It may come as a surprise that the single greatest source of carbon emissions in our business is glass. Glass bottles are the best container for aging wines long term, but they come at a significant environmental cost, and can represent over half of a wineries carbon footprint. Indeed a recent review found that bottling and packaging contributes 40 to 90 percent of the carbon footprint of wine. One solution, which we are proud to have implemented across our full range of wines, is moving to more sustainable, light-weight glass packaging.
A typical wine bottle weighs around 550g, and I have found bottles that top the 1kg mark when empty. These larger bottles were once considered a mark of prestige, a guarantee of wine quality. After all who would bother to put plonk in an expensive, heavy bottle. But markets change, and thanks to wine writers like Jancis Robinson (who has campaigned for lighter bottles since 2006), liquor monopolies (including Alko, SAQ, and Systembolaget), and the growing consortium of retailers and producers who have joined the SWR Bottle Weight Accord, the days of egregiously big bottles are numbered.
A Lighter Touch
Here at Iona, all our wines are now bottled in glass weighing less than 420g, the commonly used threshold for light-weight-ness. Our Sophie and Mr. P bottles are 410g, which is the lightest screwcap bottle manufactured in South Africa. Our latest order of Iona cork bottles come in at 395g on the label, although they never quite measure under 400g on my winery scale …
I see this as a starting point. Millions of wine bottles are being made under 350g internationally, but these are not yet available to us. Local manufacturers cannot get their hands on enough recycled glass, which is needed to make stronger lightweight bottles. They currently have to make bottles, smash them, and then use that in lieu of collecting used bottles. We are committed to working with our glass suppliers to reduce bottle weights and further increase their recycled content. Watch this space.
So does it make a real difference?
An individual consumer would need to drink over 5,000 bottles of wine from light-weight bottles to save as much CO2 as a return trip from Amsterdam to Cape Town. But for us as a business, if we save 200g of CO2 equivalent per bottle, that’s over 80t per year with no real downsides or trade-offs. The Piedmontese for example have reduced their carbon emissions by 31 percent as they switched from 575g to 450g and now to 410g standard bottles. It has been a no-brainer, and those savings will add up for years to come.
I would love to hear from you our customers as to what other changes you would support. Glass is unbeatable for age-ability, but would more carbon friendly packaging types be acceptable on our Sophie range?
Perhaps the wine industry could learn from the brewing industry and their returnable bottles. Would screwcaps (with a lower carbon footprint than corks) make a difference to you? In the meantime we continue to track our emissions across the business, and have already implemented carbon-cutting measures in the vineyard, winery, tasting room, and distribution channels which I will share in future newsletters.
Cheers,
Viticulturist & Assistant Winemaker
