Sustainability Update: Moving sustainability forward in 2025
The New Zealand wine industry Environment Strategy goals highlight key objectives across six different focus areas: Water, waste, plant protection, soil, people, and climate change.
There are three key financial incentives in taking action to reduce carbon emissions, and these incentives apply to all businesses, no matter the size.
Firstly, the steps we take to reduce our carbon emissions will be important for continued market access into key markets. Increasingly, governments and retailers in our major markets are asking harder questions regarding the steps we are taking as an industry to mitigate climate change. As the trading environment becomes more difficult, sustainability, including our commitment to a Net Zero future, will become a passport to trade.
Secondly, the demographics of consumers in our markets continue to evolve. The latest International Wine and Spirits Research on the category health of New Zealand wine highlighted that in a range of key markets, the New Zealand Wine brand is strongly associated with sustainable production. This association is becoming more important for younger consumers when making purchasing decisions. Climate change is an important sustainability issue for younger drinkers and these trends are likely to strengthen over time. Furthermore, as the cost of fossil fuels continues to rise, operating the same way we do now will get more and more expensive. Actions to maximise our energy efficiency are crucial to reduce costs in this area. It has been great to see the work EECA (the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority) has done with members of the industry to support them taking action in this area. New Zealand Winegrowers (NZW) and EECA have worked together to produce a wine sector decarbonisation pathway that contains information on how to get started.
eeca.govt.nz/co-funding-and-support/products/wine-decarbonisation-pathway.
Accelerating progress to a net zero future
Many members understand the opportunities available to reduce their carbon emissions and are already acting to future proof their businesses. For instance, latest data from Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand (SWNZ) show that:
- 68% of wineries are implementing specific initiatives to minimise their carbon footprint – a 10% increase since 2022.
- 63% of wineries are using lightweight glass bottles as one of their packaging methods – an 8% increase since 2022.
- 15% of wineries have installed solar energy sources – 3% up on 2022.
- 56% of vineyards are implementing specific initiatives to minimise their carbon footprint – a 15% increase
since 2022. - 30% of vineyards are upgrading their equipment to reduce energy consumption – an 11% increase since 2022.
A growing portion of our membership is taking the next step in driving change by becoming formally certified through verified carbon-auditing bodies – 127 vineyards and 30 wineries reported measuring and managing greenhouse gas emissions for their vineyard through a verified certification programme. Of these, 30 vineyards and 12 wineries reported doing this through a certified carbon zero programme. This is a significant increase from 2022, when only 75 vineyards and 15 wineries had these formal certifications. The soon to be released NZW Sustainability Report 2025 will provide further updates on progress towards our sustainability goals.
The Roadmap to Net Zero 2050 estimated our total industry emissions at 305,000 tonnes in 2022. While there remains a long way to travel to get to our goal, statistics show we are accelerating our industry’s pace of change to a net zero future. These statistics highlight that year by year, bit by bit, the positive actions members of our industry take are making a difference, leaving our industry, our world and our wine better for it.
Dr Edwin Massey is NZW General Manager Sustainability
