The Australian Wine Research Institute

Improving the environmental and economic performance of the Australian wine supply chain (Entwine Australia)

Project summary

Entwine Australia is the Australian wine industry’s sustainability program – set up to support growers and winemakers in demonstrating and improving the sustainability of their businesses. Entwine is endorsed by the industry peak bodies Australian Vignerons, WFA and Wine Australia. Entwine operates as an ‘umbrella’ sustainability program. Under the Entwine umbrella there are two components for members – the reporting of sustainability metrics to the AWRI and participation in an approved certification program. Entwine provides credentials that cover the fundamental components of sustainability and delivers benchmarking tools and resources to enable planning, evaluation, control and communication in vineyards and wineries. The structure, content and strategic direction of Entwine are guided by industry reference groups.

LATEST INFORMATION

Membership and projects
In 2015 Entwine had more than 600 vineyard and winery members covering approximately 30% of the Australian wine-grape vineyard area and 30% of the national wine-grape crush. A significant upgrade was made to the Australian Wine Carbon Calculator enabling all Entwine members to benchmark greenhouse gas emissions, yield, vineyard area and water use against other members, based on production scale, region, GI zone or state. Results have been communicated using a combination of workshops (delivered under the DAWR’s ‘Extension and Outreach’ program) and other regional presentations. Further communication is being supported by customised regional and individual online reports that showcase significant sustainability projects.

A pilot project was initiated to investigate the relationship between natural capital and business resilience. This will be undertaken in collaboration with the National Australia Bank over an eighteen-month period, focusing initially on wine-grape growers in the Langhorne Creek region.