Although the wine industry is a comparatively small sector with a limited global carbon footprint, we strongly believe that we all have a responsibility to reduce our GHG emissions and be environmental stewards of our land, water, and air. As part of this, GHG emissions measurement is a critical foundation for climate action. With detailed inventories, wineries can identify their highest-emissions activities and implement targeted strategies, then track their progress in achieving emissions reductions over time.
"It is imperative to “measure what you manage” if you want to make demonstrable progress. Having a clear understanding of the scope and scale of the many inputs to our total carbon footprint allows us to develop impactful emissions reduction strategies with quantifiable returns, to find the low hanging fruit and tackle the biggest contributors first, and to evaluate “what if” scenarios. Modern businesses have complex value chains, and IWCA’s aggregate data shows that 85% of a typical winery’s carbon footprint is categorized as Scope 3. This is where much of the hard work ahead lies: we will need to innovate, influence, and disrupt to make a material difference in those numbers, and time is not on our side," says Adrian Chitty, Sustainability at A to Z Wineworks, Ste. Michelle Wine Estates.
Shown below is a proportional breakdown of GHG emissions by category in the wine value chain. Averages are calculated from 23 IWCA member wineries’ baseline GHG inventory data, which have been third-party audited and adhere to ISO-14064 standards.
These emissions are broken down into three ‘scopes.’ Scope 1 which represents 10% of a winery’s activities covers its use of fuel, while Scope 2 – a further 5% - involves the electricity it purchases. This leaves 85% under Scope 3 which covers all of the other most significant climate impacts in the wine life cycle – from grape buying to dry goods and business travel.
Tackling GHG ‘hotspots’
Although Scope 3 emissions are most directly the responsibility of a winery’s vendors and partners—in other words, a winery’s Scope 3 emissions are another company’s Scope 1 and 2 emissions, wineries can encourage and achieve Scope 3 emissions reductions through avenues including partnerships and distribution pathways, manufacturing requirements, and supply chain sourcing choices.
Familia Torres in Spain cut their Scope 3 packaging emissions by 12% in 2021 by reducing the weight of their glass bottles.“Back in 2008, measuring the carbon footprint of our activity revealed that not only reducing our direct emissions from natural gas, diesel, etc was necessary, but also there was huge room for improvement in our indirect emissions: from our purchasing decisions and other sources like recyclability of packaging or even marketing decisions. Since then, we’ve annually tracked our emissions and achieved a 36% per bottle reduction since 2008,” says Josep Maria Ribas Portella, Sustainability Manager, Torres & IWCA Founding Board Member.
Jackson Family Wines (California/Oregon, USA) reduced their Scope 3 emissions by 21.8% since 2015 through lightweighting their glass bottles to 16.5 oz for their largest volume wines, redesigning their cardboard packaging to use less material, improving their waste sorting practices to consistently achieve a company diversion rate over 95%, incentivizing their employees to drive EVs/PHEVs, and working with their supply chain partners to use trains instead of trucks for product.
Meininger’s International is delighted to have become a Media Champion for International Wineries for Climate Action, the industry’s leading environmental body.
Every month we will be publishing news of initiatives from various parts of the world, that we hope will help readers to make their own efforts towards what most agree is an urgent initiative. Crucially, in its holistic assessment of its members’ carbon footprint, IWCA goes beyond what they do themselves and takes an account of the environmental impact of their suppliers and customers.
And HERE you can find the open letter of IWCA's Board of Directors to wine trade CEOs and Press.
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