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An update from the Harpers Sustainability Champions

North South Wines

North South Wines has dived deep into embracing sustainable responsibilities, with almost every aspect of its business touched, that also being part of the reason the company signed up as one of our first Sustainability Champions.

“First and foremost, for us, social responsibility relates to our social impact – how we treat our workers, stakeholders and community,” says North South, mapping out how, as a business, it is striving to make improvements for the benefits of its staff. This, in turn, is matched by encouraging input and feedback from all customers and stakeholders to help further raise the bar.

Meanwhile, the company recognises the importance of “improving our commitment to our community”, with company fundraising events, plus allowing staff paid time out to do community and charity work. The company funds Drinkaware, advancing the tackling of harmful drinking, and is making big strides to ensure that its own products are sold and consumed responsibly.

On the sourcing and supply side, North South has embraced the belief that sustainability does not stop at its own door, carefully vetting the suppliers it chooses to work with, looking at their ethical and environmental impact, to ensure that the companies’ sustainable ethoses align.

• READ MORE: Why the trade must step up to sustainability - Jamie Goode

Looking ahead to aims and goals in 2022 and beyond, North South has conducted a “materiality assessment which helped to guide us”, plus staff surveys “on all key sustainability areas”, considering it “important for all staff to be involved and committed too.”

The supplier sustainability screening process, an improved supplier code of conduct, a staff scheme allowing 20 hours a year of paid time off to do community/charity work are all now firmly embedded in North South’s remit, with the company standing as a leading example within the drinks sector of the progress that can and has been made.

“You have to look at your overall impact, and to be a long-term viable, sustainable business; social responsibility needs to be a key priority. It also helps create an environment people want to work in – it helps retain employees and recruit new ones and customers.”

Webinar

North South is to partner with Harpers for one of the first of our forthcoming series of Sustainability Charter webinars on 19 April, where the focus will be on the role of glass in the sector. With glass branded as an increasingly difficult proposition in relation to the carbon emissions created by its production and transportation, this session will take a close and considered look at the gulf between what consumers say they would choose in terms of sustainable packaging and what they actually buy. The focus will then turn to alternatives, looking at what is likely to succeed and if newer formats need to be more widely embraced and championed.

Entoria & Coe

Enotria & Coe (E&C) has outlined a far-reaching and detailed Sustainability Charter for 2022 that encompasses nine pillars of action for demonstrable and quantifiable change. These include Climate change, packaging & waste, traceability & supplier compliance; diversity & inclusion; employee wellbeing; training & development; ethical marketing & sales practices; and supporting charity.

The company says: “These pillars are designed to drive detailed consideration of the impact of E&C’s business on the environment, on our community and our teams.” As such, in 2022, the business plans to make a ” significant number of improvements”, including reissuing a supplier SAQ to understand current performance on ethical and sustainability issues, influencing its suppliers to drive improvements in their ethical and sustainable performance, and publishing a Green List that champions producers who have acted creatively to benefit the environment and their communities. In addition, E&C will be publishing an annual CSR report, updating and promoting policies, rolling out Mental Health First Aider training and awareness sessions, engage in more proactive promotion of training and development opportunities, with refresher sessions for eco-hygienic ways of working and transitioning to renewable energy at its HQ.

Also on the cards is carbon offsetting against all business travel, measuring recycling rates at its HQ, working with suppliers to reduce printed resources and ensuring that any printed materials are on carbon-neutral or recycled paper.

“Existing initiatives to reduce carbon footprint will be accelerated too”, such as bulk-importing wine to bottle in the UK, shipping with feeder services into smaller regional ports, prioritising rail services in the supply chain, maintaining EU Cat 6 and ULEZ compliance across the entire van fleet and utilising route planning and load scheduling for efficient carbon usage in all deliveries.

The company’s 2022 Sustainability Charter sets out detailed targets for this year while also driving ahead to 2023 and beyond, when E&C “aims to have improved reporting on DRS, EPR and Plastic Tax, also to begin planning an extended supply chain audit with the Carbon Trust”.

A big pillar of its sustainability thrust emerges in working towards an ambitious but achievable goal of net zero emissions by 2026, with interim reporting on progress in carbon footprint reduction to be made via regular ESOS and SECR reporting.

“We will also be working towards zero-waste to landfill and eliminating single-use plastics throughout our supply chain, and will similarly measure our progress towards these goals,” adds the importer, with improvements in each of these areas appearing in its annual Green List and CSR report. Finally, E&C is aiming to be an industry pioneer in closed-loop systems and alternative packaging by 2031.

Webinar

As a Harpers Sustainability Champion, E&C will be partnering for one of the first of our sustainability-focused webinars this spring, looking at how best to influence and encourage others in the supply chain to tow the sustainable line. This will be backed by insights from E&C’s anti-greenwashing stance while considering the role the consumer will increasingly play in ‘policing’ the sustainable credentials of all links along the supply chain.

Sustainability Partners

Two very different Partners to our Sustainability Charter give a glimpse of the paths they are upon.

Lancaster

The Lanchester Group has long taken the lead on sustainability, with demonstrable steps towards seriously reducing its carbon footprint and energy-efficient innovations that are at the forefront of what has been achieved in the UK. “We believe every business has a duty of care to minimise its impact on the environment, which is why Lanchester Wines and the wider Lanchester Group of companies, which includes Greencroft Bottling, has worked tirelessly over the last decade to ensure sustainability is at our core,” says the business, and with good reason.

With four wind turbines now underpinning electricity generation, along with solar panels on the HQ roof in County Durham, the company has for some years been primarily powered by self-generated renewable energy, feeding the excess back into the grid – typically enough to power 800 homes – and this after Lanchester has taken its operational share.

This admirable decoupling from reliance on fossil fuels doesn’t finish there, though, with a remarkable use of heat pumps having been scaled up to an industrial level. Described as “going above and beyond both legislation and common practice”, this technology has been harnessed to use water from disused mines to heat the company’s 33,445sq m warehouse in Gateshead, bringing clean energy to bear. There are also plans to extend the reach of this technology as it is refined and even better understood Away from the big picture, Lanchester is hot on energy saving for lighting and appliances, double or triple-insulated warehousing and energy-saving high tech, all helping the company to operate in a clean and green fashion. Last but far from least, is the work that Lanchester has done to raise the positive profile of premium wines shipped in bulk, helping further reduce the carbon footprint of imports by sidestepping ever more transportation of heavy glass bottles.

Bodega Argento

From its UK office, Bodega Argento has a reach right back into the vineyards in Argentina, allowing the impact of its sustainability initiatives to filter from grape to glass. In addition to partnering with Harpers Sustainability Charter, the company has nailed its colours to the mast through several commitments, including being a founding member of the Sustainable Round Table and adhering to the UK Global Compact. It is also a member of the Argentine Institute of Social Responsibility & Sustainability and part of the enterprise against child labour network.

“We actively participate in developing global standards for sustainability for the wine sector, promoting best practice both globally and locally. Our target is to commit a minimum of 100 hours each year to participate in the different activities organised by these different groups,” says Argento.

With a strong organic winemaking philosophy, sustainability here begins in the vineyards, with best practice actively embraced in terms of minimising intervention and promoting biodiversity, also to the benefit of the wider local environment. The aim is to double from 305ha of organically certified vines to over 600ha in the next five years, emphasising releasing premium organic wines to help raise the perception of quality to an increasingly higher level.

“We look for best practice in water conservation, energy efficiency and waste management,” says Argento.

Looking at the bigger environmental picture, Argento is driving towards becoming a zero-waste organisation, with 95% of waste now reused or regenerated and set to rise to 99% within five years. And on the social front, all vineyards and wineries are certified under Fairtrade International Standards, embracing the strict rules to protect workers and their communities from exploitation.

Founding Signatories

With 28 now signed up to the Harpers Charter, here is a taste of the progress that just some of those companies have made to create a more sustainable world.

Harper Wells

This innovative indie signed up to Harpers Sustainability Charter to help drive its sustainability journey forward, having already made some significant inroads and changes to the business. This is a merchant that wants “profitability to be intrinsically linked to sustainability, measured in our management accounts and attributed to the three P’s; People, Planet, Profit”, adding that as a SME, “we are just at the start of this journey, so it’s important to draw a line in the sand and measure the impact of future growth”.

A five-year plan is now in place, helping to identify areas that fall outside of the current sustainability strategy and to bring those in line with the company ethos, with low carbon footprint, waste management and recycling, plus community-focused activities already much embedded in how Harper Wells operates.

On the carbon footprint side, much has already been done to reduce the company’s impact. Energy is green sourced; infrared eco-heaters heat the main store, electric vehicles (EVs) are used for local deliveries and all staff walk, cycle or use an EV to get to work. National deliveries, typically via DHL, are an area where this merchant is looking to offset the related CO2.

Moreover: “We have made significant changes to our online offering, eliminating widely shipping nationally available, everyday wines outside of our region. That is not to say we only deliver locally, but encourage via our marketing material that national customers try something different.”

On the trickier supply chain partner side, Harper Wells “continues to monitor their sustainability credentials and would react if we felt they were out of line with our own ethos”, having also adopted a scoring system when buying, which marks down wines that show few or no sustainable credentials.

Packaging and related waste is another area where good progress has already been made. Harper Wells uses Winebox, eschewing all plastic, polystyrene and bubble wrap (but upcycling any non-biodegradable packaging that arrives), also recycling all cardboard waste via a local firm to ensure it is not sent overseas.

The social side of sustainability is important here, too, with a focus on staff wellbeing and progression complemented by a range of community activities that run from charity work and supporting local events to raising awareness about drinking responsibly.

“For a small business, innovation is the way to offer real solutions to the global environmental challenge,” states Harper Wells.

“Finally, we are keen to work collaboratively to achieve our objectives – this year, we will be working with two crypto-based platforms, one on alternative payment and nationwide deliveries and the other on NFTs to record data from our activities and store within the blockchain.”

D&D London

The D&D restaurant group is a smart operator and has mirrored its commitment to quality by planting its colours firmly in the sustainability firmament. “At D&D London, we are fully committed to minimising our impact on the planet. We are addressing a range of specific issues, including the ethical sourcing of food products, reducing food waste and maximising recycling, while reducing our energy and water consumption,” says the company.

This translates into advancing down many sustainable pathways, backed by an objective to become carbon neutral as a business by the end of 2022. In tandem, the company has targets to reduce electricity and gas usage across the estate by 20% and 10% respectively within the same timeframe.

Sustainable and ethical sourcing is central to the ethos here, supporting local where possible, and ensuring that supply partners and their producers/fishers are aligned with or certified by the Five Freedoms as defined by the Farm Animal Welfare Committee and Marine Stewardship Council respectively. Suppliers must also demonstrate that modern slavery does not exist anywhere along the supply chain.

Closer to home, food is tailored towards a “positive healthy eating experience”, also with a target of a 9% reduction on food waste on an annual basis, Staff welfare is similarly to the fore in terms of support, training and pastoral wellbeing.

Across its HQ and restaurants and bars, D&D is fast-moving along a path towards lower environmental impact, including energy and water efficiencies, plus full recycling where possible and effective waste management.

Ridgeview

In addition to being one of the pioneering quality English sparkling wine producers, Ridgeview has been busy taking a lead on the sustainable front. The company states that its “ambition is to lead the way in sustainable and ethical business practices, meaning that we are committed to making every step along the journey – from vine to glass – efficient, ethical, and ecologically positive”.

This ethos manifests itself in myriad ways, from being on the founding committee of Sustainable Wines GB to the current review that is underway of its B Corp application, by way of what the producer describes as its focus on four pillars of responsible practices, namely: “sustainable production; responsible business; progressive employers, and community development”.

This folds in sustainable viticultural practices, encouraging healthy soils and biodiversity, plus recently completing lightweighting of packaging and other advances in the winery. In addition, there is a strong commitment to recycling and waste reduction, with rainwater harvested for greywater, plus tech used to minimise energy consumption across the estate.

Ridgeview has been proactive on the social side, too, whether complying with the real Living Wage or supporting equality and diversity employment practices, including undertaking a gender pay analysis, while also being a member of Disability Confident.

Community outreach is part of the DNA, too, from supporting social, corporate and education initiatives into the broader community (including sponsor of Sussex Cricket Club and a variety of foundation sporting clubs in Burgess Hill), to forging close ties to Plumpton College’s winemaking side, having given many graduates a leg up along the way.

Hallgarten Druitt

Hallgarten’s management team first seriously committed to reducing the company’s impact on the environment in 2015, embracing an initiative to become ISO14001 certified. A dedicated team was set up within the business to drive this and remains to this day, giving focus and cementing engagement throughout the company.

Each year since, the business has signed up to reduction goals covering recycling, waste, energy, water and paper, among others, with 2022 seeing a further upping severe of the ante as Hallgarten has set a target of becoming Carbon Neutral (for scope 1, 2 and 3) by Q1 2023.

The plans are far-reaching, aiming to “capture raw data from suppliers, staff, print systems, expense and travel management systems and third parties and financial systems every month”, using this feedback and data to populate a cloud-based carbon calculator tool for all scopes.

The team will then track progress against agreed goals monthly and give feedback to senior management and the broader company every quarter. A chosen carbon-neutral audit partner will independently verify the data. While all this is being done, Hallgarten continues to drive along a path of greater sustainability, further reducing its use of energy while upping sourcing from sustainables.

The medium-term goals are impressive, too – corporate carbon neutrality by 2023 and product carbon neutrality by 2028.

Sign up for the Harpers Sustainability Charter here.

• Bodega Argento
• new south wales
• Sustainability Charter
• Entoria & Coe
• Lancaster