DISTELL MAKES BIG GLASS SAVINGS BY LIGHT-WEIGHTING WINE BOTTLES

Distell has enhanced its eco-credentials, saving in the space of just 10 months, 333,5 tons of glass by light-weighting 2,9 million of its wine bottles.
According to the company’s environmental manager, Jacques Rossouw, this saving represents 733,7 tons of CO2 equivalent emissions. He said it continued the work of the company to lower its carbon footprint, accelerated in 2008, when it established a programme to continuously purify and re-use CO2 released during fermentation of its apple ciders.

“Since switching from 750ml wine bottles with an average weight of 570 grams to bottles weighing 455 grams across the range of wines we produce, we have already effected significant reductions in CO2 equivalent emissions,” said Rossouw. “This is just the start. Within the next few months, we’ll be introducing a new 350 gram bottle to further boost the savings.”

He said the company worked closely with the UK-based Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) initiative to promote glass savings and also collaborated with local bottle suppliers to develop suitable, totally safe lighter packaging. He added that Distell had played a key role in the design of the new 350 gram bottle, as part of its concern for sustainable wine production.
“The design was evolved by our packaging development manager, Eugene Mostert in co-operation with Consol, but is in fact available to the entire local industry.

“Distell’s focus on environmentally responsible wine production dates back well over a decade, when Nederburg was involved in the pilot study that led to the establishment of the Integrated Production of Wine (IPW) in 1998. Now, not only are all grape and wine supplies for company products IPW-accredited but all the company’s certified wines are to carry the recently released sustainability seal issued by the Wine & Spirit Board as of the 2010 vintage.”

He confirmed that some of the new wines already shipped for export were carrying the new seal, available only to those wines that complied with the IPW sustainable production principles across the full production chain from farm to cellar and eventual bottling. These wines included the company’s own brands, as well as those wines made on behalf of the major international retail chains and sold under their own labels.

“The sustainability seal guarantees production integrity from the way the vines are established and tended to, as well as the manner in which wines are produced and then bottled. Apart from the attention we have been giving to packaging, we have also introduced strategies to reduce water and energy usage.”

According to Carina Gous, who heads Distell’s wine marketing division, the new 350 gram light-weight bottle will be used for selected company brands as well as for some international buyers-own brands produced by Distell.
“However, the 455 gram bottle remains an extremely popular option for drive brands such as Nederburg and Two Oceans, both of which continue to defy the global economic downturn to reflect ongoing growth,” she added.
“Internationally, we are finding that trade and consumers are encouraged by tangible, demonstrable efforts to promote sustainable production. That these two brands are showing such sound increases in sales volumes in countries such as Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada and the US, can be attributed in part to the favourable response to our communication about our eco-friendly initiatives.”

She said the new sustainability seal, backed by a sophisticated tracking system in which bottle contents could be traced back to source at every stage of the supply chain to confirm the integrity of their production, was already being applied to brands such as Fleur du Cap, Durbanville Hills, Zonnebloem and Drostdy-Hof.

Rossouw confirmed that last year alone, the company had saved 14 000 tons of CO2 equivalent emissions by light-weighting its Savanna cider bottles.

DATE MAY 2010