Harpers Wine & Spirit is delving into the secrets of sustainability success in one of France’s best-known wine regions with an unmissable webinar on Friday 23 May from 10.30-11.30.
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Ever been greenwashed? It’s not always as obvious as you might think. Some companies’ use of “greenwashing” – hyping their record to make it sound greener than it is – is blatant. In 2022 the Advertising Standards Authority ruled against fruit drinks company Innocent over an ad that strongly linked its products to protecting the environment. The message ran: “Innocent. Little drinks with big dreams for a healthier planet.” Complainants pointed out that the company’s products come in single-use plastic bottles and that it’s owned by Coca-Cola (which generated an estimated 3.22 million tonnes of plastic waste in 2021).
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Surrey-based Denbies Wine Estate has been awarded a King’s Award for Enterprise in the Sustainable Development category. The award reflects the producer’s commitment to the environment which has seen it gain a number of green accreditations in recent years.
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When Véronique Cochran first converted Château Falfas to biodynamic agriculture in 1989, it looked unconventional. Fast-forward to today and many of the methods she uses at her vineyard in Bordeaux’s Côtes de Bourg – not using chemical pesticides, growing cover crops between vines – seem mainstream. Such is the march of organics and biodynamics in Europe in recent decades. But today those shifts are part of a wider sea change towards more sustainable production.
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Wiltshire spirits producer Witchmark has become part of the B Corp community, joining a growing list of British distillers which have earned the certification.
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New Zealand Wine’s (NZW) Sustainability Report 2025 highlights the strides being made across the island nation’s vineyards and wineries. The progress is welcome in a year that marks 30 years of the trade organisation’s Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand (SWNZ) certification programme.
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González Byass, the leading sherry producer, has invested €3.1 million into environmental projects during the company’s 2023-24 fiscal year (September 2023 – August 2024). The producer also revealed that 68% of its vineyards are now certified sustainable, revealed as part of its 2023-2024 Sustainability Report.
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The Australian wine giant is among three new signatories to the scheme, as well as South African winery Botanica Wines and Albert Heijin, the Netherland’s largest supermarket group.
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Berry Bros. & Rudd have announced that across their business they have reduced emissions by 15%, as well as a number of other environmental milestones. The progress was detailed in their 2023/24 Impact Report, outlining the steps the merchant has been taking to bolster sustainability.
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Casella Family Brands (CFB) has gained Sustainable Winegrowing Australia certification for its wineries, vineyards and grape supply. The certification means that over one in 10 grapes produced in the country are now grown according to the body’s sustainability standards.
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Denbies Wine Estate has achieved B Corp certification, being scored highest for its sector in the UK.
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Influencing consumers is something that all spirits brands try to do but it’s harder than you think.
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Harpers has teamed up with sustainability consultant Jeremy Rockett of Rockett Science to run a free online SME Sustainability Clinic on Tuesday 18 April, to offer practical advice and workable tips on this pressing topic.
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I hesitate to reproduce what follows for fear of dishing an event that I love, but it is such a superb example of terrible communication that I can’t resist. This is not from the world of wine, but I have had equally awful comms from wineries in non-English speaking countries.
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Ahead of the virtual Green Wine Future 2022 conference this May, Andrew Catchpole invited organiser Pancho Campo to explain how he became a driving force for climate action and why the globe’s environmental problems are also very much those of the wine trade.
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Sustainability is to form a “real pillar” of this year’s ProWein, with the challenge of matching economic sustainability with environmental goals acknowledged as a key issue for producers and trade alike.
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In the short week since its launch, Harpers Sustainability Charter has attracted several high-profile companies as founding signatories, along with further interest from many quarters of the trade.
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The Prosecco DOC Consortium has announced a series of ongoing and new projects to address key sustainability issues, in addition to a renewed focus on terroir zoning and encouraging biodiversity.
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Welcome to the unveiling of our Sustainability Charter, which forms the central pillar of an exciting new Harpers campaign. With sustainability rising back to the top of the world’s collective agenda, this initiative is designed to further galvanise the drinks trade and assist it in moving towards ever more pressing sustainable goals.
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Many decades ago, I studied economics at university. The difference between theory and practice bothered me. All too often the first didn’t seem to describe the latter, let alone explain it. The problem was usually people – they simply didn’t behave as the theory said they should.
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