Crimson Wine Group – Reduction in Glass Bottle Weight

Our primary objective was to lighten our glass weight to reduce our carbon footprint. Our glass weight has been reduced by 13% leading to an estimated reduction of 8% in our carbon footprint. During that exploration, we’ve discovered other benefits beyond reducing our glass use such as simpler logistics, lower transportation footprint and higher warehouse usage.

COMPANY SUMMARY

Crimson Wine Group – USA

Crimson Wine Group owns six wineries and associated estate vineyards on the West coast of the United States and sells wines at an average retail price point of $25 per bottle. Our wineries are located in Napa Valley, Sonoma Valley, Edna Valley, the Dundee Hills, and eastern Washington

PROJECT STARTING TO END DATE 03/01/2019 - 10/31/2019

SUSTAINABLE TARGET

• Reduce the distance between our glass producer and our bottling locations. Ideally, the glass production should be located within 1,000 km of the bottling locations
• Reduce the average bottle weight by 10% from the current average bottle weight of 580 g/750ml glass bottle

REASON WHY/ MOTIVATION

Our understanding is that glass bottles can represent up to 60% of the carbon footprint of a bottle of wine due to the high energy required to make a glass bottle of wine as well as the high cost of transportation from the glass plant to the bottling center and from the bottling center to the final consumer. The carbon footprint of glass is proportional to its weight. We those facts in mind, we thought that reducing our average glass weight would be the most important action we could take to reduce our global carbon footprint. Additionally, most of our glass was produced 8,800 km away from our bottling adding unnecessary transportation and logistical burdens.

DESCRIPTION AND STRATEGIES

The first step was to audit all of our different glass molds across our estates. From there we started to discuss harmonizing the different shapes we were using in order to simplify purchasing and gain flexibility.

The second step was to interview domestic glass manufacturers and audit their processes and costs. Rapidly we found a local supplier that was able to match the pricing from our previous sourcing especially since we were reducing our glass weight in the process. During that audit, we discovered that all the supplies this glass manufacturer used (silica, limestone and soda ash) were mined locally. This knowledge increased our awareness of the entire glass manufacturing supply chain and helped us select a partner that also thought about its carbon footprint.

We then went to select glass molds with the manufacturer and tried to push down our average bottle weight as low as we could without compromising the brand image we were looking for.

Once an agreement was found we went to visit the manufacturer as a team to create a stronger bond between the teams.

BENEFITS/ACHIEVEMENTS

In one year we have

–  dropped our average bottle weight by 13% to 505 g/750ml. This is taking out 300 tons of glass out of production every year. Assuming 60% of our carbon footprint came from glass, we have dropped the entire operation’s carbon footprint by 8%

– reduced the transportation footprint from the glass manufacturer to our bottling lines by 8,300 km for each bottle transported

– got us closer to our manufacturer and deepened our understanding of how glass is made. We are now sensitive about the entire supply chain and the fact that our glass manufacturer sources all its supplies locally

– the drop in glass weight is allowing us to put more filled glass per truck by increasing our pallet sizes. We are able to reduce by 30% the number of trucks and store 30% more cases in our warehouses.

LESSONS LEARNED

• Do not assume that local suppliers are more expensive
• A closely located supply chain is more reactive which saves on transportation and logistical costs
• It is important to understand how our suppliers are getting their own supplies – the entire supply chain is important
• Standardization of glass across the company leads to standardizing other parts such as pallet sizes, and capsule diameter leading to less waste and more flexibility.

NEXT STEPS

• We are now looking at our other packaging supplies such as closures, labels and capsules.
• We also are exploring other materials than glass to continue to drop our weight per container.

POTENTIAL FOR REPLICATION

This is easily replicable to any other wine producer.