By Maria Sarkis
What’s better than a glass of wine after a long exhausting day? Drinking wine has a lot of health benefits such as protecting against heart disease but have you ever thought about the environmental impact of wine? Is wine good or bad for the planet?
In order to determine whether our delicious drink hurts the environment or not, it is necessary to know the basic steps of wine production. Primarily, the grapes are harvested or picked by machines or by hand and then transported to the winery where they are sorted. Rotted grapes are thrown out and the selected ones are crushed by machines. Then, fermentation begins after 6 to 12 hours with the use of yeasts. At the end of this step, dry wine is produced. The generated wine is then filtered from all undesired substances. Finally, wine is bottled up or left for aging.
Unfortunately, wine production generates large amounts of wastes through several processes: biological, chemical and mechanical. In order to avoid contaminating the environment, these wastes must be managed adequately. To Aim for a “zero waste” society, they must be reused as raw materials to generate new products. During the grapevines’ cultivation, machines are utilized. Here, direct and indirect emissions are considered to produce fuels and machinery. Plus, pests are eliminated by using pesticides and fertilizers which discharge nitrous oxide. Also, water can be contaminated due to possible run-offs. Another major resource exploited is water mainly used for irrigation. Precision irrigation techniques can however be used.
To Aim for a “zero waste” society, they must be reused as raw materials to generate new products.
The fermentation of wine creates carbon dioxide as a byproduct. These emissions are surprisingly the most condensed of all. Also, manufacturing yeasts and barrels demands large electrical requirements associated with indirect emissions. Energy saver toolkits can be used to ameliorate the energy efficiency.
Furthermore, several cleaning processes are performed in the winery. Around 3000 to 4000 liters of wastewater, containing a lot of pollutants, is therefore generated for each tone of grapes. It can be treated and reused for irrigation. Alas, it is sometimes discharged in public sewerage systems or on the soil which affects the crops’ growing and the consumers. A sustainable alternative can be using it in xanthane bioproduction. Besides, grapes leaves, stems and pomace are residues of winemaking. The leaves can used as food ingredients or as eye cleansers made from their juice which has an antiseptic action. The stems can be used as nourishing composites for the soil, for stuffing animals or consumed as dietary fibers. The pomace, used as natural antioxidants, can be employed in the manufacturing of citric acid, ethanol and methanol and can also generate energy by methanisation.
The majority of wine’s carbon footprint is associated with its packaging, storage and distribution. The recycle of glass bottles can be done more than two dozen times, however their large weight causes them to be added to transport emissions. Encouraging wine lovers to recycle their wine bottles can be done by offering discounts on purchased bottles if their used bottle is returned. The glass’ production consumes a lot of energy and natural gas to melt raw materials. Packaging components include the cork and the aluminum foil that wraps it. The cork is biodegradable, it can be recycled and reused. However, the aluminum needs a lot of energy to be produced.
The majority of wine’s carbon footprint is associated with its packaging, storage and distribution.
With the purpose of reducing the carbon footprint of packaging, cartons can be used instead of glass. Carton packaged wine’s footprint is five times less than glass packaged wine. Using stainless steel containers can reduce the transported bottles’ weight which positively affects transport emissions. Distributing wine in bulk reduces these emissions by 40%. If you want to help reducing the negative impact of wine’s transportation, you can try consuming wines produced closer to you!
All in all, wine lovers should not be completely disappointed! There are several ways to minimize the negative environmental impact of winemaking and it all starts with you, the consumers! All you have to do is encourage wineries to adopt a sustainable way for their wine production. How?
You can start by purchasing sustainable wines!
Sustainable wines are produced keeping in mind that the environment is a priority as well as the consumer. Biodiversity on vineyards is maintained, recycling measures are adopted and renewable energy is utilized such as solar energy. Social responsibility is supported, economic feasibility is maintained and the good news is: high quality wines are produced! You can feel all the vigorous flavors that come with aging and it also has a long shelf life!
If you live in Lebanon, we suggest trying a local wine made in the only winery in Lebanon that has a water recycling unit for all exploited water: IXSIR. They use the recycled water for irrigation. Plus, they collect rainwater and reuse it. All of their green waste is composted and used as natural fertilizer. They try maximizing their usage of the sunlight by implementing zenithal skylights on the roof. One third of the winery’s energy derives from their photovoltaic panels. Instead of refrigerating mechanically, they built the wine cellar 12 meters underground in order to take advantage of the thermal consistency of the soil. IXSIR is trying to reduce its carbon footprint by being the first winery in Lebanon to switch from regular glass bottles to the Ecova-Verallia line which is a sustainable packaging made by Saint-Gobain. Being 35% lighter than the regular bottles, this will considerably reduce their carbon footprint. Not to mention that IXSIR’s wine is one the most delicious local wines in the country!
Afterall, it is not so bad to be eco-friendly, so cin cin!
