Lowering our carbon emissions and committing to sustainability
Published: Sunday, July 7, 2024
Ducks Crossing wines are packaged and bottled locally making them more sustainable than pre-packaged imported wines.
Local packaging/bottling is a fast growing world-wide best practice and global trend.
The world’s top wine-producing countries—France, Italy, the U.S., Australia, Chile, Argentina, and South Africa—have pledged to be net zero by 2050 and wine consumers globally are demanding accountability on carbon usage, including in the supply chain. To meet these objectives:
• Germany bottles locally 66% of the wines it imports
• Great Britain follows closely with 44%.
• Canada is still under a third (28%), Quebec is leading with 38%
Shipping wine in bulk reduces the cargo weight by almost half; this produces 43% fewer emissions than shipping wine in bottles and reduces our carbon footprint and environmental impact by 10 to 20%.
Local bottling rather than importing pre-packaged wines also benefits our local economy by providing employment for local winemakers, cellar workers, marketing, sales, and management personnel.
Not only is Bag-in-Box packaging a more eco-friendly option due to its lighter weight, this benefit is also an advantage health and safety wise for the workers who handle wines in the cellar and in fulfillment environments.
Bag-in-Box is also notably less expensive than other packaging options, the wine stays fresh longer after opening, it offers a high level of convenience, and is more readily recycled than glass bottles. The production of Bag-in-Box packaging also uses around 80% less water than the equivalent volume of wine packaged in glass bottles, protecting an increasingly valuable natural resource.
The time has come for our local wine industry to reckon with its climate impact. Devonian Coast Wineries has committed to this global best practice by investing in a new state-of-the-art Bag-in-Box packaging system at its North Shore location in concert with its canning and bottling cellar systems. Ducks Crossing wines are the first representation of this major investment in further lowering our carbon footprint.
Find out more about local bottling in other parts of the wine community in Canada and around the globe:
https://www.saq.com/en/content/inspiration/profiles/local-bottling-a-growing-trend
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jillbarth/2022/02/21/with-a-reduced-carbon-footprint-bag-in-box-wine-increases-market-share/