Earlier this month, Hamilton, Bermuda-based Bacardi Limited unveiled its new “Good Spirited: Building a Sustainable Future” initiative, which will hold its global operations and suppliers for Bacardi rum to high sustainability standards. The initiative sets specific goals for 2022 for sourcing, packaging and operations across the entire Bacardi brand family. The privately held, family-owned company believes that it will be a more sustainable business in the long term by setting an industry-first example in responsibly managing the environment, it says.

Since 2006, Bacardi rum production has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 48 percent and water use by 72 percent worldwide, the company says. "To put that into perspective, the amount saved would provide a glass of water to every person on Earth," said Jon Grey, senior vice president of global operations for Bacardi, in a statement. "Since spirits production relies on water, we're extremely conscious about its conservation."

Globally, Bacardi rum facilities also strive to reach zero solid waste. Its bottling site in Buxtehude, Germany, leads the way by sending zero waste to landfills, while its bottling facility in Brampton, Canada, follows closely behind, sending 1.1 percent waste to landfills, it reports. At production sites globally, efforts to reach the zero solid waste level center on sorting and collecting a variety of leftover packaging materials for recycling, it adds. Along these lines, all Bacardi rum cardboard cases in North America are made from pulp sourced from sustainable-certified yellow pine forests in the United States.

At its largest premium rum distillery in Catano, Puerto Rico, Bacardi has implemented wind turbines, which harness ocean breezes to help power the Casa Bacardi Visitor Center; it chops up retired rum barrels to create mulch; it invested in solar skylights to save energy and control temperatures in warehouses used for aging rum; and it recycled concrete from on-site demolition for use in new construction on the 127-acre campus, the company notes.

In partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the brand helps sugarcane growers in Fiji develop sustainable farms that protect the Great Sea Reef. And at the Bacardi Bottling Corp. in Jacksonville, Fla., in partnership with the Wildlife Habitat Council, employees tend a wildflower garden that attracts bees and butterflies and enhances the natural surroundings.

"We have all hands on deck to ensure we deliver on our sustainability commitment to return to the environment at least as much as we take away," Grey said in a statement. "Manufacturing sites, suppliers, offices, operations, sales teams and customers all play an important role in creating a more sustainable future."

Bacardi crafts its rums in Puerto Rico and other locations and then bottles them in the United States and abroad to distribute to 150 countries around the world.

For more information about the company’s “Good Spirited: Building a Sustainable Future” initiative, visit www.bacardilimited.com/good-spirited.