Alternative packaging to cut transport & distribution emissions
The reduction potential, measured
Time horizon: Immediate
How it cuts it
Lower weight per litre reduces transport emissions, especially over long distribution.
What to measure for this pairing
Why this source matters
Getting the wine to market is a significant fraction of the footprint, especially for exports. It depends on packaging weight, distance and mode — air freight is tens of times more intensive than sea.
Lightening packaging, bottling near the market (bulk shipping), consolidating loads and preferring sea to air reduce these emissions. It is a typical Scope 3 source.
Source indicators
Scope & reporting: Scope 3 emissions, increasingly required by importers and retail with climate targets.
How to implement the lever
- 1Identify the SKUs suited to alternative formats.
- 2Assess bag-in-box, can or PET by channel and market.
- 3Communicate the environmental benefit to the consumer.
- 4Log the material and recompute the footprint.
Frequently asked
Do they work for age-worthy wines?
Mostly no — they suit wines for near-term drinking. (Light) glass remains for age-worthy and premium wines.
Are cans and PET recyclable?
Aluminium is highly recyclable; PET is recyclable too. Bag-in-box has mixed components, but its footprint per litre is usually among the lowest.
Same lever, other sources
Same source, other levers — Transport
How GrapeFlow helps
The footprint per bottle and per season, always up to date — the basis of any low-carbon report.
Packaging materials & bottle weight
Weight and composition of each bottle and material by SKU — to quantify and cut the largest footprint source.
Carbon footprint per bottle & season
GrapeFlow gathers energy, fuel, packaging and inputs and computes the footprint per bottle and per season — the basis of any report or low-carbon label.
Energy & fuels (invoices by OCR)
Electricity, diesel and other fuels captured from invoices, with consumption per kWh, per litre and per bottle.