The Current State Of Sustainability And Environmental Stewardship In The Wine Industry

What is the current state of sustainability and environmental stewardship in the wine industry? Is the Canadian industry leading or lagging other nations in these efforts?

Current State of Sustainability

According to Bhamra and Lofthouse, (2016), sustainability can be defined as the process which related to the ways by which changes can be maintained within the organizations in a balanced manner. Furthermore, Hensen et al. (2016), has opined that sustainability can be seen as the basis of the different principles which is inclusive of economic, ecological principles along with the equity principles which is concerning both intergenerational and intragenerational equity. Moreover, as commented by Laszlo and Zhexembayeva (2017), this can be identified that the implementation of the sustainability in the wine industry is consisting of the environmental soundness, economic feasibility along with social equity which will be beneficial for the overall success of the wine firms.

On the other hand, Laszlo and Zhexembayeva (2017), has commented that the environmental stewardship on the other hand is based on the ways by which resources offered by the natural environment are used in a responsible manner and sustainable practices are maintained as well. The discussion that will be made in the paper will be based on the implementation of environmental stewardship and sustainability by the organizations which operate in the wine industry. The country which will be focussed in the analysis is Canada (Hensen et al., 2016).

According to Laszlo and Zhexembayeva (2017), environmental challenges have been able to affect the lives of people and different organizations which operate in various industries as well. The concept related to sustainability is based on different elements which include, depletion of the resources, environmental and ecological aspects and the quality of life. The organizations which operate in the wine industry have also implemented many sustainable methods in order to maintain the production based systems. Sustainable development in the wine industry is now prevalent in different countries like, Australia, USA, New Zealand, South Africa and Europe.

For example- Tai and Chuang (2014), has commented and opined that the different efforts which are spent by the Californian wine industry for educating and reaching out towards educating the growers are operationally defining the overall sustainability as the viability of the agricultural enterprise. Moreover, Sustaining Success Strategy of Australian wine industry is one such program which was established in the year 1992 wherein proper training and education is being provided in order to provide the proper view on the different kinds of aspects such as related to the environmental protection schemes.

As discussed by Ledgerwood (2017), the organizations which operate in these countries have thereby started taking effective steps in order to ensure the sustainability of operations. As per the table shown in the appendix, this can be seen that the different steps for ensuring the operations sustainability is inclusive of an ongoing kind of practice along with control of the erosion which will be helpful in improving the vineyard roadways along with the drainage system waterways to prevent the further soil erosion around the entire property. Furthermore, modern equipment along with mechanization which helps in controlling weed for the herbicides as well which will be effective in nature. The programs related to sustainability had started in USA in the year 1990 which was further followed by the other countries as well. Research based on the operations of organizations of the wine industry has been based on different countries which include Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain and Greece.

Current state of sustainability and environmental stewardship in wine industry

The point of view of consumers regarding sustainability is also considered by the organizations which operate in the wine industry. Different factors related to sustainability which are able to affect the consumers of wine based organizations in the industry are, environment friendliness, distinctiveness, taste based profile, packaging, labelling, reliability, safety. These factors need to be considered by the wine-based organizations when they aim at operating in the industry in a sustainable manner. The global wine based industry is based on the small or medium sized organizations (Ortiz?de?Mandojana, Aguilera?Caracuel & Morales?Raya, 2016). The sustainability-based steps need to be implemented by the organizations in order to continue their operations in the industry for a longer time and by the usage of less amount of resources as well.  

According to Tai and Chuang (2014), environmental stewardship is another major factor which is implemented by the organizations in the global wine-based industry. This concept is based on the ways by which the organizations have been able to use the resources which are present in the neighbourhood areas. This has reduced the costs based on manufacture of different products and also increased the usage of resources in an effective way.

For instance- Social along with environmental Stewardship is the major shift in the social attitude of the different companies to perform which is right for the environment along with the different inhabitants. With the help of the environmental stewardship program, proper implementation of the different programs and practices will have a positive environmental impact such as reduced the carbon footprint along with conservation of the energy in an appropriate manner.

As commented by Worrell, Allwood and Gutowski (2016), the green initiatives have been taken by the organizations in order to maintain the levels of sustainability within the wine industry. The organizations which operate in the wine industry of different countries have started implementing the concept of environmental stewardship in order to operate in the industry in a sustainable manner.

As discussed by Waddock (2017), the choice of consumers has started changing in the modern business-based environment. The demands for healthy products have affected the offerings of the wine industry of different countries. Researches have been able to depict that different countries like, USA, South Africa, Germany have implemented many sustainable options for manufacture of the wine products. The organizations which are a part of the wine industry of Canada have also started implementing many sustainable methods.

According to Worrell, Allwood and Gutowski (2016), the wine industry of Ontario has implemented a program named Sustainable Wine making Ontario. This program had been started in the year 2007 which was based on the ways by which the organizations aimed at preserving and protecting the environment. The program further aimed at helping the wineries of the country to improve their operations on a continuous basis. The development of this program was based on years of research related to the best levels of environmental practices which are followed all around the world.

For instance- The various types of areas which is inclusive of winery-based hospitality and grape growing has also been included in the program. Major goals of the program were to improve the usage of energy required for production, reduction of the usage of water, improvement in the management of waste water. Improvement of the quality of air, management of natural resources are also considered to be some of the major objectives of the program (Waddock, 2017).

According to Ortiz?de?Mandojana, Aguilera?Caracuel and Morales?Raya (2016), the Canadian government and the wine making organizations have taken effective steps related to sustainability and environmental stewardship. However, the country has taken much longer time to implement the different sustainable solutions as compared to the organizations in other developed countries like Australia and USA. The initiatives which have been implemented in Canada have affected the industry after a longer period of time. Moreover, this was being analysed that large usage of the synthetic chemicals such as fertilizers will help in preventing the grapes from offering the truest expression and this can disrupt the soil composition as well.

For instance- The entire Canadian wine industry is dependent entirely on the different natural resources which is inclusive of the climate, solar energy and soil along with water which plays a major role in enhancing the overall sustainable resources and practices which are necessary. However, in August 2011, the Canadian vineyard have received the environmental excellence award for implementing the sustainability in the different programs which are being undertaken by them in improving their approach effectively.

Conclusion

The paper can be concluded by stating that sustainability and environmental stewardship based initiatives have become quite common in the wine making industries of different countries. Canada has been quite late in implementing these activities based on sustainability. This has been seen that there are different awards for the environmental sustainability excellence have been gained by the Canadian vineyard which has helped them in successfully becoming more sustainable towards the different activities. However, the organizations in Canada have started implementing many sustainable initiatives for the wine making process. The wine industry can be considered highly sustainable in nature. Environmental stewardship is also an important part of the operations of wine making industry of different countries.

References

Bhamra, T., & Lofthouse, V. (2016). Design for sustainability: a practical approach. Routledge.

Hensen, N., Keeling, D. I., de Ruyter, K., & Wetzels, M. (2016). Me, myself, and future generations: the role of affinity and effectiveness in the creation of Consumer Environmental Stewardship (CENS). Psychology & Marketing, 33(5), 389-406.

Laszlo, C., & Zhexembayeva, N. (2017). Embedded sustainability. In Embedded Sustainability (pp. 116-140). Routledge.

Ledgerwood, G. (2017). Greening the boardroom: Corporate governance and business sustainability. Routledge.

Ortiz?de?Mandojana, N., Aguilera?Caracuel, J., & Morales?Raya, M. (2016). Corporate governance and environmental sustainability: the moderating role of the national institutional context. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 23(3), 150-164.

Tai, F. M., & Chuang, S. H. (2014). Corporate social responsibility. Ibusiness, 6(03), 117.

Waddock, S. (2017). Stewardship of the future: Large system change and company stewardship. In Corporate stewardship (pp. 36-54). Routledge.

Worrell, E., Allwood, J., & Gutowski, T. (2016). The role of material efficiency in environmental stewardship. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 41, 575-598.