Development of an international wine industry « carbon footprint » Protocol and calculator

In August 2007, a joint tender was issued by the Californian Wine Institute, Integrated Production of Wines South Africa, New Zealand Winegrowers and the Winemakers' Federation of Australia, seeking development of an international wine industry 'carbon footprint' Protocol and calculator. By developing an agreed greenhouse gas accounting protocol based on the World Resource Institute's (WRI) Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the international industry consortium sought to facilitate consistency in the methods used by wine companies to calculate their carbon footprint. A calculator was subsequently developed as an example application of the protocol, and is the precursor to a more sophisticated, verifiable, online tool proposed for future development. The calculator is based on the WRI's emission ownership and control principle that categorises emissions by scope and recommends public reporting of scope 1 and 2 emissions. International wine industry consultation is ongoing to seek alignment of the Protocol with existing programs used by the wine industry.