It’s all about the regions
(3 min read)
SWR is a small organisation. As a result, our ability to catalyse sustainable change in the wine industry stems in large part to the partner organisations we work with. One thing we have come to realise over recent months is that one of the most influential players are regional wine organisations which exist in most, if not all, wine regions.
These organisations take different forms depending on where they are located. In Europe, they are often statutory organisations, part of whose role is to protect a region’s ‘geographical indication’. In other locations, they are trade bodies, made up of companies across the wine value chain.
However they are arranged, these organisations provide two hugely important services to the wine sector in their area. The first is providing a hub for all those in the industry to share knowledge and learn best practices on all aspects of vitiviniculture. The second is to provide a unified voice for their region in areas such as regulatory changes and increasing requirements on sustainability. Many companies in the wine sector are small, and these regional bodies provide them with a collective voice.
For SWR, these organisations are vital partners, as a couple of examples demonstrate.
One of our key regional partners is Wine Australia. I was lucky enough to be asked to speak at their Technical Conference last July, and we are now working closely with them on packaging choices. For SWR, our work on the Bottle Weight Accord was only a starting point in understanding the wider challenges around wine packaging. And for Wine Australia, given the distance that much of their wine needs to travel to get to market, packaging choices are obviously avital factor to understand. Working together on this topic was therefore completely common sense. The initial report from this collaboration will be published in July.
Earlier this year, we held an event in Bordeaux in partnership with CIVB, the Bordeaux Wine Bureau focussing on labour standards. On the one hand, this was an opportunity for us to communicate the real pressures on retailers on these issues, and the emerging lessons of our work in this area. On the other, we were able to meet with those actually dealing with labour issues on the ground. A lot of issues in sustainability which seem a little rarified when sitting at a desk, are brought into sharp focus when dealing with the daily reality of them.
Our time in Bordeaux also highlighted another vital role played by these geographic bodies. They look beyond the wine industry to wider issues of regional economic development. Wine, self-evidently, is grown and made in rural areas, and these regions frequently suffer from poverty and economic challenge. By working with governmental institutions at the national and local level, and with other local agricultural and industrial sectors, wine bodies are part of a vital network of partners to support the future of their region and its people.
Given this, it is perhaps not surprising that the CIVB’s sustainability standard for its region, Cultivons Demain, looks not just at the normal topics, but at these wider issues of regional development.
Regional bodies are a crucial resource, and a key partner for SWR. Understanding what sustainability looks like on-the-ground is of huge importance. All of which leads me to a neat conclusion for this piece.
We need to know more about this, and our Sustainable Vineyard Practice Survey is the tool we are using to do this. We have already had some great responses, but we need more. So, please complete the survey. It’s your opportunity to tell us what you’re doing, and what challenges you’re facing.
You can find the survey here: Sustainable Vineyard Practice Survey
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