Glass bottles are the single biggest contributor to The Society’s carbon footprint, accounting for 31% of our total emissions. Not only that, but a further 21% results from shipping bottles both to the UK and onward to members’ doors. To achieve our carbon reduction targets, we need to significantly reduce these figures through a combination of lower-carbon packaging formats and ‘rightweighting’ glass bottles where there is no suitable alternative.
We commissioned sustainability consultancy 3Keel to develop a high-level review of alternative packaging formats with the intention of trialling the most suitable formats to gain member feedback and assure ourselves that quality is unaffected. This is one of many important steps to reducing our packaging emissions. The report assesses the environmental impact of current and up-and-coming wine packaging formats, and also weighs up their performance and how easy they are to recycle..
Update on our alternative packaging trial
In 2023, we produced an Alternative Packaging Report with sustainability consultancy 3Keel (see below). We then launched a trial of alternative formats throughout 2023.
In this review of our trial, our sustainability team reports on what we learned from the trial, and what the next steps will be in our plans for lower-carbon packaging formats.
Read our report into alternative wine packaging
Read our independent report that assesses key wine-packaging formats.
Go glass-free
As part of our commitment to sustainability, our latest packaging trial include Bag in Box and recycled (rPET) plastic bottles.