Sustainability involves every action in the wine growing process and how each action affects economic viability, the environment, and how direct and indirect human resources are affected (Ohmart, 2011). In the wine industry, sustainability is delivering excellent wine to consumers that enables the natural environment, business and communities involved to thrive (New Zealand Winegrowers, 2016).
Recently, sustainability has been identified by wine companies as an asset to wine marketing (Pomarici & Vecchio, 2019). The sustainability of a product is becoming valuable in consumer eyes, especially for younger people (Schaufele & Hamm, 2017), and cannot be ignored long term by wine companies. Sustainability can be interpreted as a continuum; a path of continuous improvement to an undisclosed end point (Ohmart, 2011; Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand [SWNZ], 2020).
What do we mean by ‘real’ sustainable wine growing?
The words ‘real’ and ‘achievable’ are slightly misleading. It may be more helpful to consider what sustainability tries to achieve. The goal of sustainable development is long-term economic and environmental stability; best achieved by acknowledging and integrating economic, environmental, and social concerns into the business decision-making process and the various components of the relevant supply chain.
That all sounds great. What’s wrong with that? Well, first of all we must acknowledge that we live and work in a global society where everything is connected to everything else directly or indirectly. My business may be certified sustainable, and carbon-neutral, and exemplary in terms of social responsibility; but depends on international shipping to get my products to market… is this actually an example of real sustainability?
The UN did a great job outlining global goals on sustainability (United Nations, 2015), however, many of these targets are open-ended and vague. There is nothing wrong with high ideals, but a goal should have a measurable end-point, to work towards, achieve, and then follow with a further goal encouraging further progress. A continuous process without end is not something that can be achieved, even with good intentions.
Is it achievable?
Sustainable winegrowing may be feasible, but not universally. If sustainability is going to be achieved without significant investment of time and capital at transition (Pomarici & Vecchio, 2019) then it should be a key concern at vineyard establishment and throughout its lifetime. There are various contributory factors to achievable sustainability; for instance recently developed hybrid varieties (e.g. Fungus resistant grape varieties) have the potential to make a significant contribution to the sustainability of wine growing due to their inherent disease resistance (Pomarici & Vecchio, 2019), leading to a reduction in spray programs.
Small to medium scale operations have the potential to achieve sustainability more easily than large scale winegrowers, but this depends on numerous factors. Small scale biodynamic viticulture has the lowest environmental impact of all forms of viticulture (Mariani & Vastola, 2015), while operations with local workforces and consumer bases are more sustainable on a social and economic level. These sustainable inputs generally come with higher costs (Szolnoki et al. 2011), leading to a more expensive premium finished bottle of wine, though the higher cost is generally thought by many winegrowers to be of benefit (Pomarici et al, 2015).
Barriers to real sustainability
Location of vineyard/winery, customer market, appellation, vineyard age, and financial ability of the company to make significant changes, among other factors should be considered when debating if sustainable winegrowing is achievable.
Large scale operations tend to face more challenges when attempting to achieve sustainability. Human and mechanical impacts such as spraying, tractor work, input costs and robotic innovations in viticulture have the potential to make holistic sustainability unachievable. These inputs will make economic sustainability achievable, however other components less achievable (Szolnoki et al, 2011). This is not to say small to medium scale producers can achieve sustainability, stepping towards sustainable winegrowing requires economic inputs that may not always be achievable (Mariani & Vastola, 2015).
Sustainable wine growing requires greater investment of time and capital as well as extensive communication, both internally and with the grower. These constitute significant barriers to widespread adoption (Szolnoki et al, 2011).
The definition of sustainability differs between countries and organisations, which makes reaching sustainability easier in some countries. Klohr et al (2013) comments that New Zealand and Australia focus on environmental aspects however fail to involve social or economic, resulting in less credible sustainability certification.
Conclusion
Each aspect of sustainability (environmental, economic, social) may be possible to be achieved, however they may not be able to be achieved simultaneously; real sustainability in one or multiple aspects may need to be sacrificed in order to achieve complete sustainability in another. There seems to be a vagueness surrounding sustainability and how it is achieved; a lot of the time, it is considered immeasurable. Real sustainability is comparable to getting on a train with no set destination and no end in sight, as complete, holistic sustainability is not possible (Ohmart, 2011).
References
Klohr B, Fleuchaus R, Theuvsen L. Sustainability: Implementation programs and communication in the leading wine producing countries. Presented at the 7th International Conference of the Academy of Wine Business Research, Ontario, Canada, June 12–15, 2013
Mariani, A.; Vastola, A. Sustainable winegrowing: Current perspectives. International Journal of Wine Research. 2015, 7, 37–48.
New Zealand Winegrowers. (2016). Sustainability Report 2016. Retrieved from: http://https://www.nzwine.com/media/4188/nzw-sustainability-report-2016.pdf
Ohmart, C. P. (2011). View from the vineyard: A practical guide to sustainable winegrape growing. The Wine Appreciation Guild.
Pomarici, E.; Vecchio, R.; Mariani, A. Wineries’ Perception of Sustainability Costs and Benefits: An Exploratory Study in California. Sustainability 2015, 7, 16164–16174.
Pomarici, E., & Vecchio, R. (2019). Will sustainability shape the future wine market? Wine Economics and Policy, 8(1), 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wep.2019.05.001
Schaufele, I., & Hamm, U. (2017). Consumers’ perceptions, preferences and willingness-to-pay for wine with sustainability characteristics: A review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 147, 379-394. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.01.118
Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand [SWNZ]. (2020). Sustainable Winegrowing NZ. New Zealand Wine. https://www.nzwine.com/en/sustainability/swnz
Szolnoki, G., Bosman, J., Samara, O., Iselborn, M., Ferrigato, A., Tari, K., & Egea, N.G. (2011, June 9-10). A cross-cultural comparison of sustainability in the wine industry. [Paper presentation]. 6th AWBR International Conference. Bordeaux, France: Bordeaux Management School.
United Nations. (2015, September). Sustainable development goals. Retrieved from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300
Is real "sustainable wine growing" actually achievable? 
Great blog.
It is possible that the majority of people are not aware of the definition of sustainable in the given industry. That I think, is the problem when people discuss sustainability. Half of the time we focus on being sustainable that the rules and regulations are things we simply cannot change.
If anyone was to answer, “Is real ‘sustainable wine growing’ actually achievable”, the answer most definitely would be what is ‘real sustainability’? This was mentioned in the blog for a brief moment however I feel like it could have been discussed further.
Sustainability falls under this almost annoying umbrella of ambiguity. The UN goals of sustainability are open to interpretation, as they should, however management plans can be made more specific by businesses and industry bodies. Although the industry at large is already reaping the fruitful dividends of SWNZ action plan. There is still room for improvement, the progress achieved so far cannot be overlooked.
The Sustainability Report 2016 outlines some of the successes:
2’500ha were set aside for biodiversity protection. This has shown to enhance control of pests and diseases, weed suppressions and soil fertility (New Zealand Winegrowers, 2016)
Since 2001 New Zealand members have reduced insecticide use by over 50% (New Zealand Winegrowers, 2016).
99% of wineries optimised water conservation with 96% measuring and recording water use (New Zealand Winegrowers, 2016).
92’033m3 of waste was diverted from landfill by vineyards and wineries (New Zealand Winegrowers, 2016)
Simplification of SWNZ is the key to future to continuous monitor and gather reasonable data to achieve current sustainable goals. Today’s definition of sustainability will be achieved, however, the ever-changing goals, definitions and social pressure regarding sustainability will guide the progress of the wine industry into the future.
Reference
New Zealand Winegrowers. (2016). Sustainability Report. New Zealand Wine. https://www.nzwine.com/media/4188/nzw-sustainability-report-2016.pdf
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I think we can fall into the trap of focusing on being too sustainable. Nothing can be completely sustainable all the time because of this we need to focus on what we can control.
Sustainability is not meant to be easy; supply chains can be changed rearranged. There is no reason why these supply chains cannot be monitored at each stage of the process. This can be done by forming relationships with local and international partners that agree with the company’s or growers’ values on sustainable practices (Joshi, 2015). Ensuring your supply partners want to be sustainable, along with developing a plan for sustainability with those supply partners is the first step in the process to ensuring supply chain sustainability (Joshi, 2015). This is already done with cotton though a volunteer organisation called the Better Cotton initiative. Therefore, it demonstrates that this process works in the long term (Joshi, 2015). The article also challenges governments to establish regulations to make the cotton industry more sustainable.
The UN goals on sustainability are open to interpretation, however in my opinion they are intended to be that way (United Nations, 2015). This is so management plans can be made on more specific objectives, by businesses and industry bodies. New Zealand wine focuses on 5 core parts of sustainable winemaking practices. These are Water, Waste, Climate change, Pest and Disease and people (New Zealand Wine 2020). Within these specific practices are being implemented such as timed drip irrigation. Regulation of agrichemicals. Improving supply chains and plastic usage (New Zealand Wine 2020).
On an individual level sustainability is achievable and real by the individual choices companies and growers make. These can be small changes such as not using excessive agrichemicals which will stop land pollution and agrichemical runoff.
Only when consensus between multiple industries is achieved “true sustainability” can be obtained (Joshi, 2015). For example, if the agrichemical industry decided to only use organic products in their agrichemicals this would generate long term sustainability for the vineyard environment. If a transport company decided to get the wine prepared and dispatched from a closer bottling facility this would ultimately decrease capital costs on transport and make the business more sustainable. It would also make the wine more sustainable.
Thank you for the insightful blog
Cheers
Andrew Pearce
References
Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand [SWNZ]. (2020). Sustainable Winegrowing NZ. New Zealand Wine. https://www.nzwine.com/en/sustainability/swnz
United Nations. (2015, September). Sustainable development goals. Retrieved from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300
Joshi, R. (2016). Cotton-sector supply chain moves towards sustainable future. International Trade Forum, 2015(3), 24–25. https://doi.org/10.18356/42641f37-en
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Hi Guys,
With consumers being more aware of sustainability and more and more wanting access to the appropriate information regarding the sustainable production of the wine they are buying at the point of sale (Baird et al ,2018) how can this be achieved, in your opinion given you have concluded that there is a vagueness around sustainability and how it is achieved in wine-making? I look forward to your response.
Baird, T., Hall, C.M. & Castka, P. (2018). New Zealand Winegrowers Attitudes and Behaviors Towards Wine Tourism and Sustainable Wine-growing. Retrieved from http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/3/797
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Hi Nic,
Effective communication with consumers is certainly important to drive sustainability as an initiative, improve the concept, and emphasise its value to both producers and consumers alike.
From the side of sustainability initiatives (e.g. SWNZ) they really need to make their activities transparent and publicly available (similar to V.I.V.A. In Italy) then consumers are at least capable of making their own informed choices (Moscovici & Reed, 2018).
On the producers’ side they need to be engaging with consumers via wine tourism (Baird et al., 2018) and their own distribution and advertising channels as these are effective tools for communicating with consumers (and already established). These are both opportunities to effectively communicate with consumers directly and target markets. Their also needs to be more efforts on the part of producers to exceed what is required by sustainability initiatives in every country (Baird et al., 2018; Santiago-Brown et al., 2014). However, there may be an issue with this demand as producers need to believe in what they are saying; the 2015 survey conducted by Baird et al. (2018), showed a high percentage of wineries disagreed (30.8%) or strongly disagreed (50.8%) that “sustainability practices were important for the New Zealand wine industry” (p.808).
Ultimately, Sustainability initiatives can create a standard and make information available but if consumers are going to be effectively and swiftly communicated with then we need producers to do it (and want to do it).
Bella, Mark & Rob
References
Baird, T., Hall, M., & Castka, P. (2018). New Zealand winegrowers attitudes and behaviours towards wine tourism and sustainable winegrowing. Sustainability, 10(3), 797-820. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10030797
Moscovici, D., & Reed, A. (2018). Comparing wine sustainability certifications around the world: history, status and opportunity. Journal of Wine Research, 29(1), 1-25.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09571264.2018.1433138
Santiago-Brown, I., Metcalfe, A., Jerram, C., & Collins, C. (2014). Transnational comparison of sustainability assessment programs for viticulture and a case-study on programs’ engagement processes. Sustainability, 6(4), 2031-2066. https://doi.org/10.3390/su6042031
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Unfortunately, I believe ‘sustainability’ is sometimes little more than fluffy industry rhetoric that lacks concrete definition and quantifiable goals. And, without goals and specific measures of success, how can anyone achieve this broad, undefined tick of approval?
It is for this reason that industry bodies such as SWNZ hold some value, as they promote a unified, industry wide benchmark for growers and wineries. For example, SWNZ’s key sustainability initiative is their Spray Schedule, which if adhered to ensures New Zealand growers are meeting international guidelines for sustainability practices in the vineyard and winery are being met. However, many in the industry also believe that ‘sustainability’ also encompasses a number of areas, including biosecurity, climate change, eco-labelling and wine tourism (Baird et al., 2018). This broadening of definition contributes to industry ambiguity and slowly pushes ‘sustainability’ out of reach of producers. After all, am I a ‘sustainable’ producer if I rigorously adhere to the Spray Schedule alone, or am I only deemed ‘sustainable’ if I monitor all biosecurity updates, consciously minimise my carbon footprint, produce eco-friendly labels and discourage the ‘wine miles’ my product clocks up?
It is for this reason that I think asking industry producers to achieve ‘sustainability’ is impossible. What IS possible, however, is to ask producers to meet smaller, more measurable benchmarks. Perhaps offering a sustainability rating for producers is a simpler and more realistic solution.
Thoughts?
Kate Mac
REFERENCES
Baird, T., Hall, M., & Castka, P. (2018). New Zealand Winegrowers Attitudes and Behaviours towards Wine Tourism and Sustainable Winegrowing. Sustainability, 10(797). doi:http://doi.org/10.3390/su10030797
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Is it truly sustainable to have a monoculture of the same vines in a massive region like Marlborough? Most vineyard even have the same clones and root stocks as most vineyards decide on their plantings based on their neighbours. Kiwi Fruit which is another primary industry that fell victim to mono-culture farming, falling prey to a bacterial disease. Mono-culture farming can produce higher yields which most Marlborough vineyards focus on, but it can come at a high cost (Stuff, 2010).
Disease can affect the vines at a quicker rate as all the plantings are identical. For this reason, monoculture require more resources i.e. pesticides in order to reduces the vectors that can spread the disease. And due to the combination of growing awareness of the consumers of chemicals and the vectors becoming resistant to the limited selection of sprays it can lead to another hit to a primary industry (Stuff, 2010).
Can the same fate that affected the kiwi industry be prevented for the wine industry?
Thoughts?
Daniel
Reference
Stuff. (2010, Nov 11). Kiwifruit a victim of monoculture farming. Retrieved from Stuff: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/4332039/Growers-fear-disease-has-spread
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Hi Dan, real good point around the monoculture of Marlborough vineyards, unfortunately cash is king, and Sauvignon Blanc is the currency for the Marlborough (and New Zealand) wine industry. From an economic sustainability view Sauvignon Blanc is very sustainable with profits for most involved, although profit margins are decreasing (Nicholson, 2019). The monoculture of Marlborough is an example of modern business farming, so we may not be meeting some environmental and social sustainability target’s but money talks and this is the unfortunate reality.
The ecosystem of Marlborough has changed since the arrival of humans in the area, Marlborough region was largely forest covered and has gradually been burned off over the centuries to the current day (Marlborough District Council, 2008). Currently the land has been significantly changed towards a farming and vineyard culture (Marlborough District Council, 2008), with a clear leaning towards vineyards. The dominance of Sauvignon Blanc in Marlborough could be considered a monoculture and the issues seen in the New Zealand kiwifruit industry could also happen in vineyards. There are currently issues being researched such as grapevine trunk disease which Mundy (2018) states threatens the entire viticulture industry. GLRaVs leafroll viruses are also a significant problem, with detection in white grape varieties not easy, fortunately both grapevine trunk disease and GLRaVs are manageable problems (Goldammer, 2019) with ongoing research into them. The more worrying aspect is the potential failure of Bio Security New Zealand, and the arrival of Brown Marmorated Stink Bug or Glassy Wing Sharpshooter that could lead to an economic disaster on the scale of the kiwifruit industry suffered 10 years ago. In this case prevention is the key with the New Zealand Wine Bio Security statement “Catch it. Snap it. Report it.” (New Zealand Wine, 2019).
Cheers
Bella, Mark and Rob
References
Goldammer, T. (2018). Grape Growers Handbook. Third Edition. USA. Apex Publishers.
Marlborough District Council. (2008). Chapter 8: Biodivesity. Retrieved from:https://www.marlborough.govt.nz/repository/libraries/id:1w1mps0ir17q9sgxanf9/hierarchy/Documents/Environment/State%20of%20the%20Environment%20Reporting%202008%20Section%203%20List/SOE_2008_Sec3_Biodiversity.pdf
Mundy, D., Bhanupratap, R., Thompson, S. & Bulman, S. (2018). Assessment of sampling and DNA extraction methods for identi¬cation of rapevine trunk microorganisms using metabarcoding Retrieved from: http://www.journal.nzpps.org/index.php/nzpp/article/view/159/105
New Zealand Wine. (2019). Most unwanted. Retrieved from: https://www.nzwine.com/media/12771/most-unwanted-2018_final.pdf
Nicholson, T. (2019). Viticulture benchmarking shows profit down – again. Retrieved from: https://www.ruralnewsgroup.co.nz/wine-grower/wg-general-news/viticulture-benchmarking-shows-profit-down-again
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I agree that the three aspects of sustainability are to a large extend conflicting with each other. In particular, the economic aspect may need to be sacrificed to achieve environmental and social sustainability. However, there are also practices promoting environmental and social sustainability that are at the same beneficial to the economic aspects. For example, disease monitoring plans to avoid unnecessary sprays may require extra labour, but in return, may reduce spray costs and prevent yield reduction due to disease.
On the other hand, you mentioned about hybrid varieties that are more resistant to fungal diseases. What are you thoughts on the resulting wine quality and market reception? Hybrid varieties had been prohibited in Europe due to the reluctance in the industry to alter their traditions, until the recent relaxation of EU regulations. In May 2016, an official catalog of varieties to new temporary registrations, which includes experimental plantings of “distinct, uniform and stable” hybrids was opened by France, allowing plantings of up to 20 hectares at 10 locations (Martinson & Reisch, 2018).
References
Martinson, T. & Reisch, B. (2018). Will Europe Embrace Hybrid Wine Grapes? Retrieved from: https://winesvinesanalytics.com/news/article/201942/Will-Europe-Embrace-Hybrid-Wine-Grapes
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Hi Elgee
Unfortunately, hybrids have something of a bad reputation. This maybe stems from numerous Muller-Thurgau plantings in New Zealand and around the world that produced large amounts of poor-quality wines (Robinson, 2020). Currently Vidal Blanc is already the most popular grape variety in Canada for ice wine production and held in high regard. While Chambourcin, is produced in many countries including New Zealand, it is grown in Northland with niche popularity and the wine quality is very good (Ake Ake, 2020:Copper, 2012). The wine quality can be good if produced correctly, but the noble varieties are still regarded as producing higher quality wine as hybrid grapes considered to lack complex flavours and aromas (Burgess, 2019). Generally speaking, most areas that can grow good quality vitis vinifera do not produce much hybrid wine, while marginal grape growing regions such as the UK produce a lot with varying quality levels. I would be interested to see a well-produced hybrid such as Chambourcin from Hawkes Bay for example. Market reception of hybrid grapes is hard to gauge though customers at cellar doors appear to be interested (Burgess, 2019), but currently the market is dominated by vitis vinifea varieties. There would need to be significant shift from wine producers, to increase market demand for hybrid varieties, for example a company like Villa Maria producing a hybrid wine would help. The unfortunate bad reputation of hybrid varieties is not likely to end quickly, although climate change factors may increase plantings by wine producers and they maybe come more common on the shelf.
Cheers
Bella, Mark & Rob
References
Ake Ake. (2020). Chambourcin 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.akeakevineyard.co.nz/product-page/chambourcin-2018
Burgess, L. (2019). On Winemaking: Vitis What! Making wine with hybrid grapes. Retrieved from: https://vinepair.com/articles/vitis-labrusca-vinifera-hybrids/
Copper, M. (2012). NZ’s impressive red wines. Retrieved from: https://www.noted.co.nz/archive/archive-listener-nz-2012/nzs-impressive-red-wines
Robinson, J. (2020). Muller-Thurgau. Retrieved from: https://www.jancisrobinson.com/learn/grape-varieties/white/muller-thurgau#
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Hey team, great blog!
I completely agree, the concept of ‘real’ sustainability is extremely vague and can be very confusing to define.
Due to the nature of the industry, there are some aspects that are instrumental to the core pillars of sustainability that are outside of what we can control. Such as the weather and its detrimental impact it can have on the economic pillar of sustainability. I believe that many of the aspects of sustainability are entirely achievable for the wine industry. But there are some that hinder the idea of ever being entirely sustainable.
Although, does achieving sustainability really need to be an end goal? If it was a well-defined milestone, would companies then feel like they have made it and stop trying to refine and improve their sustainable practices? Or is it the journey of trying to become more sustainable that is laying the foundations for the industries ‘real sustainability’?
Personally, I think NZ wine’s SWNZ continuous improvement program is a great initiative and I feel that we are better to stay on the journey that is driving continuously evolving improvements in technology, understanding, and mindset within the industry, than to attempt to define ‘real sustainability’ as an end goal.
Again, great article!
Cheers
Cam Steel
NZ Wine, (n.d). Sustainable Winegrowing NZ, Continuous Improvement. New Zealand Wine. https://www.nzwine.com/en/sustainability/swnz/continuous-improvement/
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Thanks Cam.
Agreed, the SWNZ Continuous Improvement scheme is a great initiative, and those motivated to continually improve their sustainability can find great guidelines from SWNZ for improving each pillar of sustainability.
And no, sustainability doesn’t have to be an end goal, however there should be more measurable milestones for sustainability. Continuous improvement is great, but how do you get those not as morally motivated to improve their sustainability to continually improve?
We believe what Kate has suggested is an excellent alternative to their current Continuous Improvement scheme. Kate has suggested a rating system for producers, where smaller milestones can equate to increasing their sustainability rating.
Whether this looks like a Bronze-Silver-Gold rating system or a points system out of 10 or 100, something which producers can put on their label for consumers to see however must continually improve to reach a better rating could be enough motivation for companies to better their sustainability. A similar rating system is used in the Sustainable Australia Winegrowing Certification, where they use blue (highest), green, yellow, and red (lowest) to measure sustainability success (Moscovici & Reed, 2018) – this is not run part of their Entwine sustainability program however.
Thanks
Bella, Mark and Rob
Reference
Moscovici, D., & Reed, A. (2018). Comparing wine sustainability certifications around the world: history, status and opportunity. Journal of wine research, 29(4), 265-277.
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A great topic.
In my consideration, the real current sustainable wine growing is achievable, but the wine sustainability properties are incomplete compared to what will it become in the future. In other words, there is a lot of room for the improvement of wine sustainability. However, sustainable winegrowing in New Zealand is a positive example. Especially, in Marlborough, growers are participating in the wine sustainable program through the NZWINE, which needs to be registered by every grower in New Zealand.
However, as the conclusion mentioned that real sustainability aspects need to be sacrificed for achieving complete sustainability in another. This may not be true in general, because these three aspects “economic, environmental, and social” have some different target, but there would be a sustainable activity can achieve all three aspects simultaneously. For example, monitoring followed SWNZ. It can reduce chemical waste (achieve the environmental aspect), and target the existed pest and disease, instead of spraying without monitoring. This can reduce the cost (achieve economic aspect). Social responsibility relates to people, doing a frequent spray without monitoring can cause some social problem because running truckers can annoy your neighbor. However, a reasonable spraying schedule following the monitoring result can reduce the unnecessary truckers’ running, but some negotiation and communication are still needed for your neighbor to achieve this social aspect.
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Hi all,
I like to add my thoughts on Elgee’s comment addresses the economic pillar and sustainability.
The economic pillar is unfortunately a pillar that must be sustained to an extent. I agree that the three aspects contradict each other and in some cases parts of these pillars will have to be sacrificed to achieve sustainability. To address the paradox between economic growth and sustainability, we have to find a way to balance the two and allow them to co-exist.
This phenomenon creates an interesting dynamic that we currently see as being mutually exclusive. However, it is hard to sustain a business with a level of profit. In economics the general consensus is that profit or business surplus provides pay rises, opportunities for training, upskilling, and other aspects of business management. The idea derives from human philosophy and the resulting idealistic solution to guide human nature to human longing (Higgns, 2013).
The best way to combat this is to put more weight on sustainability and less on economic growth. Economic growth is important but in order to balance the other aspects of sustainability we must prioritise. It’s a case of shifting into ‘natural capitalism’ where sustainability considerations impact the economic pillar. Principles include:
1. Increasing the productivity of natural resources
a. Operations that reduce waste
b. Faster returns on investments in a shorter period of time
2. The shift to biologically production models.
a. Understanding and applying insights from nature’s systems.
3. Solution based approaches.
a. Selling benefits i.e. not attempting to sell growers as much herbicides as possible. Reinventing business models
b. Reinvesting in natural capital resources
i. Working with nature not against it. i.e China’s Yangtze basin deforestation led to floods that killed 3,700 people, dislocated 223 million. And destroyed cropland. California Rice industry let 150,000-200,000 acres of rice fields to flood after harvest instead of burning the fields (Stamm, 2013).
Let me know your thoughts!
Rebecca.
References
Higgin, K. (2013). Economic growth and sustainability – are they mutually exclusive?. Elsevier. https://www.elsevier.com/connect/economic-growth-and-sustainability-are-they-mutually-exclusive
Stamm, B.V. (2013). Growth and sustainability: are they really at odds with each other?. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sustainability-growth-profits-top-brands
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Hi Pu,
I agree that NZ is a great example of what can be achieved by sustainability initiatives and industry participation is vital. There is certainly room for improvement, hopefully to a state where sustainability does not involve some type of ‘trade off’ between its different aspects. That is the journey we are on and time will tell.
Sustainability is ‘perhaps’ achievable as it is currently judged and defined by SWNZ. There are currently 62 benchmarks for certification under SWNZ, but this is relatively low compared to certification programmes in other countries; LIVE (Oregon, USA) has 125 criteria for wineries and 189 for vineyards; while Certified Sustainable Austria 2191 criteria to achieve 61 objectives (Moscovici & Reed, 2018).
Reference
Moscovici, D., & Reed, A. (2018). Comparing wine sustainability certifications around the world: history, status and opportunity. Journal of Wine Research, 29(1), 1-25.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09571264.2018.1433138
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This blog was a great read, thanks guys.
I think that as Cam has mentioned, the continuous improvement model can be great for those like Cam, who are proactive and want to improve sustainability. However, I do not believe that the industry or the public can trust businesses, that are run for profit, to prioritise sustainability.
While sustainability often seems like an intangible and unreachable goal, I don’t believe it should be. I believe that with the spread of this idea we risk giving businesses the opportunity for excuses, and excuse those that only make advances that are convenient to them. There is currently a big risk in most industries that some companies will only work toward goals that align with their business ideals and that suit their agenda, not the goals that are most important for us to move forward in sustainability (Ranängen et al 2018).
In my eyes we can at least aim for vast change and get close to sustainability. In the wine industry, we see companies becoming sustainable in certain areas, achieving full solar energy and capturing rain to irrigate (Clark, 2009; Hakim, 2018; Honig Vineyard & Winery, 2020) . Seeing this kind of action working, especially in the case of commercial business, it seems that with more acceptance of the seriousness of our global situation, commitment and government aid and regulation, near-full sustainability should be achievable and not in some distant future.
Rebecca hits on an amazing point – possibly the most important in the topic of sustainability – in the need for a shift toward ‘natural capitalism’. While many argue that prioritising sustainability isn’t economically viable, if we want to sustain our economy, the thoughtless growth that happens now needs to be realigned. We see specifically in this industry already in New Zealand the labour shortage and specifically in Marlborough the land shortage due to rapid expansion (Bruce Taylor, 2020; Hutching, 2018; Marlborough Chamber of Commerce, 2017; Marlborough District Council, 2008). The only option here, to me, seems a focus on increasing profit margins as opposed to sales.
Would love to know if you guys think it is possible for the industry here to continue to grow as it is without depleting resources and destroying landscapes and ecosystems?
Maya
References:
Bruce Taylor. (2020, February 17). Bruce Taylor on winemaking today and the future of Tohu [Blog]. https://www.tohuwines.co.nz/blog/28/2/2019tohu-on-turning-20-winemaking-today-and-the-future-of-tohu
Clark, A. (2009, July 27). Green wineries embrace innovation from the fields to the bottle. GreenBiz. https://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/07/27/green-wineries-embrace-innovation-fields-bottle
Hakim, S. (2018, February 9). The LEED Platinum Teaching and Research Winery. Viticulture and Enology. https://wineserver.ucdavis.edu/about/facilities/leed-platinum-teaching-and-research-winery
Honig Vineyard & Winery. (2020). Honig story. Honig Wine. https://www.honigwine.com/Honig-Story
Hutching, C. (2018, October 9). ‘Shortage’ of Marlborough land touted in vineyard investment offer. Stuff. https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/107561586/shortage-of-marlborough-land-touted-in-vineyard-investment-offer
Marlborough Chamber of Commerce. (2017). Part one: Attracting and retaining a migrant workforce (Solving Marlborough’s Demographic Challenges, pp. 1–31). http://library.forte-management.co.nz/resource/Solving%20Marlborough's%20Demographic%20Challenges.pdf
Marlborough District Council. (2008). State of the environment report: Chapter 3: Land use change (pp. 65–73). https://www.marlborough.govt.nz/repository/libraries/id:1w1mps0ir17q9sgxanf9/hierarchy/Documents/Environment/State%20of%20the%20Environment%20Reporting%202008%20Section%202%20List/SOE_2008_Sec2_Land_Use_Change.pdf
Ranängen, H., Cöster, M., Isaksson, R., & Garvare, R. (2018). From global goals and planetary boundaries to public governance—A framework for prioritizing organizational sustainability activities. Sustainability, 10(8), 2741. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10082741
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Hi Maya, Thanks for the reply
The industry does appear to be continuing its growth, with new vineyards coming online very year. The vineyard coverage of the Wairau, Waihopai and Awatere valleys is extensive and is currently at 27,200 hectares of producing land (New Zealand Wine, 2019). As growth continue there will be potential environmental damage to landscapes and ecosystem, though I would argue that this comes down to individual company that is expanding their plantings. The screenshot below (click on google earth link below if the screenshot does show up)shows how two different companies develop their vineyards;
Figure 1 Awatere Valley Vineyard Comparison (Google Earth, 2020)
In the screenshot there are stream channels running across the vineyards in the Awatere Valley, both companies are very large Marlborough companies. The vineyard on the right has left most stream channels unplanted, whereas the vineyard on the left has attempted to flatten the stream channels out and then planted vines across. Having worked for the company that planted the right-hand vineyard it was viticultural decision to leave the stream channels as they were, this was based on environmental and economic considerations. With this in mind it is clear that not all companies in the industry continue to grow while destroying landscapes and ecosystems, many wine producers make strong efforts to protect ecosystems in and around their vineyards (New Zealand Wine, 2020). However, there are some companies that will continue to expand while changing landscapes and damaging ecosystems.
On depleting resources, the main resource in question here would be water. Water use is becoming an increasingly important issue in New Zealand and around the world, the wine producers in Marlborough rely on the Southern Valleys Irrigation scheme for supply. This resource is critical to much of the Wairau Valleys vineyard irrigation, though this is controlled by shutdowns when below water flow standards (Marlborough District Council, 2020). Other resources such as land will have a natural end point, there is only so much land in Marlborough that is viable for grape growing (Hart, 2019) consequently the growth will stop and perhaps retraction may begin. Sustainable Wine New Zealand and wine producers are in general looking for sustainable solutions, unfortunately there are a minority of companies that do the bare minimum in terms of sustainability, and some happen to be very large wine company’s this makes a difference.
Cheers
Bella, Mark and Rob
References
Hart, M. (2019). Marlborough estimated to reach end of viable vineyard land by 2025. Retrieved from: https://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/marlborough-top-stories/113375033/marlborough-estimated-to-reach-end-of-viable-vineyard-land-by-2025
Google. (2020). Awatere Valley Vineyard. Retrieved from: https://earth.google.com/web/@-41.65433328,174.05990106,94.94390945a,697.90287302d,35y,0h,0t,0r
Marlborough District Council. (2020). Southern Valleys Irrigation. Retrieved from: https://www.marlborough.govt.nz/services/irrigation/southern-valleys-irrigation
New Zealand Wine. (2020). Rarangi Wetlands. Retrieved from: https://www.nzwine.com/de/winery/wither-hills/rarangi-wetlands
New Zealand Wine. (2020). Vineyard Benching Marking Report Marlborough 2019. Retrieved from: https://www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/36864/direct
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A good topic ~
Regarding whether “sustainable wine cultivation” can really be achieved, I think there is also a relationship between consumers and wine-related workers. The United Nations has a clear definition of sustainability: meeting current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
The SWNZ certification and increasing emphasis on the sustainable development of businesses has led wineries to require their growers and their own fruits to be certified even if the wine producer does not meet SWNZ standards. So, will SWNZ-certified and labelled wines help international consumers know that the wine is at least sustainable, or will it only further blur the field of sustainability? According to New Zealand Wine Growers (2018), Sustainable Viticulture New Zealand (SWNZ) certification is the world’s leading sustainable development, plan our wine industry. SWNZ’s efforts for sustainable development have also won many international awards, thus strengthening the program’s reputation (New Zealand wine growers, 2018).
SWNZ is committed to treating sustainability as an important issue for consumers. But are consumers educated on sustainability? So is SWNZ just a structural framework and cannot be truly implemented.
Thanks
Crystal
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Hi Crystal, thanks for your post.
Regarding sustainability and the consumer, I don’t believe that the field of sustainability is anymore blurred by labelling the product with a sustainability label. I agree that labelling at least gives the consumer the knowledge that the product is classed as sustainable, however consumer views of sustainability vary from country to country resulting in a wide range of consumer viewpoints (Capitello & Sirieix, 2019). The label of sustainability also crosses into your next question. The education of the consumer is a valid point, it is noted the consumers lack education on wines that are classed as sustainable among others (Carroll, 2019). This lack of education among consumer is something that Sustainable Wine New Zealand could use to its advantage, through marketing education on New Zealand as a leader of sustainability. The framework is, this is an opportunity for growth as sustainable wines are a growing section of consumer wine sales (Carroll, 2019).
Cheers
Bella, Mark & Rob
References
R. Capitello, & L. Sirieix. (2019) Consumers’ perceptions of sustainable wine: an exploratory study in France and Italy. Economies, 7, Article number 33
Carroll, E. (2019) Sustainable Growth. Wine Intelligence. Retrieved from: https://www.wineintelligence.com/sustainable-growth/
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Hey Guys
Very interesting topic, well done!
I personally appreciated the distinction between sustainability between small and larger wineries/vineyards. Managing a smaller vineyard my self I have more freedom to implement more sustainable practices in our vineyard i.e. installing sub surface irrigation lines to reduce water rates, when i spoke to an irrigation design planner he said my view on the matter was more open minded than that of a larger out fit as they would very quickly write the idea off as too expensive or too time consuming. However, on the opposite side of things as a smaller company the budget of the vineyard is a restricting factor of implementing these sustainable practices which can be endlessly frustrating when the benefits to improving the vineyard are clear.
Do you believe that the stigma behind genetic modification of varieties to combat the ever evolving pressures that come from mutating diseases diseases would be as beneficial as selective breading ? On the same topic the lack of priority of grape vines from customs to bring in more clones is directly in opposition to a more sustainable industry?
Do you think SWNZ would benefit from implementing more organic standards moving forward? and do you think that to the uninformed or more old school “stuck in their ways” members of the industry lump organic practices in with bio-dynamics and the more “which crafty” aspects thus remaining more closed minded?
Lastly how do you think the shift away from combustion engine vehicles to electric powered would shift there needle if all tractors and freight transport were electric or would the extra stress on power consumption be ultimately worse?
Thanks
Rémy
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Hi Remy, thanks for the interesting points.
Selective breeding can be another tool to be used to benefit the industry going forward, as current fungicide spraying method aren’t particularly sustainable. This has been used for centuries and is the reason we have so many various grapevines in existence, many current breeding programs look for specific disease or condition resistance as part of their programs (Burger et al, 2009). Genetic modification of grapevines is a bit of a step further, as the potential costs would be a lot higher than selective breeding as traits of different are transferred from one species to another at a molecular level. The main issue around genetically modified foods are as Franson (2015) asks, is it still Cabernet Sauvignon if there is now a genetically modified gene within the grapevine, this would potentially be a focus at a consumer level. With consumer perception of genetic modification not considered very positive and often consumers feel misled around GM foods (Lamb, 2020), this could be a sales stumbling block. There are strong benefits to genetic modification, but I feel consumer perceptions will never allow a strong adoption of these benefits in the near future.
Encouragingly there has been research in France looking into breeding cultivars resistant to downy and powdery mildew, this is a positive project going forward (Merdinoglu et al, 2018). This project has noted stumbling blocks to gaining resistance, that being the ability of disease pathogens to overcome resistant genes in trial grapevines (Merdinoglu et al, 2018). This breeding program has been established for 20 years and is making steps forward with combination breeding attempting to combat the previous resistance problem. However currently the program is still researching and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future (Merdinglu et al, 2018).
Progress forward can be hindered by a lack of grape material imports, and of course New Zealand Customs has a role to play here. The more clones available for the wine industry the more potential for New Zealand to breed and research their own solutions to the above problems. With the economic importance of the New Zealand wine industry, should warrant more priority from the Customs department.
Have to say I agreed on the organics front and the “stuck in their ways” points, I believe Sustainable Wine New Zealand should push for more organic wines to be made. I feel this could be a marketing aspect if the majority of New Zealand wine was made this way, unfortunately this is unlikely to happen. Currently I work for a winery that produces a proportion of wine as organic. From personal experience organic vineyard yields appear to consistently crop at lower levels than conventional vineyards, this can be offset with higher quality, though on a bigger commercial scale this is less easy to justify. Economics of Sauvignon Blanc grown in conventional largescale vineyard make complete economic sustainability sense, at $1,900 per tonne from around 14 tonnes a hectare (New Zealand Wine, 2019). On the other side does it make environmental and social sustainable sense, I don’t think so. It’s easy to be closed minded when the business model brings in the profits consistently.
Combustion engines are likely to be replaced by electric or hydrogen powered engines in the future. Looking at the electric power, New Zealand has a lot of power at its disposal if the Tiwai Point smelter in Southland closed (Gray, 2019). Currently the smelter consumes 12% of New Zealand electricity and would provide significant surplus energy for the network if closed (Gray, 2019). As this is not a current reality and there would potentially be a burden on power consumption at current position, as the increase in demand would be quite significant.
Cheers
Bella, Mark and Rob
References
Burger, P., Bouquet, A. & Striem, M. (2009). Grape Breeding. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226791477_Grape_Breeding
Franson, P. (2015) How are genetics changing grapevines. Retrieved from: https://winesvinesanalytics.com/news/article/161214/How-Genetics-Are-Changing-Grapevines
Gray, J. (2019). S&P says possible Tiwai Point closure exposes risk in the electricity sector. Retrieved from: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12279229
Lamb, S. (2020). Why we need mandatory labelling of GMO products. Retrieved from: https://www.statnews.com/2020/02/19/why-we-need-mandatory-labeling-of-gmo-products/
Merdinoglu, D., Schneider, C., Prado, E., Weidemann-Merdinoglu, S. & Mestre, P. (2018). Breeding for durable resistance to Downy and Powdery mildew in grapevine. Retrieved from:
https://oeno-one.eu/article/view/2116
New Zealand Wine. (2020). Vineyard Benching Marking Report Marlborough 2019. Retrieved from: https://www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/36864/direct
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Blog Summary
From the blog discussion there has generally been a positive reception of sustainability as a concept. The different themes highlighted by the discussion can be broadly grouped into subjects related to Structural, Moral, and Environmental issues.
Structural
Sustainability is a positive thing, we are all in agreement on that. There are some differences of opinion about whether it is achievable (and what this would look like) but overall everyone is in favour of it. However, from comments on the blog, it seems that everyone also feels that there is room for improvement, whether this is a rating system, a clearer definition, measurable goals, or greater accountability for producers. The efforts of SWNZ and the progress that has been made, particularly in regards to uptake of membership, has been inspiring and will continue to be so as long as there is continuous efforts at real improvement.
Moral
One overarching theme which came out of this discussion is the moral need or want for sustainability. Currently, this is coming from consumer awareness and demand for products they purchase to be sustainably made. This filters down to companies, as if there is a large enough demand for sustainable products, they will put in the effort to meet consumer demand. On this, consumer education and confusion on and around sustainability was discussed, is sustainability education needed. There seems to be a slight mistrust in larger companies, with some thinking that they are purely in it for an economic gain; which yes, they are wanting to make a profit, but that is the same with any business – they can’t survive if they don’t. Some are even proving that with their larger capital, sustainability may be easily reached. The theme of natural capitalism came up in discussions, with the idea being that sustainability considerations may cause a disruption to the economic pillar of sustainability.
Environmental
The current monoculture seen in Marlborough through the vast Sauvignon Blanc plantings was a topic of conversation in this blog. Questions were posed as to the environmental viability of Marlborough in regards to potential risks of new pests or diseases, along with soil health and our ability to leave the land how we found it. There is potential for pest and disease issues to arise given Marlborough’s monoculture, and was compared to the kiwifruit industry. Hybrid grape varieties were raised as a possible solution to pest and disease issues, though their wine quality being produced was questioned. Following this selective breeding and genetic modification were raised as other possibilities for pest and disease. Organic viticulture was suggested as possible future sustainable path and the potential “opposition” to organics in the industry was also touched on. Soil health was discussed with regard to leaving the soil in a better way than we found it, farming per se changes the soil from its original state. Therefore, it was discussed that the soil would change, whether that was better or worse can be debated but the soil and surrounding ecosystem in Marlborough have been changed by grape growing. Along the same theme was the destruction of landscapes and ecosystems, and the overuse of resources by vineyards, and the general impact vineyards have on the land. Lastly electrical vehicles were discussed as a sustainable tool in the vineyard and road fleet.
Bella, Mark and Rob
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