For the next fiscal year, Pernod Ricard is planning to certify Graffigna, its winery in San Juan, with carbon footprint (ISO 14064). The multinational company is setting up a sustainability project that will allow it to reduce carbon emissions, water usage and energy consumption, and also achieve the highest recycling rate of the industry.
Alejandro Iocco, Pernod Ricard’s Quality, Safety and Environment Manager in Argentina and Uruguay, explained that “last year (June 2011 – June 2012) we started a study on Carbon footprint and Sustainable Agriculture. The group asks us to implement these methodologies, as a business strategy, because there are markets that require them.”
Although the ultimate objective of Carbon footprint certification is environmental care, it is true that this type of methodologies save costs at several moments of the industrial and distribution chain.
Iocco pointed out that “in fact, cost reduction is a consequence of all this. At Pernod Ricard we try to develop the concept of sustainability at its utmost expression. When reducing the weight of a bottle, a lower input cost is achieved, but benefits do not end there; the glassworks factory cuts down energy consumption and so does the transport chain; therefore it has a positive impact on every sector.”
Specifically, the company has announced the reduction of the weight of several bottles: for instances, the bottle for Colón brand went from 520g (2006) to 400g (2010). Thanks to this initiative, a decrease of 2,526,000 kilos in the consumption of glass was achieved between 2006 and 2010.
Water footprint
Apart from this, the company confirmed that it is already working on other important concepts as it is water footprint. This way, the plants already boast water reuse equipment and several plans to reduce the use of water are implemented at an industrial level as well as in the vineyard.
“We have been working for years to reduce water use and we are aim-driven. In the last three years we have managed to lower industrial water use by 11% in all of our operations in Argentina and our goal is to cut it down further (7%) in next three years.”
Tags: Business Case, Carbon Footprint, certify, Graffigna, water footprint
