Bacardi has cut its worldwide greenhouse gas emissions by half, more than a year earlier than its target date.

The drop is equivalent to taking 15,000 cars off the roads each year, reducing oil use by 165,000 barrels a year, or installing 18 wind turbines.

Mike Dolan, CEO of the Bermuda-based family-owned firm, said: “This is great news and we should all be very proud as we recognise that climate change poses one of the greatest challenges to the continued prosperity of society.

“We set an ambitious corporate responsibility goal, and we reached it nearly 15 months early.

“We not only achieved it, we surpassed it with outside-the-box thinking, hard work and the passion of Bacardi employees.”

The company has implemented hundreds of energy reduction methods at its distilleries, bottling plants, offices and visitor centres around the globe.

And a new energy efficient blending and shipping centre in Scotland was built for the Dewar’s and William Lawson’s whisky brands.

The company has installed wind turbines for renewable energy at operations sites, built biomass boilers at two whisky distilleries in Scotland and a tequila distillery in Mexico.

Biomass boilers use renewable organic fuel like wood pellets and chips instead of oil.

The rum distillery in Puerto Rico uses wind power to reduce reliance of fossil fuels, while the plant’s boiler uses a mix of fuel and methane generated during the treatment of its waste water.

The Bombay Sapphire gin distiller in England, housed in a former mill, is green-certified and uses biomass and hydroelectricity generated from the River Test, which runs through the plant.

Bacardi also works to obtain raw materials and packaging from sustainable sources, renewable or recycled materials, while maintaining or improving the financial status of growers and suppliers and to reduce water use.

The drive to reduce emissions was part of a ten-year plan called “Good Spirited: Building a Sustainable Future”.

Jean-Marc Lambert, senior vice-president for global operations at Bacardi, said the company hoped to become a zero net emissions manufacturer.

“We’re not stopping here — we’re working towards a net-zero impact throughout the entire value chain in the production of our world-class brands,” he said.

“Our goal is to return to the environment at least as much as we take away.”