I was a guest speaker at NapaGreen’s Conference last week, presenting at the workshop “All Things Bottle Sustainability.” The conference featured several workshops on sustainability, with the last in the series this upcoming Friday, April 29th on “All Things Soil Sustainability.” I was proud to participate in the series and to support this important organization (www.napagreen.org), which focuses on building a more sustainable wine industry. 

    As I’ve written about before, our industry’s continued success will depend on our ability to combat climate change by reducing our impact on the environment, including developing and utilizing better farming, production and, yes, packaging practices. My workshop focused on achievable ways we can manufacture and package wine bottles while reducing our carbon footprint and, at the same time, continuing to innovate quality and design. 

    My company, Global Package LLC, has a long history of working with glass manufacturing partners around the world who have led efforts in sustainability. Therefore, my presentation focused on several ecological factors that impact the glass wine bottle. Glass weight, of course, is a top consideration when it comes to shipping, storing, and displaying wine bottles. I offered the example of our Elegant Light™ bottles, which are made with less glass and, thus, are lighter weight, resulting in considerable savings in transportation costs. In fact they are up to 20% less expensive to ship than standard bottles.

    In addition, we’ve found that it’s 10 times more efficient to transport product via water than by overland trucking and 17 times more efficient than by airfreight. 

Also, recent developments in the effort to decrease greenhouse gas emissions have led the Europeans and Chinese to tighten environmental controls, passing laws over the past several years to reduce sulfur in fuel. In total, according to a recent LCA- Life Cycle Assessment, there is small energy impact from the transport of glass packaging.

    On the manufacturing front, it takes 1.8 tons of raw material to produce one ton of glass. Cullet, which is recycled glass, can be added in varying amounts to decrease these raw materials. Recycled cullet is critical to reduce raw material use, pollutants, and even transportation costs.

    Several years ago Global Package introduced to the US market Wild Glass™, an innovative line of bottles from Spain’s Estal. These bottles are not only works of art, they are comprised of almost 100% cullet recycled glass, thus making them the most sustainable bottles on the market. 

    Every Wild Glass™ bottle is unique, since the manufacturing process allows bubbles, orange peel, coloring line imperfections and color variations to remain. The resulting aesthetic is an organic design similar to hand blown glass, but with all the efficiencies of automatic glass production. Because these cosmetic imperfections are not only acceptable, but also desirable, fewer bottles are rejected, reducing from 25% to 15% the discard rate at the factory. 

    The sustainability factor is also impressive because 100% of Wild Glass™ is made from PCR (Post Consumer Recycling) material, which comes from recycling centers. Therefore, its fusion of recycled glass production uses less energy. The PCR content means less extraction of virgin raw materials in production.

    All of us at Global Package are grateful to Napa Green’s leadership in promoting and developing sustainable practices in our industry. We’d like to help promote their upcoming “Napa THRIVES” six-event series June 7 – 23. Here’s a link to the series: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/june-7-23-napa-thrives-six-event-series-tickets-289015863227

    Let’s all continue to support this essential organization!

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Global Package (www.globalpackage.net) is located in Napa Valley and has an experienced team to provide the best bottles sourced from worldwide factories. It also provides custom shippers, glass decoration, pewter labels, and closures for the wine industry. When it comes to providing custom and specialty bottles and packaging, the firm leads the way in finding solutions to provide a comprehensive and attractive outcome that sets a brand apart. Contact: 2793 Napa Valley Corporate Drive, Napa, CA 94558, and 707-224-5670.