World’s first Carbon Reduction Labelled wine to enter the Australian market

Australian wine consumers will shortly be given the option to purchase wine detailing its carbon footprint with today’s announcement of certification for Mobius Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.

This wine has become the world’s first to be certified by the Carbon Trust; and to feature the Carbon Reduction Label on its wine labels.

This label will be displayed on the Mobius Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc sold in Australia to show its carbon footprint has been measured at 190g CO2e per 125ml serving - a result certified by the Carbon Trust.

This certification marks another milestone for the Marlborough based New Zealand Wine Company (NZWC), which has pioneered sustainable management in the New Zealand wine industry.

The NZWC has been working in partnership with Planet Ark – program manager of the Carbon Reduction Label in Australia. Planet Ark has today launched the certification of the first products to carry the label in Australia with their foundation partners NZWC, Dyson and Aldi.

NZWC makes the Mobius brand at their Grove Mill winery, and Craig Fowles of the NZWC says this new footprint labelling represents a significant achievement for the brand and the company.

“It’s a very important certification as it is a full life cycle carbon approach and provides us with an early adopter advantage,” says Mr Fowles.

“Just last week the Carbon Trust in the UK announced that sales of products carrying the Carbon Reducion Label will shortly top two billion pounds (GBP) per annum. Also the French Government recently made a commitment to implement mandatory environmental labelling on all consumer products from 1st January 2011.”

“Considering the growing demand internationally for carbon labelling, we certainly feel that this certification will be important to our export customers, along with consumers in their markets.”

The measurement and certification of Mobius was managed by food and beverage carbon life cycle specialists Aura Sustainability using its barefootTM tools and models. Roger Kerrison, Principle Consultant at Aura says this certification will provide significant benefits to the NZWC.

“There are obviously huge benefits considering this is a world first and places the NZWC in a leading position as an early adopter, but this certification is also a sensible risk management strategy,” says Mr Kerrison.

“The life cycle information that barefootTM provides to the NZWC allows them to engage their supply chain and make decisions that will make their wines extremely carbon competitive on the supermarket shelf alongside their contemporaries. This is the market imperative of carbon labelling, and if successful will actually provide a market solution for the reduction of environmental and carbon impacts of consumer goods.”

“Consumers in the EU are wanting to reach for products that have green credentials and when you see that carbon labelled products account for more sales than both organic and fair trade in the UK, it is pretty evident that carbon labelling is a trend we will see more of in terms of market entry requirements, as well as longer term in the local Australian market through the work Planet Ark are undertaking.”

The Mobius wine with the Carbon Reduction Label is current being bottled and is expected to be available in Australia in early 2011.
For more information please visit:
http://www.carbon-bonding.com
or email mobiuslaunch@carbon-bonding.com
High-res images available on request.
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Contact Information

Craig Fowles

Sustainability Manager

The New Zealand Wine Company

Contact via E-mail