While telling your sustainable story serves a practical purpose in educating consumers about the real-world impact of your sustainable practices, it also goes deeper than that: it builds meaningful emotional connections.

Welcome to Marketing Tip Monday with SIP Certified. We know customers are looking for wines labeled as sustainable. While our longer-form episodes help you learn about the latest science and research for the wine industry, these twice-monthly micro podcasts will help you share your dedication to sustainable winegrowing so you can show your customers that you share their values.

The brand-new Sustainable Story worksheet is a simple yet powerful free tool that helps you tell your own personal sustainable message. Simply download the worksheet linked in the show notes, complete it with your whole team, and keep following along with this podcast series to learn how to incorporate your story into every aspect of your marketing and sales.

Today we share why messaging around social equity is important to your customers and you'll hear how Vina Robles embodies social responsibility.

About 70% of the decisions we make are based on emotional factors (Gallup 2022). Build emotional connections over shared values with your customers by telling your sustainable story. When you do this, you are reminding your customers that at the same time that they are appreciating a great glass of wine, they are also supporting a system of winemaking that cares for the people and the planet.

Social Responsibility at Vina Robles

Did you know that planting a tree can be as easy as enjoying a bottle of wine? It can be when you buy a bottle of Vina Robles' the Arborist!

In their partnership with One Tree Planted and the Arbor Day Foundation, Vina Robles dedicates a portion of the proceeds from every bottle of the Arborist that is sold to plant trees.

Since the program began in the year 2000, nearly 33,000 trees have been planted thanks to these organizations and every person who purchases a bottle of the Arborist.

This partnership is a natural extension of the winery's passion for trees and sustainable viticulture.

The oak tree depicted on the bottle of this red blend represents the Legacy Oak – a 300+-year-old oak tree rooted on the estate Jardine Vineyard.

The wine is dedicated to Vina Robles' founder, Hans Nef, and named for the arborist who saved the tree from its declining health in 2014.

This initiative is a tremendous display of Social Responsibility by Vina Robles. Giving back to the community and environment that they call home is just one of the ways they embody the 7 SIP Certified Values.

Tell Your Sustainable Story

Many people know that there is a higher value in products that are made sustainably, but they don't really know what sustainability means in day-to-day operations. That's why we encourage you to identify specific sustainable practices that your brand uses and create a narrative that is easy to share and incorporate into daily conversations.

Use the Sustainable Story worksheet to help you identify the ways your brand embodies the 7 sustainable values:

Worksheet for Print | Worksheet for Electronic Filling

Stay tuned for more Marketing Tip Mondays, where we will help you explore ways of incorporating your brand's sustainable practices into your messaging.

Check out the show notes to download and complete your own Sustainable Story worksheet, an example from Niner Wine Estates, to share the blog post about Vina Robles' story, and to sign up for our biweekly Marketing Tips newsletter.

Until next time, this is Sustainable Winegrowing with the Vineyard Team.

References:

• **SIP Smart Training online course
• Marketing Tips eNewsletter
• Niner Wines Estates protects the people and the planet
• Sustainable Story Worksheet for Print
• Sustainable Story Worksheet for Electronic Filling
• What's your Sustainable Story?
• SIP Certified
• Social Responsibility: Vina Robles
• Vineyard Team