posted by Harriet Bell

Raise
a glass to lower-carbon wine

An unbreakable lightweight bottle is helping one winemaker on the way to 10%. But will it catch on?

27 Jul 10

 

The new 10:10 green bottle

The 10:10 badged 'green bottle' in action

At 10:10, we're always impressed to see the imaginative tricks people and organisations use to reduce their emissions. It's also interesting how often the benefits of these actions extend far beyond a smaller carbon footprint.

The latest example of this is the 10:10-branded 'green bottle', which French producer Joseph Mellot have chosen to launch their new Sauvignon Blanc.

Weighing in at just 58g, Joseph Mellot's creation is by far the lightest and toughest proper wine bottle ever made, which makes transporting it easier, cheaper, and a great deal greener.

The secret?They ditched heavy, energy-intensive glass in favour of an ultra hi-tech plastic. This miracle material is not only virtually unbreakable: it's also specially designed with UV and oxygen blockers to keep the product at its best for much longer than normal plastic.

The green bottle is exclusive to Joseph Mellot's 2009 Sauvignon Blanc for now, but you can expect to see it popping up all over the place before too long.

How it happened

Way back in the week after our September 1st launch we received an email from the lovely Andy at Mistral Wines, Joseph Mellot's UK distributor. “It is with great interest,” he wrote “that I have discovered your campaign both personally and professionally.”

It transpired that Joseph Mellot was developing a special plastic bottle for the launch of their new Sauvignon Blanc. The aim was to overcome the 'cheap' reputation and short lifespan that had held back plastic wine bottles in the past, and spark an industry sea change comparable to that ushered in by the humble (and once much-mocked) screw cap.

Andy thought that the massive carbon benefits of the new bottle made it a perfect fit with 10:10's aims, and that we could work together to educate consumers.

Knowing nothing about wine (except that it tastes good after a hard day's 10:10ing), but being an enthusiastic bunch we wrote back to Andy and said “Yey, go for it!” Then, we must confess, promptly forgot all about it until Andy resurfaced a few weeks ago with a case of handsome green bottles, the offer of a tasting and a great story of collaboration.

The green bottle illustrates how 10:10 helps sellers and suppliers work together to reduce emissions. Mistral Wines signed up to cut their 10%, and Joseph Mellot is now taking part in 10:10 France.
 
The plan for green bottle was formed when Joseph Mellot conducted an audit of their operations and discovered that the wine bottle was one of the largest sources of emissions in the wine-making process. So they set about designing a new super-lightweight bottle (recyclable and made in part from recycled materials) and came up with a bottle that weighed just 58g, 400g lighter than the standard bottles currently in circulation in the UK.
 
Combined with the other energy-saving measures Jospeh Mellot are implementing, this new bottle will reduce their emissions by 30%! And if all Joseph Mellot’s customers chose this lighter bottle it would save 74,000 litres of fuel per year in transportation—the equivalent of 55 separate return flights from Paris to New York.
 
Serving proper wine from a plastic bottle might seem strange now, but Britain's shoppers are more open-minded than they're given credit for. Remember when screw caps first came in? People said they'd never catch on, but now they're everywhere. Just remember: you saw it here first!