BrewDog announced that 50% of trees planted for its Lost Forest project have not survived.

Controversial beer brand BrewDog’s much-vaunted efforts to plant new trees in the Scottish Highlands have hit a snag after it emerged 250,000 of the saplings planted in a partly publicly funded project have already died.

The ‘Lost Forest’ on Kinrara estate in the Cairngorms has been a key part of the Scottish brewery’s marketing campaign as it seeks to reinvent itself as a ‘carbon negative’ beer producer, a claim that has landed it in hot water with ad watchdogs.

But campaigners have obtained documents showing more swathes of the trees it has planted on the estate have already died – and that £690,000 of taxpayer cash has been put towards the company’s environmental efforts to date.

BrewDog, which stands to receive £1.2million of grants in total for its forestry project, says that the trees were killed by an unseasonably hot summer as company boss James Watt moaned: ‘Sustainability is hard.’

However, the failure to protect the trees has prompted environmentalists to call for the cash to be returned.

Campaigner Nick Kempe discovered that £690,000 had been paid to BrewDog or one of its subsidiaries to date by Forestry Scotland, a Scottish Government agency responsible for woodland management.

Via Freedom of Information requests, the agency confirmed to him that, while inspectors had not carried out a full assessment of the site, they believed more than half of the trees were dead, including almost all oak trees planted.

BrewDog had pledged to plant around 460,000 trees within five years – with a total of 20 years to meet its obligations.

But the forestry body noted: ‘There was high mortality of (pine) trees across the site, with an initial estimate of 50 to 56 per cent.’

It added of native broadleaved (oak) trees: ‘They noted very high mortality of around 95 per cent.’

Inspectors say that evidence of deer within the fencing was noted – with the animals believed to enjoy tucking into tasty saplings more than older trees – and that ‘climatic factors’ may also be to blame.

But campaigner Mr Kempe has accused BrewDog of ‘greenwashing’ – using eco schemes to outwardly improve its environmental credentials – and says its efforts have been ‘disastrous’ for the estate, with land churned up to plant the trees. 

He also claims the company may have actually generated more carbon emissions with its efforts that will take years to offset.

Writing on his Parks Watch Scotland blog, he said: ‘Scottish Forestry and BrewDog decided to plant a new forest, financed with large sums of public money, with disastrous consequences for nature and carbon emissions.

‘It is to the credit of the Scottish Forestry staff involved in the inspection that they made some attempt to describe all the dead trees and natural regeneration at Kinrara.

‘However, they are powerless to change this ecologically destructive system of publicly financed greenwashing.’

After Mr Kempe published his findings, BrewDog boss James Watt took to LinkedIn to admit that some 250,000 trees had died because of what he said were extreme climatic conditions.

He wrote: ‘Last year we planted 500,000 trees in partnership with our friends at Scottish Woodlands. But then came the fifth hottest Scottish summer on record. 

‘An incredibly hot and dry summer was followed by a harsh winter as savage gales and sweeping frosts hammered the Scottish Highlands.

‘It’s disappointing. Our partners have estimated that around 50% of the 500,000 saplings planted did not survive their first 12 months.’

Mr Watt, who is dating Made In Chelsea star Georgia Toffolo, added 50,000 trees have been replanted in the last two weeks.

He continued: ‘One thing that is for sure is that sustainability is hard. Whatever you do, you could do more. 

‘Whatever you do, there are critics who love nothing more than to tear it down. Whatever you do, it can feel totally insignificant. And things don’t always go to plan.

‘Sustainability, like life, is hard, but it sure as hell beats the alternative.’

A BrewDog spokesperson referred MailOnline to Mr Watt’s social media post and said it would not comment further.

Scottish Forestry says it believes the most likely cause of the tree deaths last year was ‘very dry conditions last spring when the trees were put in the ground’.

A spokesperson said of the grant: ‘Every woodland creation scheme that we award grant funding to is fully and rigorously assessed against the UK Forestry Standard and environmental regulations. 

‘The public funds allocated to the woodland creation project are fully protected. 

‘We will expect the applicant (Lost Forest) to make good through replacement planting at their own cost to ensure that the agreed amount of woodland creation, and at the correct tree density, takes place. 

‘If we found that this was not the case then we can reclaim the grant. Scottish Forestry will continue to monitor the site to ensure that the forestry grant conditions are met.’

The Lost Forest estate is owned and operated by Lost Forest Ltd, which has one-time BrewDog finance director Neil Simpson as a director and is registered at the brewery’s Ellon, Aberdeenshire headquarters.

Companies House records show there is an unspecified loan secured against the entire estate, while land registers show the land was purchased for £8.8million.

BrewDog landed itself in hot water as it launched the Lost Forest project – initially tying it into sales of its Lost Lager beer, promising that it would plant a tree in the forest for every pack of the beer sold.

‘For every pack we plant a tree in the BrewDog Lost Forest,’ the firm said – before later claiming this was an error, and that sales of the beer would support an Eden Project scheme in Madagascar.

And Lost Lager was among the beers that were shipped with ‘gold cans’ in one giveaway – before winners pointed out that they were largely made of brass and plated with gold.

It led to the company paying out nearly £500,000 to those who thought they had literally struck gold when they found the prize tins.

BrewDog has also had its knuckles rapped by advertising bods over a recent advert proclaiming its ‘carbon negative’ credentials – the idea it is actually offsetting more carbon dioxide than it is producing.

The Advertising Standards Authority said in December a claim that BrewDog was a carbon negative businesses did not include enough information to back up its claims of its offsetting.

Elsewhere, the company and Mr Watt have been criticised for their business practices, including some that critics say go against the so-called ‘punk’ ethos that underpins BrewDog’s principles.

Earlier this year, the brewery failed to have a single objection upheld against a BBC documentary that aired in 2022, containing allegations about BrewDog’s business practices and of improper behaviour by Mr Watt, which he strenuously denied.

Ofcom said that Mr Watt and BrewDog had been given adequate time to respond to the allegations and that their responses had been appropriately included in The Truth About BrewDog, made by BBC Scotland.

The programme included reports that Mr Watt had purchased £500,000 of shares in Heineken and invested £2million in a Cayman Islands hedge fund.

It has been suggested that this – along with allegations of stealing a beer name from a smaller Scottish brewery – clash with the ‘punk’, anti-establishment image curated by Mr Watt and the firm over the course of several years.

Mr Watt said following the airing of the show that he regretted ‘anyone feeling in any way uncomfortable around me, as the programme set out’. 

Earlier this year, BrewDog was also criticised for dropping its commitment to the ‘real living wage’, which is higher than that set out by the government, for new hires.

The company reported its third annual loss in a row last summer, with an operating loss of £24million in the year ending December 31 2022.