Greenfleet partners with landholders who are passionate about ecosystem restoration and giving back to the environment. With their support, we can further our work restoring nature and removing carbon.
Chantal Daniels and Sam Lowe are the landholders of Kinglake Distillery, Australia’s first carbon neutral whisky distillery. By working with them to grow a native forest on their property, Greenfleet is demonstrating how businesses can take steps to deliver environmental action.
This whiskey distillery is on Wurundjeri Country in Kinglake, Victoria, a region known for its high biodiversity values. By revegetating a third of this property with native species, we are restoring vital habitat and removing carbon emissions from the atmosphere. This project joins the 550+ native forests Greenfleet is growing across Australia and New Zealand, providing native habitat for wildlife and growing climate hope.
A Shared Vision for Nature Restoration
As Kinglake Distillery owners, Chantal and Sam knew they wanted a business that would be as sustainable as possible. After living in the chartreuse and eau de vie making regions of France, they returned to Chantal’s home of Kinglake to make whiskey. The region of Kinglake was heavily impacted by the Black Saturday fires and this spurred Chantal and Sam on to purchase the property and put down roots for their family and the forest.
As they developed the business, they embraced the fact that the process of distilling relies heavily on nature, incorporating natural yeast and open barrel fermentation. Sam and Chantal also tapped into the natural untreated spring water from Chyser Creek which rises on the distillery property, which has ideal characteristics to use when making whisky.
Through their learning process, Sam and Chantal discovered that whiskey production is very energy intensive and started exploring what they could do to reduce their environmental footprint and become carbon neutral. After initially investigating solar panels, they realised the costs were prohibitive and began looking for an alternative.
“Carbon offsetting can sometimes be part of an administrative exercise in achieving carbon neutral status. But we wanted to make a tangible impact. Having the Greenfleet project on the property is a highly visible example of taking climate action.” Sam Lowe.
Transforming The Land And Creating Habitat
Greenfleet’s Revegetation team identified the area as having high biodiversity values and planned to restore the Ecological Vegetation Classes of Damp Forest and Shrubby Foothill Forest that once existed on the property and surrounds. Kinglake Distillery is adjacent to the Kinglake National Park, and the growth of this forest will help extend habitat to support the native wildlife and flora in the region.
In 2022 our team began planting around one third of the land, just over six hectares. We are growing a resilient and biodiverse forest by planting 21 native species to make up the canopy, midstory, and ground cover. This includes the tall eucalypts preferred by greater gliders such as messmate stringybark (Eucalyptus obliqua) and mountain grey gum (Eucalyptus cypellocarpa). Greater gliders are listed as an endangered species, mainly due to loss of habitat. By planting and protecting eucalypts, we are giving the forest the chance to develop established trees with hollows where gliders can breed.
Local koala populations were also greatly affected by the 2009 fires. By planting their preferred eucalypts of Victorian blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus) and manna gum (Eucalyptus viminalis) Greenfleet is extending their habitat found at the nearby national park.
Climate Action For Future Generations
This forest is protected for 100 years with an on title legal agreement, allowing it to develop and thrive, with no fear of being cut down. This project is growing in a region with high carbon sequestration properties and will draw down over 15,700 tonnes of carbon over its lifetime.
The naturally elevated rainfall and humidity of the Kinglake region support the native trees as they grow and will benefit the environment as the project develops. Humidity also assists the whiskey process by retaining water as it ages, which creates a more refined, quality product.
By 2025, Sam and Chantal have already started to see the benefits of Greenfleet’s restoration work around them. The plantings are already attracting more local native fauna to the property, and they are thrilled to have the benefits of seeing greenery on their doorstep. They are keen to keep this business within the family and pass the distillery on to their children when the time comes, who will become the next generation to protect this growing forest.
Kinglake Distillery is now certified carbon neutral, and being committed to reduce their emissions, they review this each year. As Australia's only certified carbon neutral whiskey producer, they are leading the way in their industry.
Delivering Benefits For Nature And The Community
The tasting room at Kinglake Distillery is due to open in late 2025 and is perfectly positioned to look out over the Greenfleet forest. From its windows, visitors can see our forest developing and it is hoped they can eventually take walks through the project when it is established.
Kinglake Distillery has been producing whiskey for five years and just as the forest matures, their environmental credentials will also continue to grow. Greenfleet will continue to visit and monitor Kinglake Distillery as it establishes, ensuring it develops into a resilient forest returns biodiversity to the property.
As part of the revegetation at Kinglake, Greenfleet welcomed some of our dedicated corporate supporters to the site in 2022. Across two days, supporters planted 21 different native species to support the creation of this biodiverse forest.
Event such as this give our corporate supporters a firsthand experience in delivering climate action and shows them the direct impact of their partnerships with Greenfleet.
Partnering with Greenfleet
Greenfleet is fully supported by hundreds of organisations and thousands of individual supporters. The work we do delivers authentic and tangible climate action on their behalf, as we restore and protect native forests to return cleared land into biodiverse ecosystems. The forests we restore also improve soil and water quality, and support the return of native birds, insects, mammals and other unique fauna.
Sam and Chantal say there has only been positives from partnering with Greenfleet to revegetate their land. By partnering with passionate landholders like them, we will continue to restore nature, remove carbon, and grow climate hope.
“If there's land I'm not using, I'd much rather it was habitat than just sitting there empty. It's no more complicated than that, really. The process was completely seamless, and it was that simple really, it's a good story.” Sam Lowe.