The Sustainable Vineyard approach: How does it work?
Last month’s SWR Perspective introduced our new approach to our labour standards and viticulture workstreams: what we are calling The Sustainable Vineyard. In this month’s edition we will go into more detail about exactly what this will look like in practice.
The Sustainable Vineyard approach consists of three pillars.
The first is data. We will collate insights about what is actually happening on the ground regarding labour standards and viticulture. What is the state of play in different wine growing regions, and how is this changing over time? Words like ‘questionnaire’ get a bad rap, and we want our approach to be much more light-touch. Therefore, we have developed a Sustainable Vineyard Practice Survey. This consists of 24 questions – half on labour and half on viticulture. Responses are multiple choice, data will be treated anonymously, and unrelated to compliance. This will allow us to ‘take the temperature’ on sustainability in the vineyard globally.
The second pillar is made up of tools and best practice. We will develop and share tools and insights, and foster collaboration to support businesses in getting further, faster in developing their sustainable vineyard practices. Great tools and insights already exist – even in the last few months, we have seen examples of great practice in cover crop use in Bordeaux, water management in South Africa and managing labour providers in Australia. This experience needs to be shared. We will also create additional tools. For example, we are currently developing case studies on how key regions have managed labour issues. These will provide guidance and insight to other areas looking to address these issues.
The third and final pillar is communication. The aim is to celebrate and showcase good practice to a wider audience. We focus on “name and fame, not name and shame”, and in providing credible positive stories to media and trade. This will culminate in an annual ‘Sustainable Vineyard Barometer’. This will report on the state of play on labour and viticulture issues in different regions and show progress over time, for example on reductions in synthetic pesticide use and improvements in labour sourcing practices.
This approach seems to reflect how best practice is already developed within existing networks. We hosted a webinar in mid-February about the Sustainable Vineyard approach and were lucky enough to welcome as a speaker Joao Barroso from the Wines of Alentejo Sustainability Programme (WASP), one of the standards we reviewed in our last round of benchmarking. He explained that his programme had begun with a number of what he termed ‘champion/lighthouse’ producers in which early adopters shared costs and risks, but got the earliest results. This then enabled the development of a regional community beyond competitive relationships, which is now self-sustaining without original champions.
We also had some good input from the audience:
“Very often, the farmers want to do good, want to do well, but they don’t know how to do it. So pointing them at potential solutions is so valuable.”
“This is a process of continual improvement – the more you know, the more you know you’re ignorant – so having access to new ideas is so important.”
“Wine has a unique opportunity because of its story-rich culture and traceability; media and many consumers are actively looking for good sustainability stories when they’re credible and concrete.”
So that’s what the Sustainable Vineyard Approach is about. Providing proactive support to vineyards in advancing their sustainability agenda; providing clear insight into how this agenda is developing; and showcasing genuine good practice, not greenwash.
If you’d like to know more about ‘The Sustainable Vineyard’ and the work it encompasses, please do get in touch with Ilva@SWRoundtable.org
