2 Oct 2013

Wine industry trials sustainability project

7:09 am on 2 October 2013

The wine industry is trialling a sustainability project that claims to lead the world as a tool for cutting energy use and protecting the environment.

The $11 million New Zealand sustainability dashboard project is funded by the Government and industries.

Led by the Agribusiness Group, it is designed to give farmers and growers information on the environmental, economic and social performance of their vineyards and farms.

New Zealand Winegrowers general manager sustainability Philip Manson said 20 vineyards and 10 wineries were taking part in the pilot trial.

"We've been running for some time an annual audit, or scorecard, which has a range of questions right across the production," Mr Manson said.

"If you're a grapegrower or a winemaker looking at issues around production, what they're doing in terms of their environmental management, how they're dealing with their people. What we're doing is building off that system and looking at how we can take the information they're providing and process it so that it's giving them knowledge."

It would give winemakers the opportunity to compare their practices with the rest of the industry, and to evaluate where they could make improvements.

Results from the trial would be reported at the end of the year, before the project was rolled out across the industry.