• Barley production is in green as it is the only part of the process that absorbs carbon through removing it from the atmosphere when grown, which take approximately 90 days. However, the process still has emissions from farm operation and use of fertilizer.

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• Malting is when the barley is left in a warm room for serval days to allow it to germinate. This is a key part of the process but requires constant heating, and depending on the distillery sometimes needs peat to be burnt underneath it to allow for the whisky to have a smoky favour. It should be noted that for grain whisky maize is used and malting doesn’t occur.

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• Grinding operations consume electricity and allow the grain to be broken into smaller parts, called grist, removing any useless part of the grain.

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• Mashing requires a large amount of water which is combined with the grist and heated for a few hours. The amount of water and heating time varies depending of the distillery.

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• Fermentation is when yeast is added to the mashed grains and left for between 2 to 4 days. This causes an exothermic reaction that releases CO2 as well as causing foaming that is cut with a fan when it rises too high. After fermentation the mass, called draff, is separated from the liquid. The draff is then a waste product of the process.

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• Distillation is when the liquid from fermentation is put into stills and raised up to temperatures between 70°C – 90°C for a few hours. This causes the alcohol vapour to rise through the still where after it is condensed to a liquid again. This process is repeated twice with only a proportion of the liquid used for whisky, called the heart. The first amount of alcohol produced is called the head and is recycled to the first still process and added into a new batch. The last of the proportion is called the tail and is discarded. From distillation there are two waste products, spent lees and pot ale.

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• Maturation is when the whisky heart is put into casks and left to mature in a warehouse for a minimum of 3 years and 1 day. These casks are often from other beverage making processes such as bourbon or wine and therefore have to come from either Europe or America.

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• Once matured this is bottled into glass bottles and packaged before being shipped to customers. Transport activities occur throughout the process with nearly all distilleries having marine transport due to the sourcing of casks coming from either Europe or American. Island distilleries such as those in the Islay region have higher marine transport due to most supplies being imported to the island and almost all whisky being exported from them.