Our Environmental Policy

Italian box wine and canned wine in countryside surroundings

39% of the wine industry’s emissions globally are caused by single use glass bottles and When in Rome is on a mission to change that. All of our wines are sold in eco-friendly packaging that generates up to 10x less CO2 than single use glass bottles.

That said, our economic activity has a negative environmental impact and we are determined to introduce more sustainable working practices to help combat climate change in all areas of our business, and to encourage our wine producers and suppliers to do the same.

The production, transportation and packaging of wine accounts for the vast majority of our carbon footprint. Accordingly, our guiding environmental principles are focussed on these areas:   

  1. Production: We only work with smaller, independent producers, many of which have been owned by the same family for generations and are therefore environmental stewards by definition. Moreover, we are working with our producers to reduce their environmental impact in various ways, such as using solar energy, reducing water usage and avoiding the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides.
  1. Transport: Wherever possible, we transport our wine by train (UK) or ship (Canada), especially for the longest legs of the journey. The shape and weight of box wine also means that we can move more than double the volume of wine per pallet, which implies an >50% reduction in transport volume (and cost).
  1. Packaging: We only sell wine in eco-friendly packaging. By eco-friendly, we mean alternative packaging formats that have a significantly lower carbon footprint than single use glass bottles. When in Rome is working closely with its packaging suppliers to further reduce CO2 generation and other forms of pollution e.g. the taps on our wine boxes cannot yet be recycled. We will take every opportunity to raise awareness of these issues with our customer base and further afield.

Moreover, When in Rome is are working with the following partners to help us maintain these principles and further reduce the negative environmental impact of our business:

  • CarbonCloud are helping us to calculate, monitor and work to reduce the CO2 emissions generated by our products. and publish an accurate figure of each wine’s CO2 emissions on the packaging itself and other forums such as our website.
  • Ecotricity have already undertaken an operational review focussed on our UK operations. Linked to the above, but broader in scope, our intention is for future reviews to take on a full lifecycle approach.

Rob Malin, CEO at When in Rome Wine Ltd

 7th September 2021 (V1)

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