The distillery, founded by Dr Abbie Neilson, a former scientist, and chartered architect, Chris Jaume, in 2016 can now class two of its gins as carbon negative, which means that for every bottle created, more carbon is removed from the atmosphere than is emitted.

Chris said it had taken 12 months of “hard work” to achieve the goal.

“Despite a pandemic, we’re delighted that we’ve been able to achieve carbon-negative status for our two core products.

“Reaching this milestone is a significant step in our plan to become a carbon-negative distillery,” he said.

Using data collection and analysis, the team assessed the carbon footprint of its Dry and Herb Gins taking in ingredient procurement, packaging, production and distribution.

To achieve carbon negative, Chris said the carbon footprint of the two gins was reduced as far as possible, before offsetting the remainder with verified carbon credits, to reach carbon-neutral. A further 1kg of CO₂e is then offset per bottle beyond neutral to reach carbon negative status.

“Reaching this milestone is a significant step in our plan to become a carbon-negative distillery.

“We value people, planet and prosperity, and through sharing our findings in our publicly available Carbon Report we hope to inspire others to make a positive difference,” Chris said. As part of its long-term sustainability, the distillery, based at Sutton-on-the-Forest, York, has planted 30 juniper bushes on site which will take around a decade to mature. However, once they start producing berries, it is estimated they could provide enough juniper for around 15,000 bottles of gin a year.

Cooper King, which is named after Chris’s great-great-grandfather, Charles Cooper King, was built from scratch by Chris and Abbie with help from supporters, family and friends, making it England’s only self-built whisky and gin distillery.

It is also one of only a handful in the country to run on 100 per cent green energy.

It was the first distillery in Europe to join the environmental initiative, 1% for the Planet, which sees it donate a minimum of 1 per cent of Dry and Herb Gin sales to fund tree planting in the

US Dales, through its charitable partnership with the US Dales Millennium Trust.

It has also signed the United Nations Climate Neutral Now Pledge

“Producing flavour-driven, sustainable drinks has always been at the core of what we do, because we believe drinking good spirits needn’t cost the Earth,” said Chris.