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Vihucas&+Blog

Wine’s carbon footprint

The CO2 footprint of Vihucas

The CO2 footprint of Vihucas

The climate change is a fact we cannot deny. It’s a frequently discussed issue but it is clear that we, the humans and the emissions we produce are responsible for it.

Vihucas is committed to act sustainable and to protect our environment and our nature, as it is from there, where the raw material for our big passion – the wine – comes from. That is why we were one of the first wineries in Spain to survey our Carbon footprint. The study was possible thanks to the cooperation with the research group for environmental technologies and industrial means of the Polytechnic University in Madrid.

Under the guidance of Julio Lumbreras it was Carmen Hurtado who measured how much greenhouse gas we emit producing our wines. Starting with the plantation and the maintenance of the vines, to the harvest, the production process till the filling and the transport – each step was considered.

The results of the study

The results of the study

It was a quite hard and intense task to collect all the relevant data, which took more than one year. First of all the current production processes are not quite transparent regarding the CO2 emissions.

Additional the study was carried out really detailed, considering factors like the CO2 emission during the lifecycle of the boxes we use for harvesting or of the wire and piles we use in our plantation – finally over 100 parameters each one with its own production process were surveyed.

The result of the study shows that the origin of the biggest part of our emissions lies in the transport. It is not just the transport of the final product, our wines, it is also the transport of all parts and pieces used in the production process which carries weight.

The purpose of the study was not just to get to know how much CO2 we emit, it was more to discover where we can reduce our emissions and what we can do to reduce the impact we have on the environment.

The first steps: Trees in our vines

The first steps: Trees in our vines

The first actions have already been taken. One example is the plantation of trees in our vines with the idea to capture CO2. Another step was to choose lighter bottles and to optimize the format of bottles and boxes for the transport. This way more boxes and bottles fit in one transporter and we could reduce also the weight.

We are sure that there is still a lot to do and that the climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time. We have to change our thinking and our professional and private behaviour in order to save our environment and our nature. Especially in the sector of agriculture there is still a long way ahead. Vihucas did is first steps and we are willing to continue our path towards more sustainability.