For years, talking about sustainability at the bar seemed like a theoretical exercise, made up of paper straws and good intentions. Today, things are changing with the concreteness of the numbers: 6,317 kg of CO₂ saved in 2025 alone thanks to the purchasing decisions of Italian cocktail bars. This is the data that emerges from the green project of Spirits Proposal, which has decided to calculate the real environmental impact of the spirits distributed in its catalog, transforming the choice of bottles into a concrete gesture for the supply chain.
The initiative isn't limited to a conscious catalog, but directly involves those behind the counter. The goal for 2026 is to exceed the threshold of 10,000 kg of carbon dioxide saved: establishments that reduce their carbon footprint by cutting more than 50 kg of CO₂ will receive official certification, while the most virtuous ones will be rewarded with a sustainable experience in Trentino.
This result is based on a selection of brands that have redesigned production, transportation, and packaging from scratch, offering bartenders tools designed for today's mixology.
Paper bottles and Bag-in-Box formats: the new ergonomics of the counter
The first obstacle to a venue's impact remains glass: heavy to transport and cumbersome to dispose of at the end of the evening. Solutions such as the Frugal Paper Bottle, the recycled paper bottle adopted by both Buen Vato — a Mexican brand that offers a Tequila Blanco from an ethical supply chain and attentive to workers' conditions — both from Avallen SpiritsThe latter, born in France and awarded among the most sustainable projects in the world, reinterprets Calvados in a contemporary key, pushing it beyond tradition and proposing it as the perfect base for light and thirst-quenching drinks, such asAvallen & Tonic or a fake Highball with Ginger Ale and apple peel.
The other great innovation for high flow counters is the format 5-liter Bag-in-Box, designed to speed up service and eliminate empty bottles at the end of the shift: the distillate is drawn off directly or decanted into the speed bottle reusable for the evening line. This is the path chosen by the English Two Drifters, impact distillery carbon negative founded by a chemist and a marketing expert who produce rum from renewable energy — the version is unbeatable Overproof Spiced Pineapple to revisit the great tropical classics —, and from Sapling Spirits.
A pioneering British brand dedicated to regenerative agriculture, Sapling produces gin and vodka using locally sourced, four-distilled 100% wheat, distributing its range in refillable bags and boxes to eliminate waste and reduce transportation costs.
Demonstrating that a great drink can be born from a clean supply chain is no longer an exception, but the direction set for the future of the industry: a choice that benefits not only the environment, but also the quality of service and the very identity of the establishment.
