Thinking Green
Idyll Wine Co has a proven history of integrating sustainable practices into our operations. As we continue to grow, our focus on being a sustainable and responsible business does too. We continue to optimise the resources behind our operation in a variety of ways, and continue to focus on minimising our environmental impact.
Our Moorabool facility is largely powered by renewable energy including wind - sourced from the Ararat Wind Farm - and solar power. We believe that sourcing renewable energy is vital to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions as well as reduce our air pollution. We strive to continue diversifying our energy supply to reduce our dependency on other forms of electricity generation.
Our on site dam is located in the center of our property and provides more than a home to a local family of ducks. Throughout our operation, plenty of water is used from rinsing grapes from delivery tankers to cleaning our packaging facility. Our waste water treatment plant recycles the water used throughout our site and feeds it back into the dam. From here, the nutrient rich water is used to irrigate our vineyard as well as the idyllic gardens surrounding our property.
Idyll Wine Co is also part of a community compost program that turns grape waste from each vintage into a nutrient rich compost. After grapes are crushed the remaining skin and seeds known as marc, is combined with perlite water reeds, chipped pallets and horse manure to create compost. We use this compost for our vines as well as the gardens around our site.
One of our core values is Innovation – and this extends beyond just the products we can make. We have invested our time in focusing on packaging innovation to further reduce the impact our products have on the environment. In recent years we have switched to selecting lighter weight glass bottles to utilise less raw materials, as well as installed our latest machinery – a cluster-pak machine which replaces our existing carry pack baskets, using less cardboard for cider & RTD 4 and 6 packs. One of our robots has been re-programmed to include new patterns, enabling more cases to be packaged per pallet for a range of still and sparkling bottled wines. This makes transport more efficient, hence reducing our environmental impact further.
Each product we produce is reviewed against the sustainable-packaging guidelines to continue to decrease our reliance on single use materials. We strive to have all domestic products contain on-pack disposal recycling labels to encourage correct recycling behaviors from consumers. Many of our packaging materials including cans, glass bottles, cardboard dividers and slab cartons are made utilising a large portion of recycled materials.
We also know that even the small things matter when it comes to sustainability. Each lunchroom across our site has been fitted with a mixed recycling bin to divert waste from landfill and encourage recycling. Our staff have been great in utilizing these new bins and we have seen a drastic decrease in our hard rubbish disposal.
If you’re interested in learning more about sustainability at Idyll Wine Co, you can head to our sustainability page. Be sure to stay up to date via our Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.