Vineyards
Challenges: Overuse of chemicals, threats to biodiversity and the need for fair worker treatment.
What we can do: Establish a supplier forum whereby information, tools and guidance is shared to promote and support more regenerative, resilient and responsible viticulture practices.
Winery
Challenge: Finding ways to recycle water and waste and minimise non-renewable energy usage.
What we can do: Provide financial and best-practice support to suppliers to tackle these issues and obtain credible, recognised sustainability certifications, then mentor others to do the same.
Packaging
Challenge: Glass bottles account for around 40% of the carbon emissions of wine.
What we can do: Reduce bottle and packaging weight; investigate and trial more environmentally friendly packaging formats.
Shipping
Challenge: Moving large quantities of wine long distance carries a high carbon and pollution footprint.
What we can do: Shift to cleaner shipping methods wherever possible (such as rail) and expand bulk-shipping opportunities.
Storage
Challenge: We keep all wines in tip-top condition in our warehouses, which requires high energy consumption – and a happy team of workers.
What we can do: Move to green energy tariffs, expand on-site renewable energy production and invest further in colleague health and wellbeing.
Distribution
Challenge: The need to reduce fossil fuels in delivery vehicles.
What we can do: Convert our Society van fleet to zero-emissions and push our third-party carriers to do the same.
Recycling
Challenge: Fulfilling our responsibility to contribute towards a zero-waste world.
What we can do: Commit to moving to a more circular business, where as much as possible is reused, recycled or composted – and anything left over goes to energy from waste.
For more information, view our sustainability section