In 2021, the Denomination Sustainability Team developed a proprietary ‘futureproof’ model in collaboration with industry leaders in sustainable solutions: Circuthon, global consumer insights specialists, Wine Intelligence, and some of the world’s leading packaging manufacturers, suppliers and printers.

As drinks branding and packaging specialists, we’re in deep, and we know how complicated it is to put together a 360° initiative. We want to help drinks brands keep up with shifts in regulations, to stay on top of product innovations, their associated costs and the impact on the bottom line. We want to help our clients improve consumer buy-in and C-suite engagement, and to maintain a solid, recognisable brand.

We want to understand each client’s and each brand’s stance on climate change, how important it is, and which areas of the value chain they are particularly concerned with. We can then craft our Futureproof recommendations that will ensure that each client/brand meets their strategic pillars, thereby ensuring marketing, the C-suite, the board, and the shareholders are all happy.

We want to make sure both little and big steps are being made. So this covers inks, label backing paper, bottle weight, recycled content of bottles and labels, transport carbon, recyclability of each of the end products, plus bigger solutions that will create true circular solutions within the wine industry. Eco drinks packaging requires deep thinking and questioning. Where are your raw materials from? What’s your fuel source and energy usage? What are your suppliers’ fuel source and energy usage? What’s your end of life policy?

Engagement with suppliers is equally important. Understanding their capabilities, biases, innovation pipeline and sourcing is key. Knowledge means that we can “gently” push them in directions that will create more sustainable solutions for our clients. Things like plastic wrapping of bottle palettes are as concerning to me as the fuel used to fire furnaces, especially for regions who do not as yet have soft plastics recycling.