The reason I wanted to stop in Port Ellen, Isle of Islay in the Hebrides, had less to do with it being conveniently located a 20-hour sail from Barra and more to do with a sentimental attachment to the whisky my mother used to drink.

We anchored in a bay off Port Ellen and while there invited Neil Gower, the Community Development Officer for the Carbon Neutral Islands (CNI) project for Islay, to come on board. A rather choppy dingy ride later, Neil was telling us about his work.

‘Compared to other CNI projects, Islay has some real challenges’, says Neil. ‘We have the biggest population, about 3200 people, a large distilling industry, which uses a lot of oil, and a large agricultural community’.

Making whisky takes energy, water, the large-scale importation of barley and distribution of wastewater. Some distilleries also mechanically harvest peat to smoke barley, which not only releases greenhouse gases, but is also a diminishing resource, taking about ten years to lay down a centimetre of peat.

Like other Carbon Neutral Islands, Islay aims to be carbon neutral by 2040 – that means looking at energy infrastructure is top of the list.

‘Of the 240-gigawatt hours a year of energy that Islay uses, 80% of that will come from oil. Most of our oil will be used for the distilling process. The majority of the energy use will be for distilling’, says Neil.

More whisky distilleries are currently under production, ultimately increasing the demand for water and energy.

Neil is connecting with the distilleries, of which many have their own decarbonisation plans, and is aware of their concerns to get more renewable energy on the island.

‘Currently around 15% of our energy comes via the electricity grid. If we were to provide our own energy, we would need to massively upgrade the grid or massively increase local renewable generation or preferably both. That’s our highest priority as we can’t decarbonize without more electricity’.

Like other islands and highlands we visited, overall, the standard of housing is not high with a need for energy efficiency and local, renewable sources of energy to heat homes.

Residents of Islay are already noticing the impact of climate change on the island, for example, sandbags outside the Co-op in Port Ellen (located on a road close on the foreshore) are a regular site in winter. With sea level rise and more extreme weather events expected, these issues for residents of Islay and the distillers are only likely to increase.

Neil says climate change will also have a big impact on transportation, with nearly everything (including most of the barley to make whisky) arriving via ferries, which can be disrupted due to weather.

‘The estimate is that what would have been a once-in-every-50-years coastal flooding event could be as often as every year. There are definitely concerns for the low-lying infrastructure’.

Neil says distilleries use the vast majority of water on Islay and that will worsen with increasing drought conditions in summer. One proposed solution is a possible ground-mounted solar array to bring energy to the island and be connected to the community turbine.

‘The next step is to understand the community priorities and then come up with specific actions. At the end of the day, this is this is going to be an evolving project. We’re still trying to trying to understand what the potential solutions are’.

And Novara coaches and mentors will be part of the ongoing support to Neil to work with him as he liaises with the people on Islay to find what those next steps will be.