{"id":40929,"date":"2025-09-05T12:25:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T10:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vinexposium.com\/?p=40929"},"modified":"2026-01-09T15:47:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T14:47:43","slug":"green-or-greenwashed-the-wine-industrys-sustainability-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vinexposium.com\/en\/actus\/industry\/green-or-greenwashed-the-wine-industrys-sustainability-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Green or greenwashed? The wine industry\u2019s sustainability challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWith sustainability, initially you make fast inroads \u2013 it\u2019s the low-hanging fruit \u2013 but then you bump up against complexity very quickly. You also face traRecent research by the Wine Market Council in the United States highlights a key obstacle on the wine industry\u2019s path to sustainability: a lack of clarity and shared understanding, which hinders effective communication.<\/em><\/p>\n

Consumers cited the absence of artificial ingredients and clear labelling of natural ones as top priorities, revealing just how nebulous the concept of \u201ceco-friendly wine\u201d remains. But what kind of information truly resonates and where is the line between honest messaging and overstatement? As visionary California winemaker Jesse Katz puts it, \u201cThe difference between serious land stewardship and greenwashing lies in transparency, depth of practice and long-term ecological thinking.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The elephants in the room<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Dr Peter Stanbury, research director with the UK-based Sustainable Wine Roundtable (SWR), feels that \u201cthere\u2019s an awful lot of hot air in sustainability with many relying on half-truths.\u201d With over 40 wine-specific sustainability schemes operating globally, the industry is fragmented and confusion can arise \u2014 not always with negative intent.<\/p>\n

To promote clarity and \u201ccommunicate a clear and unified vision of what sustainability truly means for wine,\u201d the SWR has launched a standards benchmarking process. The Pilot Report featuring seven standards was published in December 2024 and the 30 or so others are due to follow this year.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, alcohol monopolies in Canada and Scandinavia are deepening their scrutiny of sustainability standards worldwide and galvanising their suppliers into action. Stanbury notes that while most standards offer strong guidance on vineyard practices, they tend to fall short in two key areas: post-winery operations and human rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the wine industry, we\u2019re happy to talk about farming practices, bottle weights and other issues, but there\u2019s still reluctance to address the workers’ side,\u201d says Dom de Ville, director of Sustainability & Social Impact with The Wine Society (TWS) in the UK. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like they\u2019re worried about opening Pandora\u2019s Box.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a member-owned business with a 150-year history, the company sees itself as a long-term \u201ccustodian<\/em>\u201d looking as far ahead as it does behind. \u201cSustainability just makes good business sense. It brings a lot of financial efficiencies and ticks every box,\u201d <\/em>argues de Ville, who has spent a career in sustainability. Yet he notes several pitfalls, such as creating \u201cwonderful plans\u201d but failing to resource a team to deliver them, or allowing these strategies to fall by the wayside when the going gets tough.<\/p>\n

de-offs \u2013 rail over road for instance \u2013 and have to deal with very real world commercial issues,\u201d de Ville says. \u201cFor example, we live in a demand culture and our customers appreciate free delivery on all orders, but that\u2019s not great for carbon emissions.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

TWS relies on certifications \u2014 \u201cWe don\u2019t have the resources to inspect all our own suppliers\u201d \u2014 but de Ville says that \u201cnot all certifications are created equal.\u201d By 2030, the company aims to use the SWR benchmarking report and to have 70% of the wines it buys come from producers with a credible sustainability certification. It will be mindful not to exclude the smaller players, who just \u201chaven\u2019t got the time or money to get the stamp,\u201d de Ville says, noting that smaller producers often do things much more sustainably than the big ones.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the curve<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Charlotte de Sousa, who handles exports and communications at the namesake Champagne winery, couldn\u2019t agree more, though she does have the rubber stamps: Champagne De Sousa has been certified organic for more than a decade and is now also certified biodynamic. Beyond the myriad certification requirements, the family winery has introduced agro-forestry, draught horses and even quartz in the winery, \u201cfor the feng shui effect,\u201d out of personal conviction.<\/p>\n

The family prides itself on taking the organic route well before it gained mainstream appeal: \u201cWhen our father switched to organic, it was so frowned upon that he almost had to hide it,\u201d de Sousa remembers. Today, the landscape has shifted and many of the large Champagne houses are jumping on board, some driven by ethics \u2013 \u201clike Roederer\u201d \u2013 others more by marketing considerations.<\/p>\n

For de Sousa\u2019s father, the aim was to achieve \u201cprecision and freshness in his wines. He thought that farming organically and biodynamically could help him achieve that.\u201d Certification came later, at the behest of customers \u201cseeking reassurance.\u201d It took years to achieve over the 16 hectares of farmed vineyards: \u201cfarming organically and biodynamically over such a large and fragmented area is much more challenging than for the garage wineries, particularly in Champagne due to the weather,\u201d says de Sousa, who spends time explaining vineyard and winery practices to customers, alongside her brother Valentin and sister Julie.<\/p>\n

\"3 The De Sousa family \u00a9Leif Carlsson<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial media has made communication so much easier and communicating is the only way to explain quite complex techniques and also why our prices are higher due to additional costs,\u201d says de Sousa, who uses powerful imagery such as the winery\u2019s four draught horses and sheep grazing in its vineyards. \u201cWhen people see a ladybird on a vine, it speaks to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greenwashing vs greenhushing<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Whilst de Ville warns that the industry \u201cneeds to be very careful about over-claiming,\u201d he has seen no evidence of outright greenwashing. In fact, quite the opposite: \u201cA fear of investigative journalism is causing greenhushing, where people are nervous about putting their head above the parapet for fear of getting shot down. But we also shouldn\u2019t let perfect be the enemy of good.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

De Ville suggests that \u201cbeing honest about what you\u2019re good at \u2014 and not good at \u2014 builds trust.\u201d<\/em> As the industry increasingly pivots towards a more holistic approach to sustainability and methods like regenerative viticulture become potential game-changers, integrity, evidence-based action and meaningful progress are emerging as the primary levers of that trust.<\/p>\n

About Sharon Nagel :<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

British-born Sharon Nagel has been a journalist and translator specialising in wine for 35 years. She writes for leading French online publication Vitisphere and also contributes to corporate communications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWith sustainability, initially you make fast inroads \u2013 it\u2019s the low-hanging fruit \u2013 but then you bump up against complexity very quickly. You also face traRecent research by the Wine Market Council in the United States highlights (\u2026)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":40964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry","format-article"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGreen or greenwashed? The wine industry\u2019s sustainability challenge – Vinexposium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Green or greenwashed? 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