Calories in Organic Wine: Wineries Going for True Green
Posted by Stacy Nelson | Under organic wine Sunday Sep 28, 2008Green is the newest fad in all businesses. Entrepreneurs are capitalizing on the trend by making a fortune in canvas shopping bags and touting that their product is eco-friendly.
The wine industry is following suit.
“These industry leaders are very concerned that their firms authentically ‘walk-the-walk’ when it comes to environmental issues and that they not be accused of just ‘greenwashing’ their businesses,” Smiley said.
In a survey of 28 wine professionals, all of them said they were using some sort of environmentally friendly business activity, from package redesign, use of biodiesel fuel, wastewater reclamation and developing “green” building plans. What was different from the typical green propaganda, these business people want to understand the difference between saying they are green and actually becoming a more well rounded business.
They expressed a concern, however, over the lack of clarity in the industry and among consumers over what many environmental terms like “sustainable,” “green,” and “low carbon footprint” actually mean and how industry can genuinely adopt environmentally sensitive practices.
Interestingly enough, many of the 73 wineries polled were adopting organic wine-making processes in addition to changing their business practices.
Eighty percent of the vineyard representatives participating in the survey said they have used sustainable farming practices on at least part of their acreage during 2008. And 46 percent of the respondents said they have been, or plan to be, marketing their grapes as “sustainable” or “organic” during the current or upcoming year.
Survey participants from vineyard operations also reported that they are reducing their use of vineyard chemicals and mechanized equipment to deal with the rising cost of inputs.
What I gathered most from the article wasn’t the typical hippie response to saving the environment. Many of the changes the wineries are implementing have more of a fiscal impact, making them good business decisions first, environmental ones second. That is an answer I can respect because it means that the trend will have a longer lasting impact than if they were simply going along for the ride.
Read the full story here at US Davis News: article
