Babich Wines puts coastal preservation to the fore

Water reservoir at Headwaters Vineyard. Image Babich

As water quality and ocean pollution become two of New Zealand’s biggest issues, Babich Wines is sponsoring the Sustainable Coastlines Charitable Trust to support communities around New Zealand to clean and protect local beaches and waterways.

Water is vital to a healthy wine industry and as one of New Zealand’s oldest wineries Babich Wines has a proud history of investing in water conservation initiatives, both domestically and internationally, according to Babich Wines CEO David Babich.

“Over our 100-year history, through periods of drought, climate change, and increasing pressure on natural resources, we’ve always understood the importance of a healthy environment. Not just to the industry and the quality of our wines, but most importantly to local ecosystems and communities. Sponsoring Sustainable Coastlines is a really natural fit for us,” said Babich.

“Our goal with this sponsorship is to support and amplify Sustainable Coastlines’ mission to reduce ocean litter, and inspire change through community engagement and citizen science.”

Babich Wines has a long-standing history of working hard across their vineyards to protect New Zealand’s water resources through their own initiatives. This includes extensive riparian planting and installing web-based irrigation controllers to minimise water wastage and improve efficiency.

They are also converting vineyards to use underground irrigation for more sustainable water use, ensuring water is targeting the vines rather than bio-competition (often weeds), and have built a series of large reservoirs to store water during wet seasons for use during the dry summer period.

“We’ve always tried to do our bit in our own vineyards and wineries to protect and conserve water resources and waterways for future generations, but the reality is that there are no borders to the environment. For us, sponsoring Sustainable Coastlines and supporting communities to clean-up and prevent litter pollution on our beaches is just as important as what we do in our family’s vineyards,” Babich added.

“Starting this sponsorship journey with Sustainable Coastlines is exciting for me personally, it’s great for our communities, and most importantly it’s beneficial for all the plants and wildlife that call our beaches and oceans home.”

Established in April 2009, the Sustainable Coastlines Charitable Trust works to reduce ocean litter by inspiring change in mindsets, behaviours and policy through large-scale clean-up activities, learning in schools, volunteer litter monitoring and managing Aotearoa’s most comprehensive dataset of the litter problem on our beaches and ultimately in our oceans.

“Support from organisations like Babich Wines helps us deliver impact and ensures we can manaaki our volunteers and supporters for their mahi,” CEO of Sustainable Coastlines Josh Borthwick said.

“This reward is part of what we like to call the ‘high five’ effect and it’s ultimately what we want people to do after a hard day of volunteering, knowing their efforts are contributing small ripples toward larger waves of change to reduce litter and protect our moana.”