Top wine company pledges ‘net-zero’ emissions

Treasury Wine Estates has joined other corporate businesses in taking their own steps, ahead of the Federal Government, at setting their own ambitious targets to reduce carbon and greenhouse emissions, as reported by the Herald Sun.

In fact, Treasury Wine Estates has just announced a bold plan to pursue a ‘net zero’ emissions goal for 2030.

While some companies are buying their way to carbon neutral status, investing in global carbon capture projects to offset their emissions, Treasury Wine Estates is taking on a somewhat tougher campaign to drive down their greenhouse gas emissions without using any offsets.

“We’re an agriculture business, so the impact on our business from climate change is real, and we recognise it and understand it,” Treasury’s chief corporate services officer, Kirsten Gray, said.

“We’re a relatively small emitter in the scheme of things, but we still want to do our part. And we think our stakeholders, our employees and the people who drink our wine are increasingly expecting it of us. So it comes from a lot of different angles.”

The company has set 2030 as a ‘net zero’ goal simply because it is believed to be attainable.

“We think it’s something we can achieve, so there’s no point in making it longer,” Ms Gray said.

“A big chunk of [reducing our emissions] is electricity, and we’re working on that to quite an accelerated time frame, again because we think we can get there.”

From California’s Napa Valley to Tasmania’s Tamar, the wine company is already using AI to assess and predict global climatic shifts, knowledgeable that winemaking is an industry exposed to the environmental and economic realities of climate change.

Meat and Livestock Australia adopted a ‘net zero by 2030’ target last November, putting it ahead of the National Farmers Federation, which opted for 2050.

Meanwhile, Telstra, Australia Post and Lion are a couple of the big Australian companies to have already achieved carbon neutral certification.

ORGANISATIONS WORKING TOWARDS EMISSIONS TARGETS

Blue Mountains City Council – Net zero by 2025 target
City of Ballarat – Net zero by 2025 target, Net zero by 2030 for community target
Noosa Shire Council – Net zero by 2026 target
Stockland – Net zero by 2028 target
QIC Global Real Estate – Net zero for their core Australian retail assets by 2028
Treasury Wine Estates – Net zero by 2030 target
Dexus – Net zero across property portfolio by 2030
Meat and Livestock Association – Net zero by 2030 target
Mirvac – Net positive emissions goal by 2030
Australian National University – Net positive emissions goal by 2030
City of Sydney Council – Net zero by 2035 target