Climate Talks by Porto Protocol

This Climate Talk is dedicated to sharing different practices that make a winery more efficient and less impactful from an environmental standpoint, exploring topics such as the choice of building materials, solar exposure, energy and water management of and waste minimization.  As usual, we will have excellent guests, who will share several of their experiences, from the construction of a LEED building and the challenges behind its certification, to the use of alternative building materials (hemp) as a smart solution for a winery, to the balance as a whole between efficiency, environment and quality in wine production.  HOST - Wendy Cameron (University of Melbourne and a member of our Expert Panel)  GUESTS - Hugo Azevedo – Symington family Estates - Portugal https://pt.symington.com/- Robert Eden Chateau Maris - France - https://chateaumaris.com/- Victoria Gonzalez- Gordon (Gonzalez Byass) - Spain - https://gonzalezbyass.com/en-gb- Sion Bra- Gordon - Lawsons Dry Hills - New Zealand - https://lawsonsdryhills.co.nz/

This Climate Talk is moving past the “low-hanging fruit” and reaching for the stars – showcasing wine bottle reuse. The bottle accounts for 50% of a wineries’ CO2 emissions, due to the amount of heat required to melt glass along with transportation. Recycling decreases total emissions however, the CO2 budget of a bottle made from recycled glass is still very high, and much of the world’s recycling infrastructure is dysfunctional, leaving a huge proportion of wine bottles buried in landfills. For the wine industry to reach zero emissions and continue to use the very best, inert recipient for bottle aging, the only solution is bottle reuse.  Four companies, from different countries, join us to share their experience with bottle reuse so that we can revive this once widely practiced tradition.  HOST - Diana Snowden Seysses – Winemaker at Domaine Dujac, Winemaker and Proprietor at Snowden Vineyards and member of The Porto Protocol’s Global Steering Committee 

GUESTS 

- Melissa Saunders MW - Wine Director at The Goods Good - USA 

- Muriel Chatel - Managing Director of Borough Wines & Sustainable Wine Solution – UK 

- Bertrand Grafé - Owner of Grafé Lecocq - Belgium 

- Lise Rolland - Marketing and communications director for Oé - France

In this Climate Talk we explored what an Operations Executive needs to consider to implement strategic changes across the whole value chain: From logistics, packing to warehousing and offices; From waste, water and energy management, to tracing hidden wastes and looking at the whole product’s life cycle. From reevaluating transportation to organizational culture, customer and workforce motivations as well geographical differences.  

GUESTS

Nicolas Quillé (Crimson Wine Group) - https://www.crimsonwinegroup.com/- 

Mafalda Vasques (Herdade dos grous) - http://www.herdadedosgrous.pt/

HOST - Marta Mendonça – The Porto Protocol

In this Climate Talk, organized in cooperation with The Regenerative Viticulture Foundation, we will explore the importance of soil health in vineyards, and the new challenges which arise when managing that soil health using regenerative practices.

HOST

STEPHEN CRONK - CO-FOUNDER OF MAISON MIRABEAU AND FOUNDER TRUSTEE AT REGENERATIVE VITICULTURE FOUNDATION - FRANCE 

GUESTS

In this Climate Talk we debate the why and the how of internalizing climate change in your wine business: Where to start? What are the fundamental changes this decision will bring into the modus operandi of the business? What barriers may you encounter? What opportunities arise from it? What are the risks? How does it affect your relationship with your stakeholders, from employees to providers? How do you address it and communicate it? How do you pass it on to your consumers?   

GUESTS 

 Caroline Thompson-Hill - Accolade Wines  - UK (https://www.accoladefinewines.com/) 

 Michele Manelli – Salcheto – ITALY (https://salcheto.it/)

 NICOLE SIERRA-ROLET - Chêne Bleu – FRANCE (https://www.chenebleu.com/)  

HOST: 

 Marta Mendonça – Manager at The Porto Protocol Foundation (Portugal) - https://www.portoprotocol.com/about-us/

This Climate Talk addresses the state of art of circular innovation in wine, by bringing together different players from the wine value chain, but also from other industries with in-depth knowledge and approaches to circular practices. They explore how the wine industry can connect the dots of its value chain in a circular way, bringing examples tested with by-products of the wine production, as well as the applicability and suitability, from big to small practices, across different regions and realities.  

GUESTS Rosa Prati (Caviro Winery) - ITALY 

Valentina Lira (Concha Y Toro) - CHILE 

Zach Lawless (Good Goods) - USA  

HOST  Miguel Cachão (AVIPE) - PORTUGAL

For this Climate Talk on energy management throughout wine production, we have invited Charles Perry (Sustainable Future for All) to host a conversation between Adam Black, (Head of Energy at Lanchester Wines) Anna Brittain (Executive Director at Napa Green) and Ron Runnebaum (Assistant Professor In Viticulture & Enology And In Chemical Engineering & Materials Science at University of California, Davis).

In this Climate Talk we will debate the why and the how of internalizing climate change in your wine business: Where do you start? how does this materialize into a balance sheet? What are the fundamental changes this decision will bring into the modus operandi of the business? What barriers may you encounter? What opportunities arise from it? What are the risks? How does it affect your relationship with your stakeholders, from employees to providers? How do you address it and communicate it? How do you pass it on to your consumers? We will seek to present practical approaches to these questions by players from the industry worldwide that have decided to address climate emergency in a proactive fashion.

GUESTS

§ Carlo Mondavi - USA . Chief Farming Officer and COO at Monarh Tractor (https://www.monarchtractor.com/); CEO at Raen Winery (https://www.raenwinery.com) and Continuum Estate (https://www.continuumestate.com/)

§ Paulo Azevedo - Portugal . Chairman at BA Glass (https://baglass.com/en/index.php) and Sonae (that is, an international Glass bottle producer) and - https://www.sonae.pt/en/media/blog/post/letter-from-the-chairman/

§ Rowena Curlewis. AUSTRALIA . Co-Founder & CEO at Denomination Drinks Design (https://www.denomination.com/)

HOST:

§ Marta Mendonça – Manager at The Porto Protocol Foundation (Portugal) - https://www.portoprotocol.com/about-us/

This Climate Talk is an initiative of Dr. Richard Smart, renowned International Wine Grower and Consultant. 

Dr. Smart challenged Porto Protocol to organize a webinar about mitigation (vs adaptation), on reducing the carbon footprint of the grape and wine sector. In his own words, mitigation is more of an ethical decision than an economic one, and the focus is on avoiding the causes of the climate crisis so that it does not happen. According to him “it is a decision that an industry can take to help ensure its future, in the same spirit in which this decision is being taken by countries and states, communities and families”.  

This session was the first “Research Edition” of our Climate Talks by Porto Protocol, a slightly different format from what our community is used to: we will have a series of presentations, each focused on different research themes, either from a scientific or market approach, on different components underlying the decision to mitigate:  

- Kieran Hirlam (AWRI) will present Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and carbon footprint to demonstrate that the 750ml glass bottle is an important component of the industry's carbon footprint. 

- Heena Panchasara (Central Queensland University) will describe how pyrolysis enables the industry to convert waste streams from vineyards and wineries into energy.   

- Richard Halstead (Wine Intelligence) will discuss how the glass bottle can be replaced by alternative packaging and how wine consumers can react.   

These presentations were followed by a debate moderated by Tiago Alves de Sousa (Alves de Sousa), Producer and Professor (UTAD), who will bridge the gap between the conclusions resulting from the investigation of each guest and their adaptation to the day-to-day life of the vineyard and wine sector.  For those in the grape and wine industry who see a response to the climate crisis beyond adaptation, we hope this digital conversation will serve as an incentive to contemplate mitigation.

In this Climate Talk we will debate how wine tourism businesses are dealing with the climate challenges and what is the role it can play on adapting and mitigating it. We will gather different players from the wine tourism sector to discuss the major changes wine tourism needs to address a green transition. We’ll explore what have been the consumers' demands and expectations regarding this topic, and, in a very practical way, what are the measures they have been implementing to turn their wine tourism operation into a more efficient and environmentally friendly one.   We will also approach what are the fundamental changes this path will bring into the modus operandi of the business? What are the barriers and the opportunities that can arise from it and risks involved? How can wine production values be aligned with the wine tourism operation?  

GUESTS 

 Adrian Bridge, CEO of The Fladgate Partnership & The Porto Protocol Foundation (Portugal) - https://www.taylor.pt/pt;  

 Caroline Feely, Co-owner and Director at Chateaux Feely, (France) - https://chateaufeely.com/

 Heidi-Newton-King, Sustainability Director at Spier (South Africa) - https://www.spier.co.za/  

HOST: 

 Catherine Leparmentier, Managing Director at Great Wine Capitals - https://www.greatwinecapitals.com/