At St Duke's Distillery, we prioritize quality, but not at the expense of the planet. It is no coincidence that we operate St Duke's Distillery, and our sister operation Harvey Cheese, in the beautiful South West of Western Australia, because it is the foundation of our entire business model. We have designed an award-winning closed and fully self-sufficient system that solves the dairy industry's most pressing by-product problem, proving that environmental responsibility can be distilled into excellence.

The Closed Loop System: Waste Transformed

The primary way we honor our commitment to the Earth is through our unique relationship with Harvey Cheese. The physical closeness enables us to intercept a major waste stream, and transform it into our main raw material, making a true circular economy.

1. The Challenge of Whey

For every one kilogram of cheese made, about nine kilograms of liquid whey is produced. This was, and still is, a big environmental issue for dairy producers.

Costly Disposal: Smaller creameries often find the proper disposal or treatment of this high volume of liquid waste logistically difficult and expensive.

The St. Duke’s Solution: Zero-Waste Distilling

We designed the distillery around the cheese factory's waste.

Upcycling the By-Product: Instead of purchasing grain or potatoes, we use fresh, protein-rich whey from the cheesemaking process. Using specialized yeast and fermentation methods, we transform the lactose (milk sugar) in whey to create our base alcohol.

Environmental Impact Reduction: This one action greatly minimizes the environmental footprint of the cheese factory and the distillery. We eliminate wastewater by diverting high-organic effluent and reclaiming it as a premium, marketable product. This reduces the greenhouse gases and water footprint created by raising and processing traditional base ingredients, like corn or wheat.

Distilling With a Conscience

Our commitment to sustainability goes from the innovative raw material we use, to the entire production chain.

Water Conservation

Water is vital, especially in Western Australia. We use cutting-edge technologies to make sure we are not overexploiting local water resources.

Process Water Efficiency

Our distillation process is designed to use water efficiently. The copper stills use modern water cooling systems that cool the coils using recirculated, closed-loop water systems. This process dramatically decreases the amount of water used per batch in comparison to the traditional single-pass cooling method, which uses single-pass cooling techniques.

Renewable Energy & Waste Management

Although using the whey is our biggest sustainable achievement, we keep focusing on possible improvements for the remaining energy and wastes.

Energy Goal: We continue to strategically reduce the amount of grid power used for our distilling operations by integrating more sustainable energy techniques and using the Australian sun for distilling energy.

Spent Lees and Packaging: Any remaining organic by-products (spent lees after distillation) are responsibly managed and are used, for example, as high-nutrient additives or feeds for local farming. We choose to use recyclable packaging and materials of low ecological footprints to close the cycle of low-impact Earth stewardship when the bottle leaves our premise.

Taste the Difference Sustainability Makes

Opting for a St Duke’s spirit means more than enjoying a bottle of award-winning vodka or gin; it means partaking in a continuous cycle of goodness. You also support a distillery that is a true pioneer in the global circular economy. St. Duke’s Vodka demonstrates how agricultural by-products can be converted into high-value products while also caring for the environment. It’s an eco-friendly choice, distilled to perfection.