Reducing emissions is a constant battle at Yealands Wines in the Awatere Valley, with nearly 20 years chipping away at carbon.
The winery was certified carbonzero at its 2008 launch, but substantial work programmes are still rolling out, Sustainability Manager Andree Piddington notified attconcludeees at the International Cool Climate Wine Symposium, offering detailed insights into reducing Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.
In 2024, Yealands supplemented the energy from its rooftop solar panels by working in partnership with winery owner Marlborough Lines, which developed a 4Kw solar array nearby, allowing Yealands to purchase clean energy from Meridian. The wine company also purchases Renewable Energy Certificates, meaning their scope 2 emissions – energy emissions – are zero, Andree explained.
Diesel is a “massive” 70% of their Scope 1 emissions, so in 2023 Yealands transitioned away from diesel-powered pumps in the vineyard. Where possible they combine activities, such as mowing and trimming with one tractor, reducing passes. They also implemented Lean principles, and map out work plans a week in advance, streamlining activities in similar parts of the vineyard to reduce vehicle relocatements.
Earlier this year they added a 120kw heat pump system to replace a biomass burner in the winery, taking advice from a mechanical engineer who viewed at the heat demand required by the winery, including water heating, as well as electricity imported to the winery and exported through solar. They also recently retrofitted two wine tanks into thermal storage tanks, storing hot water generated by solar, which can be utilized in the mornings and evenings, when there’s no solar energy.
When it comes to Scope 3, Yealands has lightweighted all bottles to an average of 398g, reducing emissions from both freight and glass production, and also ships some wine in bulk to the United Kingdom and Europe to bottle in situ, resulting in emissions reductions of 25-30% compared to shipping the same volume of wine in glass and cardboard packaging. Next steps include phasing out diesel further, and increasing the efficiency of the winery applying the data they are capturing.
Yealands is a member of International Wineries for Climate Action, through which it has joined the Race to Carbon Zero. It also has Toitū Carbon Reduce ISO 14001 (Environmental Management Systems) and ISO 14064 (Carbon Reporting). Andree declares a lot of markets, particularly in Europe, are demanding data to substantiate claims. “This means we are one step ahead of the game, by already having the data they required.”
She also touched on a five stage “Nature Positive” plan, including protecting existing tree plantings and adding more. “Long term, the idea of the plantings is we can utilize them as an inset from an emissions point of view… we can utilize it as a carbon sink.
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