Atholl Estates Case Study

Atholl Estates have found a trusted partner who matches their value of authenticity. Their carbon measurements are allowing them to:

Investing in a water-source heat pump to save 135 tonnes of carbon a year and lower fuel bills whilst providing year-round heat to a Grade I listed building.
Using more local and homegrown ingredients in their cafe, to lower carbon emissions and add to their unique hospitality offer.
Move to fewer, larger deliveries to their gift shop, reducing transport emissions.
Expand carbon measurements to their property portfolio in 2026.
Hold future ambition to measure the carbon sources and sinks across their farming and forestry land, allowing them a 'whole estate' view of their climate impact and actions.

Reading time: 4 mins

Like many landed estates, Atholl Estates, in the Scottish Highlands, has a history spanning centuries and is now a diverse, modern business, looking towards a sustainable future. Andrew Bruce Wootton is CEO of the estate, which is committed to reducing its environmental impact. With Blair Castle as its iconic centrepiece, the estate also includes farmland, forestry, residential and commercial property, several lodges and a caravan park offering holiday accommodation, as well as welcoming visitors from hill walkers to wedding guests.

A generational ownership change has seen Bertie Troughton become Resident Trustee, bringing his personal focus to the estate’s largest and most obvious environmental impact: its 120,000 acres of land. Committed to protecting both carbon and biodiversity, Bertie has driven work to restore peatlands and soils, plant new broadleaf woodlands and transition the in-hand farms to regenerative agriculture techniques. The estate also harnesses its streams to run 5 hydro-power schemes that generate electricity.

The team were already aware of the obvious challenges a historic estate has in lowering its main emission sources, particularly the oil and gas heating systems in their buildings, which are neither quick nor easy to replace.

With new staff joining the team, especially Caroline Harridence, Finance Director for Atholl Estates, who has a passion for sustainability, there was a growing desire to find out more about the wider impact of the business. They hoped that reporting on their supply chain emissions would highlight areas they could take more immediate decarbonisation action on.

“ We’re more grounded in knowledge than spin, and Small World Consulting are people you can trust – knowledgeable, passionate and ethical.”

Andrew Bruce Wootton, CEO, Atholl Estates.

One of the core values that runs across the Atholl Estates team is authenticity. The hospitality part of the business welcomes thousands of visitors to the estate each year, who will rightly judge any claims made about taking sustainability actions. The team wanted to work with a consultancy which would help them add measurable, credible evidence behind every statement and place truth above spin.

Reports that create action

The Atholl Estates team decided to start with measuring the full Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions from a core part of their business - Blair Castle, its café and gift shop.

Caroline was keen to have carbon reports that would engage their teams and drive real action, not just sit unused. Small World Consulting delivered accessible reports used across the estate, from staff training to new inductions, raising carbon awareness and enabling practical decarbonisation steps.

“We didn’t want the results of the carbon audit to be presented in a single report, which included a lot of jargon and technical terms. The format that Small World Consulting used to deliver their findings has enabled us to present the information to different people with different levels of knowledge. That has been incredibly useful. Building that knowledge within our teams has led them to take a range of actions.”

Caroline Harridence, Atholl Estates.

Atholl Estates is now lowering its emissions by:

Investing over £1 million in a water source heat pump central heating system for Blair Castle, which will replace kerosene as the main heat source and provide the necessary year-round heat for this Grade 1 listed building. With support from the Scottish Government’s Heat Network Fund, this investment is estimated by the Small World team to decrease Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 82%, saving 135 tonnes of carbon a year - the same as 38 return flights from London to Hong Kong.
Looking at lower-carbon options for their building maintenance goods and services - the baseline year measurements coincided with renovation work on Blair Castle.
The catering team are now using local suppliers where possible to reduce the carbon footprint of ingredients used in the restaurant. The team have also started using homegrown fruits from the castle gardens to make homemade jams and chutneys, which are used in menus and are also available for sale in the castle gift shop – a low-carbon and marketing opportunity.

The gift shop team is also examining the carbon impact across their procurement and has already changed to fewer, larger deliveries of stock to reduce the associated transport emissions.

Their carbon footprint report has also highlighted where more data collection is needed, particularly with their visitors and associated travel emissions. Simply asking ‘How did you get here today?’ and ‘How important is sustainability to you?’ will help them understand more about their visitors' impact and start to look at how the estate’s sustainability story can influence every visitor.

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The Atholl Estate has a portfolio of holdiay, residential and commerical properties. Carbon measurements for these will be delivered in 2026.

Expanding reporting across property and land

After establishing the carbon baseline for Blair Castle, Andrew and Caroline are now keen to work with Small World Consulting to measure the emissions from other areas of the Atholl Estates business, spanning both the built environment and land use.

A similar carbon footprint of direct and supply chain emissions will be delivered for their full property portfolio in 2026.

They also have an ambition to measure the emissions from their in-house farmland, which acts as both a carbon source and a carbon sink. Andrew is keen that these land measurements are done in a repeatable way, to be able to show the results of changes in land management and farming practices.

These land emissions reports will help them comply with Scottish Government reporting requirements, and can be used as part of an assessment of potential carbon credits to attract inward investment.

All of these ambitions will be possible with Small World Consulting as a trusted and knowledgeable partner beside them.