De Bortoli makes strides on impressive sustainability journey

By James Bayley

Published: 23 February, 2023

The family-run Australian winery De Bortoli has been recognised as the first Platinum Partner by the Sustainability Advantage Programme.

The programme is a business support service from the New South Wales (NSW) government’s Office of Energy and Climate Change. More than 800 organisations have participated in the Sustainability Advantage Programme, with nearly half of all members based in NSW.

De Bortoli Wines has been a member of the programme since 2009, contributing to a number of initiatives created to help increase efficiency in resource usage. For example, the partnership was instrumental in gaining a grant from the federal government in 2013 to perform a major upgrade to De Bortoli’s Bilbul Winery.

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Commenting on the estate’s Platinum status MD, Darren De Bortoli, said: “This recognition further solidifies our culture at De Bortoli of continuous improvement which drives us to explore new and innovative approaches to sustainable wine production. Our commitment to sustainability and making sustainable wines will continue in 2023 and beyond.”

De Bortoli wines are distributed in the UK by North South wines, a forward-thinking business and Harpers Sustainability Champion.

Since signing on in 2022, North South Wines has sought to reduce its impact on energy and water consumption; waste generation; business travel; and parts of the supply chain.

Speaking to Harpers in December 2022 Kim Wilson, MD at North South Wines said: “We have put together an environmental management system, giving us the framework to help meet our environmental goals, which include setting greenhouse gas reduction targets.”

North South Wines has recently completed its inaugural environmental impact report, soon to be published on the company’s website. This will set out publicly what the organisation has done so far and its targets for the future.

“B Corp has been and remains the key goal for us as a business to advance our environmental and social sustainability – we pressed the button on our B Corp submission in July 2022 after 18 months’ hard work,” added Wilson.

“The B Corp accreditation provides the best framework to do this, encompassing all aspects of sustainability. The key targets we are measuring ourselves against include attaining a worker satisfaction score of at least 4.5/5, for all of our energy to come from 100% renewable sources by the end of 2025, and for 80% of our portfolio’s glass bottles and cartons to have more than 50% recycled content by the end of that same year.”

For more information or to sign up for the Harpers Sustainability Charter click here.

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