Leaders of the wine industry are beginning to prove that even creature comforts are still within the grasp of the environmentally conscience, despite the machinery-driven and agriculture heavy processes associated with wine production. A winery in Umbria, Italy called Monte Vibiano, known for producing high-end wines, is one of these leaders, and they have set out on a quest to become the first carbon-neutral winery in the world.
Many other wineries employ innovative practices to reduce their footprint; however, Monte Vibiano is taking this to a whole new level by using all the basic sustainability methods as well as IT integration, applying new technologies to revolutionize age-old techniques of wine production.
Some of the implemented strategies have been to use new Microsoft software to reduce their servers to half of what was used before as well as cutting the energy needed to run those servers by almost 40%. They made similar progress by adjusting their travel needs. Instead of traveling long distances to meet with clients and arrange tastings, they are holding more of their meetings online, thus cutting travel expenditures by $30,000 and showing how simple changes in strategy lead to huge economic and environmental improvement.
These adjustments are only the beginning. Solar electricity systems will eventually provide all the energy for the winery as well as their wheat and olive oil production facilities, and they even employ simple methods like painting storage facilities white to reflect sun away from the Earth, planting 10,000 trees to soak up CO2, and using golf carts and electric bikes to zip around the premises. Tractors, meanwhile, run on biofuels, which they say they never use from food-source crops. It seems there is nothing this innovative winery has not thought of or decided to leave to chance
Plans for the near future are even more impressive. Monte Vibiano is planning to use up-to-date analytics and data collection with an intricate network of crop sensors to ensure the most quality end products with least amount of effort. They presume by tracking everything they can figure out exactly where they need to adjust. Radio frequency ID tags provide data on their olive trees, monitoring everything from natural variables to the effect humans have on production. They will monitor every variable to find the absolute greatest efficiency in production by eliminating any kind of waste possible.
Monte Vibiano predict their efforts will cut 10 tons of CO2 emissions and lead to vast savings in company expenditures starting in 5 years when the investment pays off. As a serious business, environmental improvements don’t make sense if the figures don’t work. The best part about news like this is when organizations like Monte Vibiano blaze the path others in the industry soon follow suit, especially when it makes economic sense.
And consumers can rest assured responsible business practices and new revolutionary techniques will ensure they do not have to give up this cherished luxury any time soon.
