Vinventions, a global leader in wine closure solutions and a signatory of the EU and U.S Plastic Pacts, has chosen to prioritise plastic action as the next step on their climate journey.
The proliferation of plastic pollution (in fragile ecosystems) has intensified public, investor, and regulatory pressure on companies to prioritise circularity and address the plastic waste in their value chains. Against this backdrop, Vinventions has set a goal of net zero plastic to nature for its Blue Line closures product line by 2022.
Vinventions is working with South Pole to develop a holistic plastic action strategy that will allow them to align their activities with emerging best-practices – all while demonstrating their commitment to address plastic pollution and circularity to consumers.
The foundation of any credible plastic action plan is built on regular and consistent accounting. To begin, South Pole followed the Guidelines for Corporate Plastic Stewardship to measure the plastic footprint of the Blue Line, including plastic use, output and leakage. The impact of Vinventions' existing mitigation activities, such as their closure collection program and use of recycled plastic content, were also assessed.
The plastic action strategy co-developed with South Pole is the first step in Vinventions' ambition to achieve a fully circular Blue Line.
The plastic footprint analysis served as a basis for South Pole to design a meaningful, impact-driven plastic action strategy for addressing Vinventions' plastic footprint. The first step in implementing the strategy is to address the amount of plastic waste leakage associated with the Blue Line through carefully planned plastic leakage mitigation measures. These mitigation measures will serve as a basis for building plastic leakage mitigation plans for Vinventions' other wine closure ranges.
There are no silver bullets for achieving circularity. Vinventions' concerted effort to use recycled content for circular production and to implement upstream collection and recycling solutions – alongside additional investments in local plastic waste collection infrastructure through certified plastic credits – will pave the way for net zero plastic to nature in its Blue Line and for meaningful plastic action overall.
Clearly communicating the scope and impact of Vinventions' efforts is key to raising consumer confidence in corporate plastic action. South Pole worked with Vinventions to align on a claim that accurately reflects the impact of their activities and that resonates with consumers – Net Zero Plastic to Nature.
Looking ahead, South Pole will support Vinventions to identify additional plastic waste collection activities that align with Vinventions' impact, and that can be verified under third party standards. South Pole's support includes guidance on project selection, formulation of relevant evaluation criteria, as well as coordination and project development support.
One of Vinventions´ missions is to influence our industry and our communities to preserve our planet. In 2021, we launched the Blue Line that positioned ourselves as a pioneer company to offer a closure solution issued from circular economy.
Through this line, we also wanted to address the end-of-life challenges so the net difference between the quantity of closures put on the market and collected is actually zero. To reach such an ambitious objective, we had to work with a credible partner in the sustainability industry. It had to be done under official guidelines and standards to make sure we build a responsible and high-performing project. South Pole, as an advisory member of the 3R initiative, appeared to be the best company to achieve our goal.
Our customers admit Nomacorc closures have no equivalent on the market in terms of mechanical and enological performances. When choosing Nomacorc, they also need us to help them show the sustainability benefits to the end consumer. The use of recycled material in the production process is a good first step but they ask us to go further and also work on the end of life to definitely answer this demand. Net Zero Plastic to Nature for the Blue Line appeared to be a perfect answer when introducing the idea to them.
One of the main outcomes of the plastic footprint exercise is that our Private collection is an impactful initiative to reduce our plastic footprint. This represents the starting point of our journey. Through our initiatives such as the Private collection, we know we can improve even more. We are now excited to work on the plastic credits so we can reach our initial goal of Net Zero Plastic to Nature. We can't wait to see the lists of projects South Pole has identified.
