Searching for Sustainability
It has been a confusing time for the world's environmentalists. Dismay greeted Trump's announcement in 2017 that the US would cease all participation in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, while global warming continues its ugly march forward. Eco-warriors in Europe searching for hope may also be left wanting – the far right is currently enjoying a 'healthy' resurgence in European politics, and saving the planet is hardly a massive priority.
Yet in a zeitgeist where cynicism and despair have become an integral part of the daily diet, the corporate world is offering a ray of hope. Avaricious conglomerates run entirely for their shareholders' benefit are now providing a benchmark for good behavior, at least as far as sustainability is concerned. The reduction of single-use plastic and other finite resources is at the forefront of their environmental promises; Starbucks has pledged to phase out single-use plastic straws by 2020. Other key players like American Airlines and McDonald's are making similar shifts. UPS and Fedex have begun work on transitioning their fleets to electric vehicles, while IKEA has pledged to shift to zero-emission delivery vehicles. Apple apparently now runs on 100 percent green energy at its own facilities; Levi has also promised to run its manufacturing on 100 percent renewable energy by 2025.
Of course, the corporate sphere has a concurrent motive; a study undertaken by Unilever in 2017 revealed that a third of consumers are now choosing to buy from brands they believe are doing social or environmental good. These recent initiatives, and the financial burden they will undoubtedly place on firms, offer perhaps the best empirical evidence that sustainability is fast becoming a consumer priority – certainly for Millennials – in many sectors. Managing Directors are convinced the 'Green Pound' is becoming king, and few can afford to be left behind.
But in due fairness to the wine industry, leading producers are not twiddling their screw caps. My inbox is bulging with press trip invites and invitations that revolve around sustainability initiatives. Reduction of carbon footprint, sustainable energy sources, zero carbon emissions – these phrases are now as ubiquitous as hackneyed "sense of place" and "elegance/freshness" tropes. Even closure companies are rushing to embrace the warm, fuzzy feeling one gets from saving the planet. Nomacorc, the plant-based closure system owned by Vinventions, has been at the forefront of this movement.
In December 2018, the firm unveiled a new recycling partnership with French wine specialist Nicolas. France has 500 Nicolas stores, which will collect the Nomacorc PlantCorcs as well as synthetic closures, with the ambition of making a new closure from the recycled ones. Kiwis of course will scoff that this is old news; the New Zealand wine industry made a promise years ago to become the word's first 100 percent sustainable wine business. Introduced in 1995, Sustainable Winegrowers New Zealand (SWNZ) is a voluntary, industry-wide initiative developed to provide an environmental ''best practice'' model for both vineyard and winery.
Nevertheless, one change is likely to dominate the wine agenda over the next 10 years: the shift of emphasis from sustainability as a (solely) internalized concern to a potentially lucrative PR message. How much influence a winery's sustainability credentials will have on consumer behavior remains to be seen, but it's clear that sustainability is a growing part of some firms' R&D and marketing decisions.
The unprecedented emergence of premium wine styles available in cans is just one manifestation of this phenomenon, in addition to the obvious USP of convenience. Premium rosé brand Mirabeau launched canned wine with Whole Foods across all their stores in the US last year, which triggered their NPD team to consider other markets.
"It was a big success in the US and they tend to lead trends in wine. We believe it'll really catch on in the UK," says Mirabeau founder Stephen Cronk. "Cans will appeal to people who see the benefits of portability and smaller serving size and also, given environmental concerns about landfill and emissions, the environmental angle." Aluminum is a hot topic in the sustainability debate – the chemical element loses no quality during recycling and can be recycled forever.
However, while producers across the world are ranking up their sustainability efforts, the end-consumer still hears a lot less about it than colleagues in the trade. "It can be very hard to find out exactly how sustainable a wine is," says wine buyer Christine Parkinson. "At Hakkasan we have highlighted biodynamically produced wines for more than 10 years, but even the importers have often had no idea how the wine is produced. This is changing in a good way, with more information available, but in many cases it is still not that obvious. People seem to want to drink wine that they consider is somehow 'right'."
Others would argue that this is overstating the case. It seems unlikely that in markets like the UK, the discount and price-led nature of the mass market could ever be challenged by a critical mass of consumers willing to pay more, if a brand's eco-friendly credentials are right. The premium end may be a different story, yet most analysts agree that Millennials are the key audience for 'green' products, a consumer base that is apparently losing interest in wine. The disloyal bastards.
"I think for a very small group of consumers this matters, but for the majority it is at best a nice add-on. Sustainability also tends to be a bigger driver amongst younger consumers and these are less active in wine buying than older consumers," argues wine buyer Peter Mitchell MW. "Retailers and some restaurants make a great effort to promote their ethical selections, but I sometimes wonder who this is aimed at." Not that Mitchell is suggesting that baby boomers are heartless swines.
They are, though, the world's biggest consumer of premium wine. Could they be swayed by the myriad of messages inherent to that one emotive word: sustainability? In time, perhaps. Yet if one examines the UK grocery market as a whole, 'ethical' food only makes up around 10 percent of the market and the growth has trailed off dramatically. But interest in 'sustainable' wine is growing, according to many sections of the trade, albeit opinions vary on just how important adverting these credentials are in the overall marketing mix.
"I think the need for more sustainable practices, which don't harm the environment, have really hit a button with everyone. Other than perhaps with that man in the White House," says Fuller's wine buyer Neil Bruce. "We have added an 'ethical' range because we think it is the right thing to do. And we will carry this theme into our soon to be published 2019 portfolio."
But at the moment, it's hard to discern whether the commercial value of sustainability messages will remain negligible, or become a significant presence in wine marketing over the next decade. Winery websites are often brimming with self-congratulatory statements about their environmental credentials, which may or may not win over certain consumers. However, it's harder to imagine those same consumers staying around if a brand jacked up the price by 20 dollars, to pay for their solar panels. In an arena as notoriously fickle and mercurial as the wine market, can sustainability really make a difference? And if every winery suddenly declares itself on a mission to save the planet, how is the poor consumer supposed to differentiate?
Still, as I'm constantly reminded, PR hates repetition – marketing messages surrounding regionality and terroir have been done to death, with little apparent effectiveness. A heightened promotional emphasis on sustainability can surely do no harm, for as Parkinson reminds us, most information is only transmitted via a brand's website. Can PR noise about carbon footprints and recycling initiatives win back lost Millennial consumers? It's probably worth a try, and in any case, is hardly likely to turn them away.
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