Innovating for lower CO2 emissions
TricorBraun WinePak is the largest wine glass distributor in North America and a major provider of bottles to the wine industry. Committed to being at the forefront of the industry, the company set about offering clients new lightweight wine bottles in 2006, in the form of the Ardagh Glass Eco Series.
Ardagh Glass Eco Bottles, before being shipped to wineries for bottling and labelling.
Extremely popular with wineries intent on reducing their ecological footprint, Eco Series bottles are up to 3 ounces lighter in weight than traditional bottles and are made with more than 55% recycled glass and are produced in clean-burning furnaces. Reducing carbon emissions both during their manufacture and their use means an overall CO2 emission reduction between 19% to 29%, compared to a standard 20-ounce wine bottle.
Wineries using the bottles reduce not only their carbon footprint, but also make considerable cost savings. Reducing the weight of wine bottles means more bottles of wine can be transported per shipment, resulting in a reduction in the number of shipments and thus of fuel and CO2 emissions. Heidi Cook, the company’s Business Development Manager for British Columbia, said the bottles are of “increasing interest to their customers, who are also committed to reducing their environmental impact.”
Heidi said the company’s “long-term objective is to create effective packaging that stands out, while reducing our environmental impact and ecological footprint.” This means ambitious, low impact packaging in all its forms, not just in terms of wine bottles. This includes offering 100% recycled aluminium screw caps for wine bottles, packaging tape made from plant-based materials, the use of 100% recycled eco-conscious carton and printing using vegetable-based dyes.
Being a major packaging distributor, the company has taken steps not only to offer environmentally sound products to its customers, but to implement reuse and recycling wherever possible within its warehouses. Wooden pallets are reused, while pallet wrap and plastic strapping are recycled, through a partnership with a plastics recycling company, which has kept over 50 tons of waste plastic out of landfills.