Market Drivers

Government
Federal, state and local governments are driving environmental change in many sectors in an attempt to conserve our nation’s natural resources. Evidence of this includes guidelines and licensing conditions for significant winery developments, and national policies and programs such as the National Water Initiative, the National Greenhouse and Energy Reduction Scheme, and the National Pollutant Inventory.

Further afield, the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has publicly stated that consumers cannot be relied upon to make sustainable choices and governments will intervene and work with retailers to restrict the choice of products available to consumers on the basis of their environmental performance.

Retailers
Local and international retailers are placing stricter guidelines on products being sold. In the UK, Tesco is advocating carbon reduction labelling in its Nature’s Choice supplier guidelines, Waitrose is investigating a wine version of the Linking Environment and Farming (LEAF) scheme, and all retailers are signatories to the Courtauld Commitment aimed at reducing packaging waste – in particular, glass.

In the US, Wal-Mart has followed up its Packaging Scorecard with a Sustainability Scorecard for suppliers, which will reward top environmental performers, presumably through preferential supply arrangements. Domestically, Woolworths is investigating carbon footprint labels, and the Woolworths, Coles and IGA Metcash are part of a horticultural industry initiative to establish agreement on high level environmental principles to provide direction to suppliers.

Competitors
South Africa, New Zealand and California have had environmental assurance schemes in place for many years and new program developments are evident in France and Chile.

NGOs
The UK’s Waste and Resources Action Program (WRAP) is pushing for light weighting of wine bottles, Planet Ark in Australia is advocating the uptake of Carbon Reduction Labels, the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange is being used by several UK retailers as a sustainability data collection tool for suppliers, and Greenpeace continues to monitor and publish findings on the use of genetically modified organisms in alcoholic beverages. Non-government environmental associations in Australia and abroad continue to lobby consumers to recognise and reward good environmental performers.

Consumers
Consumers are increasingly aware of the environmental impacts of the products they purchase. Wine products have not escaped this consumer scrutiny. A combination of increased consumer awareness and the negative environmental branding of the wine industry are strong drivers for the adoption of EntWine Australia.