Industry urged to unite to survive climate change

Published: 19 May, 2010

Wrap urges wine industry to reduce its environmental impact to "save itself"

Speaking the the London Wine Fair, the green organisation warned the industry it would not survive if it did not reduce its environmental impact.
Nicola Jenkins, Wrap project manager, warned delegates that climate change was already having a significant impact on wineries.

"It is up to you as an industry to save yourselves," she warned. "The industry has shown it can be innovative and now it needs to embrace initiatives such as using environmentally friendly packaging and taking steps to reduce its carbon footprint, "Failure to do so may mean you will not secure your future," she said.

Sainsbury's Paula Chin, Sainsbury's grocery packaging technologist, urged the industry to embrace a similar concept to the 2008 Milk Road Map.

The Milk Road Map launched by the Dairy Supply Chain Forum and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has set targets to reduce the industry's environmental impact.

"Retailers have put pressure on the supply chain to meet our own targets, especially with lightweight bottles but it up to the industry to deliver something together," Chin said.

Wrap praised the industry for its success in meeting targets to produce lighter weight bottles and announced it was "taking a step back" from overseeing the Glassrite initiative.

Tammy Marrett, Glassrite project manager said Wrap had appointed Mark Richmond as Glassrite wine advisor and guidance on the project has been launched on its website.

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