Red, white and (especially) green 22 May 2008

A  new ‘transport carbon calculator’ for the wine industry

A number of leading international winewriters pour scorn and dislike on ultra-heavy prestige wine bottles…. more wineries around the world declare their intentions to cut back on their profligacy with energy (Backsberg last year became the first local winery to declare its carbon-neutral status)… a British supermarket starts moving some wine by barge rather than road… there are suggestions that more wine should travel the world in bulk, and be packaged in lightwight, recyclable materials.  More and more signs show the international wine industry is starting to react to the sense of urgency about global warming and related issues being felt by particularly European consumers.

At the London International Wine Fair being held this week, major ‘logistics provider’ JF Hillebrand and important players in the British drinks business (seeing the way the green wind is blowing and no doubt wishing it to fill their sails), arranged a seminar on ‘Confronting Climate Change’. Panellists, including some from British supermarkets, discussed ‘how their companies and others should continue to progress with keeping ecological issues at the forefront of the industry’s agenda’, as a press release on behalf of JF Hillebrand put it.

That company’s Managing Director, David Mawer, stated the issue clearly: ‘Collectively, we are here because we know that the drinks industry needs to demand that there be a global environmental standard and profiling behaviour for carbon emissions. As fair warning to us all … disorganised, substandard or unregulated initiatives within the industry could be extremely detrimental to what we wish to accomplish.’

Mawer spoke of the need to minimise confusion and misdirected ecological efforts within the industry, and said there is ‘an urgent need to establish a common methodology for calculating carbon emissions. This is the first major challenge.’

His company and the Wine and Spirit Trade Association later announced that they have joined forces to create a ‘transport carbon calculator’, to provide a guide to carbon dioxide emissions in all aspects of a bulk wine shipment. 

According to JF Hillebrand, the initial version of the calculator (accessible on their website, ‘enables companies to estimate the carbon emissions generated when transporting product from Europe to the UK, “New World” wine origins to Europe, and from Europe to the US, Asia and Far East. The calculator works out CO2 emission results that incorporate all aspects of the shipment; such as the mode of transport, distance and size of the load.’

Apparently ‘an international consoritum drawn from FIVS (the global wine and spirit trade association) is developing a more comprehensive calculator that will cover the entire wine making process’. The present calulator deals only with transport-related issues, ignoring emissions from vinification, viticulture, processing or packaging.

• Link to the JF Hillebrand website