rampur, Amrut and Paul John (Fuck knows what I was doing there as you can probably guess I know between Jack and shit all about this and Jack buggered off ages ago.) and there was lots of positive noises about this. So much so Amrut have started doing this. Download an app, scan it on the bar code of Amrut Fusion and then behold information about Amrut pops up! (As you can imagine for a luddite like myself with zero technology understanding I was impressed.)
Same with a bottle from the Southport whisky club. Scan the bottle and loads of info about the bottle and Southport and Loch Lomond. Shit then got to Leonardo level with the NFC tag on the bottle which can also act as authentication of the bottle and tell you where the bottle is and if it’s open or not.
So ideal for those who collect bottles and want extra authenticity when it comes to resale.
Whisky Baron have come up with their own clever shit as well. With menus and Intel and a bit of an animation thing with a little whisky baron and it looks like he’s your guide to take you through the whisky baron site. There’s a helpful video on YouTube which I’ve put a link here. Unfortunately I don’t have a bottle from Whisky Baron to try it with but it looks pretty much fly as fuck on YouTube.
Less labels, less printing, less glue and less glue sniffing. All the notes are already online so another saving.
Winning and then use the money saved for another PR cheque!
3. Packaging
Use flexi-hex cardboard stuff instead of plastic sleeves when posting bottles.
I’d hope that this is fairly self explanatory if not I really can’t help you and you haven’t noticed anything to do with climate change and you are a bit thick.
4. Solar panels…. I don’t pissing know
There are clever people out there who specialise in this shit. Employee one of them.
James Angus