Familia Torres and Jackson Family Wines have announced today in Barcelona their intention to create a working group of wineries from all over the world to join efforts towards CO2 emissions reduction. The goal is to galvanize action within the global wine community to mitigate and reverse the impacts of climate change by decarbonizing the industry. Wineries will share the commitment of achieving 80% reduction of total carbon emissions (Scopes 1, 2 & 3) by 2045.
Both family-owned wineries are looking to create a space for collaboration that encourages the sharing of best practices that reduce climate impact in vineyard and winery operations. Membership will focus on wineries who recognize that climate change is the most significant threat facing the wine industry and who are guided by the urgency for strategic action that accelerates the implementation of innovative solutions to tackle climate change.
The collaborative effort of the working group, the International Wineries for Climate Action, will start with establishing a framework to understand and measure progress towards the defined goal, involving 3 key points: in the first place establish a baseline of current carbon emissions across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 by conducting third-party verified annual greenhouse gas emissions inventories; secondly, adopt the guidance established in 2015 through COP21 and the Paris Agreement to take a science-based approach to reducing emissions; and finally utilize at least 20% renewable energy generated by on-site systems to offset winery energy consumption.
Katie Jackson, second-generation proprietor and senior vice president of corporate responsibility at Jackson Family Wines, stated about the initiative: “Our common goal is to move beyond conversations around the urgency of climate change by collaborating on scalable solutions to reduce our global industry’s carbon footprint.” And Miguel A. Torres, president at Familia Torres and member of the fourth generation, continued: “We are just at the beginning with our initiative, but we hope it will be a trigger, a boost for other wineries to join and accelerate or to start the implementation of carbon-emissions-reduction-programs.”
Familia Torres and the Jackson Family - two leading wine families dedicated to crafting high quality wines from renowned wine regions across the globe - share a multigenerational vision rooted in environmental stewardship and responsible practices. Both wineries have reduced more than 25% of their total CO2 emissions per bottle since they started auditing their respective carbon footprints.
