Greystone steps up to Toitu carbonzero

This evocative scene of sustainability at Greystone Wines has a backbone of hard data, with the organic wine company now certified net carbonzero through Toitū Envirocare, following the collation of an emissions inventory and bold plans to reduce their carbon footprint.

"It was a lot of work to get to the point of being carbonzero but wine is the canary in the mine for climate change so we need to try everything we can," says Marketing Manager Nik Mavromatis, who's seen climatic challenges ramp up in the region in recent years. "If we don't then we probably only have 20 years left of making wine on this planet."

Greystone is the first winery in New Zealand to be net carbonzero, 100% certified organic with BioGro, and practicing regenerative viticulture. Viticulturist Mike Saunders says each of these initiatives carries a competitive advantage in the modern market and they would be foolish not to embrace that. "But these are things we would be doing anyway, because we know that they leave the bit of land we have in a better place. And that is a big driver for us."

Having the viticulture and winemaking team on board, as well as the General Manager, Marketing Manager, accountant and owner, makes a huge difference to the company's ability to innovate and invest in environmental initiatives and certification, including carbonzero, he adds. "It really is driving it from ground up for us and looking at making everything better."

And while they aim to lead the charge in terms of New Zealand wine companies, they're also bemused others are so slow to move when it comes to organic and regenerative farming, as well as climate action. "Herbicide is going sooner rather than later," Mike says, noting the supermarket chains that have insisted Greystone wears its organic credentials on the front label, not the back.

Now they see the same impetus in carbon accounting, with one major buyer recently emailing wineries to say that they need to be measuring emissions immediately and at net carbon zero as soon as possible. "You don't want to be dragging the chain and missing out, because everyone will be ahead of you in the line," says Nik. "We've already done it and we're ready to go."

They reckon they're also on the front foot with their regenerative viticulture, with a cover cropping programme that helps build soil organic matter, "and sequester, transfer and store carbon between plant and soil", says Mike. “We’ve planted a mix of 16 species, including sunflowers, oats, lentils and beans in between the rows of vines.” Plants that fix nitrogen levels are among the mix, creating a natural fertiliser, while the ground cover reduces the need for irrigation. Soil carbon is not measured in emission offsets, but if that changes in the future “we’re going to be well ahead of the game, which is really exciting”, he says.

In the meantime, they’re cutting carbon emissions on several fronts, including through sheep grazing the vineyard year-round, thanks to trials of a high-wire system that keeps fresh spring buds out of bite height. “We drive our tractors through these vineyard rows nearly 30 times a year - that’s 200km every time,” says Mike. “Integrating sheep can reduce this by 50%, significantly reducing our use of tractors, cutting down compaction, reducing diesel use and improving nutrient cycling.”

Meanwhile, their tractors have less impact, with a Fendt fleet that is 50% more fuel efficient than their previous models. Winery and sales cars are already hybrid, and plans are afoot to find electric vehicles for the vineyard, to replace quadbikes and side by sides. Greystone uses carbon neutral electricity, including in its strawbale winery, has moved to lighter weight glass bottles to reduce emissions, and is working with its suppliers to get a handle on each one’s carbon footprint.

Nik says that as they kicked off their Toitū journey of measuring and reducing emissions, they found like-minded businesses keen to tell their own stories and help the wine company do better, from a courier company eager to share their carbon accounting, to wineries such as Lawson’s Dry Hills, offering expertise on low emissions packaging.

As a luxury product, wine must be a primary industry leader or risk losing its social licence, says Nik. And any wine company not thinking globally is “missing a trick”, adds Mike. The most dangerous phrase he hears is ‘you’re already doing a lot of it’. “You hear that phrase so much from our farmers and also in our vineyard team. If you are already doing parts of it, that’s great. What can you do next?”