“No planet, no beer!”

“No planet, no beer!”

“No planet, no beer!”

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   That's the frightening prospect imagined by Andy Wood, managing director of U.K. brewer Adnams, something that should have everyone rushing — on foot — to the nearest recycling center.
   Wood, speaking earlier this week at a seminar held to examine the impact of climate change on the alcohol beverage industry, called on all drinks companies to place environmental issues at the top of their agenda to prevent such a “tragedy” becoming reality.
   The Confronting Climate Change seminar held Tuesday at the London International Wine Fair was arranged by U.K. publication the drinks business and specialist beverage logistics firm JF Hillebrand. Also on the panel were wine buyers from leading retailers Tesco, Waitrose and Sainsbury's.
   David Mawer, managing director for JF Hillebrand, outlined how the transport and logistics sector can help the drinks industry reduce its emissions. Mawer's company, in partnership with the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA), has just created a Transport Carbon Calculator that works out CO2 emissions based on routing, mode, equipment type and quantity shipped.
   “There is an urgent need to establish a common methodology for calculating carbon emissions,” Mawer said. “This is the first major challenge. If, like me, you believe that destiny is a matter of choice — then let’s take action together for the better.”
   One of JF Hillebrand's latest projects to minimize carbon emissions is its Tilbury-to-Daventry “Wine Train” service that is estimated to remove 6,000 vehicles off the heavily congested M25 and M1 major trunk routes per year. The daily rail service started in March after two years of development and '1 million investment. Each train can carry more than 350,000 bottles of wine.
   Other measures the drinks industry highlighted during the seminar included the light weighting of glass bottles and reducing product packaging.
   Wood said Adnams has decreased the glass weight of its 500-milliliter beer bottles by 33 percent from 445 grams to 299g, something that helps lower carbon emissions throughout production and shipping. The new bottle design and manufacturing process reduces Adnams' glass usage by 624 tons and carbon footprint by 415 tons of CO2 every year.
   However the panel pointed out that there still remains a perception among some consumers that weight of a bottle equates to quality, although a later presentation by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Program), a not-for-profit company backed by government funding, said its research found the height rather than the weight of the bottle played a bigger part in consumers' attitude to wine value.
   WRAP wants to see more wine importers and retailers opting to bulk import wine and bottle it in lighter bottles made in the United Kingdom, which it claims can reduce transport costs by 40 percent.
   The United Kingdom is the world's largest wine importer with more than 1.3 billion liters entering the country each year, about 80 percent of which is already bottled, WRAP said.
   “By encouraging the industry to bulk import wine and bottle it here in the U.K., we are reducing the amount of green glass entering our recycling systems, increasing the domestic market for recycled glass and also increasing the use of lighter weight bottles, which use less raw material and are better for the environment,” said Claire Shrewsbury, WRAP's glass sector manager.
   “As well as cutting glass waste, this approach also improves the industry's carbon emissions profile, and saves money by reducing transport and energy costs.” ' Simon Heaney