Diageo Launches £5m Peatland Restoration Plan for Scotland

Published November 13, 2025 by John Fegan

Diageo, an outfit famous for taking barley, water, and the sort of patience usually reserved for saints and elderly watchmakers, has decided to put £5 million over five years into restoring Scotland’s peatlands. This is an admirable effort, given that Scotland’s peatlands have been looking a bit like overworked librarians: fragile, over-prodded, and inclined to release vast quantities of carbon in place of overdue fines.

Fix the Peat, Save the Whisky

The plan involves tending up to 3,000 hectares of soggy land that squelches with the determined air of moral purpose, something that knows it is important even if no one quite appreciates why. Diageo has teamed up with Caledonian Climate, the sort of organisation whose name suggests they routinely stride into howling storms and attempt to negotiate peace treaties with the weather.

The idea is so simple it almost feels like a trap: sort out the peat, keep the whisky flowing. Peat is the quiet, aromatic building block of the national psyche, the stuff that gives whisky its beloved smoky punch and alarms anyone who thinks “notes of iodine” is a symptom rather than a flavour. It also happens to be an essential carbon store and Scotland’s slightly anarchic system for handling water.

Peatlands as Climate Guardians

Ewan Andrew, Diageo’s president of global supply and chief sustainability officer, made his statement with the earnest seriousness of a man who has looked into a bog and found his purpose staring back. Restoring and protecting Scotland’s peatlands, he explained, is crucial for tackling climate change, protecting biodiversity and reducing carbon emissions before they cause even more narrative complications.

He continued with the bright, undoubting optimism usually found in people unveiling a new toaster and fully expecting applause. “We’re taking a multi-pronged approach through restoration, innovation and collaboration, to restore many times more peat than we use, ensuring the smoky character of Scotch can continue sustainably for generations.”

Caledonian Climate will oversee the restoration programme, working with scientific experts, landowners, NGOs and community partners. The peat itself has so far declined to participate in public comment, which is perhaps understandable given that peat tends to express its opinions through slow geological sulking. Wetlands International will monitor carbon, biodiversity and water resilience, most likely carrying clipboards, determined expressions and a fondness for soggy terrain.

Accelerating Peatland Recovery Across Scotland

Freddie Ingleby, managing director at Caledonian Climate, explained the ambition with the clarity of someone who believes Scotland’s entire landscape can be brought into orderly cooperation. By uniting a wide collection of stakeholders, the initiative aims to ramp up peatland restoration across Scotland at a scale that cannot be ignored. “We’ll take a science-led approach, sharing learnings across the sector to advance understanding and drive nature recovery.”

Funding will, as one might expect, resemble a wildly enthusiastic patchwork quilt consisting of private investors, public support and organisations such as the RSPB, who have a habit of turning up whenever birds or bogs are involved. Some of the work will happen at the Oa nature reserve on Islay, an island where whisky esentially radiates from the landscape and the local bird population trade gossip about distilleries.

Innovation to Reduce Peat Use in Scotch Production

Meanwhile, Diageo is attempting to cut down on peat use in whisky-making by building clever bits of kit, re-circulating peat smoke in a manner that sounds like something the fire brigade might question, and looking into whether surplus peat from other sectors might fancy a career change into maltings. Trials that began in the spring of 2024 have already made peat use five percent more efficient, which in the world of whisky counts as something approaching thunderous applause.

These efforts support Diageo’s broader, science-guided ambition to make whisky production more efficient while gently prodding the rest of the industry in the kind of polite way that suggests a velvet glove, a firm handshake and a chart full of alarming numbers.

Where Whisky Fits in the Great Peat Pie Chart

For all the fuss made about whisky and peat, it turns out the industry is responsible for only a tiny sliver of the nation’s commercial peat extraction, something in the region of one percent. The rest, an overwhelming ninety-eight percent, marches off into horticulture, where peat becomes the soft, obliging ingredient in compost for flowers, vegetables, fruits and mushrooms. Yet the stakes remain high, because peat plays a role in roughly eighty percent of Scotch whisky production. That means any limitations, however well intentioned, could stumble into the unfortunate position of throttling a major pillar of Scotland’s economy while barely touching the real bulk users. In short, whisky gets the headlines, but flowerpots get the peat.

Coenraad Krijger, CEO of Wetlands International, delivered his closing words with the flourish of someone who has spent a great deal of time pondering soggy landscapes and come out of the experience both inspired and slightly pruney. “Healthy peatlands are extraordinary climate champions. This collaboration will restore huge areas of degraded Scottish peatlands for the benefit of people, nature and climate, and we hope it inspires others across the industry to follow suit.”

A Final Toast to Responsible Peat Use

Which leaves us with a final tableau. Scientists, corporations, conservationists and bogs that are stubborn enough to outlive entire empires, all working together so that future drinkers can lift a smoky dram and say it tastes like responsibly managed soil, or just possibly, terroir.