Wine:Some Opportunities to Emit Less

Your Wine Is Not as Green as You Might Think

Every year, around 36 billion bottles of wine are opened across the globe. A sizeable land footprint is required to produce a lot of grapes to make a lot of wine. Vineyards collectively total more than seven million hectares, an area larger than the Republic of Ireland. And every year, customers around the world open their wallets to support an industry valued at 316 billion euros.

But, like any product, wine has impacts, both good and bad. And given today’s increasingly sobering climate reality, we should certainly seek to understand and reduce the sector’s carbon footprint. This is a number worth exploring and one that will depend on a bunch of factors. What type of wine are we talking about? Where was it made? How was it packaged? How far did it travel? The list goes on. As such, the footprint of wine will vary significantly from bottle to bottle. Nevertheless, to help us highlight the big opportunities, let’s assume an average carbon intensity of 1.3kg CO₂/ bottle. This number is drawn from industry research and includes emissions from making and bottling wine (0.8kg CO₂/ bottle), freighting and distribution (0.2kg CO₂ / bottle), and a long list of smaller contributions from the likes of retail, refrigeration at home, and the disposal/ recycling of glass. And, given what we know about global sales, it is a number that suggests an annual sector footprint of around 47 million tons of CO₂.

There Are Three Big Ways to Start Decarbonising Wine

In a previous article, I highlighted that efforts to reduce carbon need to be made across the entire supply chain. But (as is likely the case with many agricultural products), the big opportunities to decarbonize wine will be in packaging and transport. For this reason, many wine retailers who are honest about their Scope 3 (supply chain) emissions are exploring how to reduce glass weight, replace glass with low-carbon alternatives, and ship more wine in bulk.

Average Bottle Weight Can (And Must) Be Less

The Sustainable Wine Roundtable puts the current average weight of glass bottles (used for 750ml still wine)at a somewhat surprisingly high 550g. Very positively, their research suggests that this can be lowered to 420g per bottle – an almighty 24 percent reduction. The Roundtable will launch its Bottle Weight Accord in late 2023. This will challenge sector stakeholders to commit to this significant weight reduction by 2026. Ambitious but necessary. Because less glass means less CO₂ per bottle.

We Have a Growing List of (Continuously Improving) Alternatives to Glass

Whilst efforts to reduce bottle weights are very much underway, retailers are also presenting their customers with a greater range of packaging options than ever before. Already common in some countries for years, alternatives (such as Bag-in-Box) are becoming increasingly popular in regions where glass has historically ruled. For example, one online wine retailer(Laithwaites) has recently seen a 37 percent increase in sales of Bag-In-Box wines across its business. This format has been around for decades but is becoming increasingly popular in the minds of value-seeking customers, who no longer associate box wine with inferior quality.

Retailers have also been introducing some of their top sellers in cartons. TetraPaknow claims full recyclability – an area in which the sustainability credentials of the multi-layered carton have historically been challenged. They are also now using more ‘plant-based plastic from sugarcane, fully traceable and sustainably produced’. Another option is Frugalpac’s ‘Paper Bottle’, which was launched in 2020. This bottle is made from ’94 percent recycled paperboard over a food-grade pouch. The outer cardboard is recyclable, assuming separation from the pouch and correct binning by the consumer. Such innovations are exciting and surely a move in the right direction.

Whilst each of these options may still be challenged due to the varying degree of (local)recyclability, the carbon benefits are significant. Compared to glass, emissions from such alternatives can be cut by as much as 80 percent. Any packaging format which can positively contribute to fighting our most existential of crises at such a scale is very worthy of consideration, particularly if efforts to improve overall sustainability (including recyclability) result in positive progress over time.

We Have a Real and Exciting Opportunity to Reduce Emissions from Transport

The amount of CO₂ from freighting and distribution depends largely on the weight of the stuff being moved, the distance, and the mode of transport. The potential for a retailer to influence emissions by adjusting these three dials is perhaps less obvious than, say, engaging vineyards and wineries on energy efficiency or investing in renewable energy. But reducing the weight of containers (such as through using lighter bottles) is a good start. Even better is the idea of freighting no glass at all. This is made possible by bulk shipping of wine in ISO or flexi-tanks, allowing bottling close to markets. The shift to bulk freight is an exciting trend because less transportation of glass means less carbon per bottle.

The Customer Should Always Be Right

Lastly, the role of the wine drinker in driving emissions reductions in the wine sector cannot be overlooked. Making significant impacts (such as halving the sector’s carbon footprint by 2030) will be difficult without conscientious buying from customers who believe that bulk is best. Customers who understand that complex wine can be found within simple, lightweight bottles. Customers who are proud of packaging that hasn't needlessly traveled the globe. Customers who, through driving demand for low-carbon alternatives to glass, can help lower investment risk for new filling lines and other essential infrastructure. And as customers open their wallets (to buy those 36 billion bottles every year!), so too can they cast their vote for a decarbonized wine sector.