Distell to lighten carbon footprint
2008-02-07
DISTELL is actively engaged with suppliers, wine industry bodies and academic institutions to reduce its own carbon footprint and help establish parameters for other producers to follow suit. Distell, the leading producer of wines, spirits and ciders, is currently piloting the capture and re-use of the carbon dioxide is released during the production of Distell’s apple ciders at its manufacturing plant in Paarl, where the country’s top-selling Savanna and Hunter’s Dry are produced. Dr Gert Loubser, Distell’s director of quality management and research, says the CO recovery project not only enhances the company’s self-sufficiency, but also contributes significantly towards reducing the company’s carbon footprint. “We accord the highest priority to sustainable and eco-friendly production and this initiative is just one example of our efforts to contain our impact on the environment. “However, central to any strategy designed to curtail greenhouse gas emissions is the capacity to measure output. “It is for this reason that Distell is very closely involved at industry level with a project to establish a globally accepted basis for calculating greenhouse gas emissions. “Called the International Wine Industry Greenhouse Gas Accounting Protocol and Calculator, the system identifies and provides the basis for quantifying CO emissions that occur throughout the growing, production, packaging and transportation of wine.” At present, there is no universally accepted carbon footprint calculator that allows for meaningful comparisons or benchmarking in the wine industry. This project aims to provide a framework for global application, identifying what needs to be measured and how to do so. It measures, for example, the impact of nitrogenous fertilisers, the carbon absorption by vines, fuel use, refrigeration, fermentation emissions as well as CO2 used in processing. It also takes into account the treatment of waste, packaging, freight and employee travel. Its protocol is being developed and tested by Provisor, an Australian consulting company as part of a joint project between the Australian, South African, New Zealand and Californian wine industries. It will be tabled with the World Resource Institute, the body that sets greenhouse gas calculating protocols for manufacturing industries worldwide. It will also be tabled at the Organisation Internationale de la Vigne et du Vin (OIV) during its March working group meetings and at the International Federation for Wine and Spirits. Three of South Africa’s five-member team working on the project, come from Distell. They are collaborating with research body Winetech and the local industry programme, Integrated Production of Wine (IPW), that has established a set of sustainable wine-growing and winemaking principles to which members can subscribe. Many of the major British, European and US retailers are calling for their suppliers to provide material evidence of how they are reducing their emissions during the production process. Those adopting the most environmentally sustainable measures will be given preference in trading contracts.
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