Bacardi’s Scotch whisky brand John Dewar & Sons has opened a new blending and maturation facility in central Scotland as part of a $500m investment in Scotch whisky production by Bacardi.

Poniel Blend Centre & Maturation Warehouse, which is spread over 100 acres, features 18 warehouses-each with the capacity to accommodate 72,000 storage casks.

The blending and ageing centre, driven by Bacardi’s initiatives towards protecting and sustaining the Scottish environment, features new technology to enhance water addition, mixing, and control spirit strength, as well as energy-efficient conveyers that transport casks from station-to-station on pallets.

John Dewar & Sons operations director Iain Lochhead said: "In our business, there’s real passion about sustainability. It’s something we think about from start to finish in our processes.

"We’re doing good work in Scotland that’s effecting real change. It’s important for our eco-savvy consumers to know that we take great care in selecting and preserving the natural ingredients we use in making our great tasting Scotch whiskies."

A sustainable drainage system adopted by the centre for better water management, directs the rainwater to a retention pond providing onsite wetlands for wildlife centre.

The centre has been fitted with system controls for worker safety which additionally enables the movement of whisky between sites in tankers instead of traditional wooden casks reducing annual carbon dioxide emissions by 1,000 metric tons.

The entire onsite operations will be handled by a total of 24 employees.

Bacardi unveiled a global sustainability campaign called Good Spirited, intended at building a sustainable future in fiscal 2014.

The company claims to have reduced water usage by almost 50% along with energy use and GHG emissions by more than 25% in the past eight years.