SCOTTISH brewer BrewDog has declared itself ‘carbon negative’ after purchasing land for a forest intended to offset its emissions.

The company plans to restore a native forest on 1,500 acres of land in the Scottish Highlands, currently used for grazing livestock, and plant one million trees over the next two years.

It also plans to restore peatlands on another 550 acres.

Until the forest is planted, it will fund carbon-removal projects from other partners, such as the Woodland Trust, to offset its footprint, BrewDog said.

The company has declared itself ‘carbon negative’ – saying it now removes twice as much carbon from the atmosphere as it emits, including all pollution in its supply chain.

“We thought we were doing our bit when it came to sustainability,” said CEO James Watt. “The more we dug into this, the more we found out that we weren’t doing nearly enough. We are facing an imminent climate crisis, and we think carbon neutral is no longer enough. So, we want to make sure that we as a company, as a team, and a community, have a positive impact on the planet.”

Mr Watt said it is important to start talking about being carbon negative. He added: “If you look at all the science, we don’t just have to reduce our emissions, we actively have to start taking carbon out of the air to get the planet back to equilibrium, which is why we felt carbon neutral wasn’t enough. And we wanted to make a statement by taking twice the carbon out of the air that we emit.”

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