Environmental excellence and eco-design

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The technical and environmental excellence of our production equipment is a major asset that can only be maintained through continuous reassessment and improvement. We take the initiative to help upstream industry partners adopt even more virtuous wine growing practices, optimize our water and energy consumption, and embrace the circular economy. Impact is assessed —and reduced— right from the product design phase. Ecodesign is our guide to achieving more positive environmental impact.

Optimizing environmental sustainability at all our sites

Innovation is key to reducing our impact on water resources and improving our energy efficiency.
Water is a vital resource and necessity at every stage of our activity. Mounting pressure on water resources makes it increasingly important to use less water while still ensuring the impeccable hygiene so essential to quality production in the cellar. Tools such as blowers, spray balls and high-pressure cleaners allow us to consume less water but also produce less wastewater.

The best source of energy is the one not consumed. For this reason, we strive to scale down our needs and are rolling out a strategy based on energy efficient equipment, the insulation of our sites and tanks to reduce energy loss, and the use of heat exchangers to reuse energy.

Mas La Chevalière is a pilot site for our energy saving efforts. In 2017 we partnered with a design office to comply with national energy performance standards and have been working to improve our energy efficiency since. We identified every improvement possible to lower consumption, including the replacement of 250 lights with LED technology; water and energy recovery in cleaning-related bottling processes; the use of heat recovered from cooling units to clean cellars; the insulation of tanks, and 950 square meters of solar panels, which became self-sufficient in February 2019.

These improvements in our production processes are coupled with a strategy of training and awareness raising about water and energy savings for teams, from the vat room to the office. Our objective to reduce water and energy consumption is as economic as it is environmental. We monitor spending carefully to identify the most energy and water hungry operations and address any issues promptly to quantify progress and pinpoint problems.

At the same time, our view of our waste is changing. While the best waste is the one not made, ours can become a valuable resource for both us and our partners. We produce as little waste as possible and aim to strike a balance between thickness, lightness and the necessary resistance of the materials we use. We carefully sort remaining waste and recycle more than 80% each year. Specialized re-use and re-processing channels find new uses for materials in a circular economy approach that AdVini is committed to developing.

Eco-design center stage in our wines and packaging

Limiting environmental impact starts with product design. When creating a new product, it is never too early to improve our choices, from the vineyard to our production sites and the selection of our packaging. Our vision of eco-design means rethinking our methods to improve whenever possible, including the continuous improvement of packaging impact. Lighter bottles, non-toxic inks and more eco-friendly printing techniques are just some of the solutions we use to reduce the environmental footprint of our products. Likewise, we strive to incorporate as much recycled material as possible, and thanks to joint efforts with industry partners, all our packaging is now recyclable!

At AdVini, we are already planning the next step: to re-use rather than recycle. At the forefront of reuse and returnable bottle schemes, we are a driving force of environmental innovation.

Terre Nature, AdVini’s début re-usable range, is a cutting-edge example of eco-design, with new corks, standardized bottles, and no gilding, varnish or block coloring. Thanks to the advice of our partner Oc Consigne, these new developments have established us as a pioneer in the exciting new world of re-use.

Cork
FSC certified (sustainable forest management)

Bottle
Re-usable as much as 20 times.

Label
Elimination of gilding, varnishes and block coloring

Adhesive
Change of adhesive for easy removal of labels during washing