SWR benchmarking highlights action areas among eight standards evaluated
- EU Organic and Demeter Biodynamic the first non-wine-specific standards to be evaluated
- Work shows a need for clarity around bought-in grapes from contract growers
- SWR recommends flexibility and gradualism in processes to optimise uptake
The Sustainable Wine Roundtable (SWR) has issued its second round of sustainability standards benchmarking.
There are currently more than 40 sustainability certification schemes across the global wine industry. In order to compare these, the SWR developed a Global Reference Framework (GRF) which helps to cut through complexity and align around meaningful, measurable progress.
SWR Research Director Dr Peter Stanbury explains
“It became apparent that having a single global standard for wine sustainability wouldn’t work, and therefore there was a need for a process that would provide comparability between the more than 40 sustainability standards in wine that exist. How are they the same, how are they different?
“The aim of this whole process is not just to say, one pile of standards provides a credible journey to sustainability, and others may not. It’s also about how, over time, do we improve all of these standards bodies’ work, and how we make them better globally.”
The latest sustainability standards to be evaluated, following last year’s pilot study, are from
- FairChoice (Germany)
- Wines of Alentejo Sustainability Programme (WASP) (Alentejo, Portugal)
- Terra Vitis (France)
- COVIAR – Argentinian Wine Sustainability Self-Assessment Guide (GAESVA) (Argentina)
- Sustainability Code of the Chilean Wine Industry – Vinos de Chile (Chile)
- Napa Green (Napa, California)
- EU Organic (Europe/Global)
- Demeter(Global)
These last two are the first standards to be examined which are not specific to wine, and which operate globally rather than in one location.
The challenge for smaller producers
For smaller producers, the reality is that any certification comes with a financial cost and a heavy administrative load; therefore the challenge for standards bodies is how these producers can be brought into the fold.
As SWR Operations Manager Delaney Sheridan explains
“In a fragmented industry like wine, because small producers make up quite a large part of the supply chain, it’s a really critical issue to address. If sustainability is going to work at scale within the industry, smaller players also really need to be a part of it.”
SWR have been impressed with the creative solutions some standards bodies have found to enable this, including access to grants, sponsorship support or simplified requirements around paperwork.
What to do about bought in grapes
A second major issue raised during the benchmarking is around bought in grapes; The Global Reference Framework did not explicitly deal with this question. As Peter Stanbury explains
“The challenge arises when a winemaker buys in grapes which have not been produced in accordance with a standard. Some standards bodies are explicit about the maximum proportion of grapes in a wine which can come from non-certified sources, and indeed some require all grapes used to be from certified growers. Others, however, provide less detail about the level of bought grapes that can be used.
“This is clearly an important issue and cuts to the heart of how credible a standard label is in demonstrating good sustainability performance.” Stanbury adds that the Global Reference Framework will be revised to include a requirement on this topic in future.
Reflecting on non-wine-specific standards
Commenting on the inclusion of EU Organic and Demeter Biodynamic here, Peter Stanbury says
“This has been very interesting. These two standards are intended to be applicable to all sorts of different value chains. On one hand that’s great because these do have strong brand recognition. At the same time, the amount of detail that the wine-specific standards are able to provide is absolutely phenomenal. Broader standards aren’t able to provide that level of insight. It’s harder for these to address situations where in some circumstances, their requirements might end up in practice being self-contradictory, for example the need for extra treatments due to bad weather causing more soil compaction because of the tractors used in the treatments. So there will be compromises which need to be understood here.”
The full public report on the standards benchmarking is available to download here.
About SWR
The Sustainable Wine Roundtable (SWR) is an independent global platform dedicated to advancing sustainability in the wine industry. A membership organisation with more than 130 members reflecting the whole wine supply, and operating globally, its role is to catalyse change in sustainability in the wine sector. This includes the Bottle Weight Accord, sustainable viticulture, labour standards and the SWR are currently developing a tool to allow comparison of the sustainability characteristics of different packaging formats.
For more information about the Sustainable Wine Roundtable, please contact ben@freerunpr or via +44 7876 835 752.
