Carbon footprinting is a way of measuring the accumulated amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming caused by human activity. This generally includes all direct and indirect emissions. The Carbon Trust defines carbon footprinting as “the total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an individual or organisation, event or product”.

The concept of ‘food miles’ is misleading and has been rejected by the UK Government and the European Commission as a basis for calculating ‘environmental friendliness’. This view is shared by the UK retail sector and their suppliers. The WSTA continues to meet with officials from the Department for Environment (Defra) and related agencies to discuss how the Government, the trade and organisations such as the Carbon Trust and WRAP can work together on the issue of carbon footprinting.

The British Standards Institute has been tasked with leading the process of reducing CO2 emissions on a generic level in the UK in conjunction with DEFRA, the Carbon Trust, retailers and supply chains. They have developed a Publicly Available Specification (PAS) that looks at the whole lifecycle of the supply and value chain. The latest version of PAS 2050 can be found online.

In conjunction with JF Hillebrand and other members of the WSTA Logistics Group, a Transport Carbon Calculator has been developed to enable organisations to calculate the carbon emissions associated with the transportation of alcohol. The calculator is available online.

The methodologies are generally compatible with the transport component of the international Greenhouse Gas Calculator. The development of the WSTA assumptions can be found online. 

The international “Wine Industry Greenhouse Gas Calculator” has been developed to incorporate all aspects of Greenhouse Gas emissions from the wine industry as identified by the Wine Industry Protocol. The calculator is always under review.

Click here to access the International Wine Industry Greenhouse Gas Accounting Calculator Version 1.2. 

Click here to access the Greenhouse Gas Accounting Calculator User's Guide