Sustainable spotlight on carbon for wine

Wine Tasmania offers the Vin Zero program, and it is updated each year to reflect modern sustainability practices.

The Vin Program takes Tasmanian wine producers through a detailed, user-friendly resource to help them measure, benchmark and improve their management and sustainability practices.

However, a new module around emissions reduction is a new feature of the 2021 program, which launched last week.

"This new module has been included in recognition of the major risk posed to vineyards by a changing climate due to carbon emissions," Wine Tasmania's technical and extension officer Paul Smart said.

The Vin program was established in 2014 and features eight modules including managing soil health, pest and disease management, biodiversity and water and waste management.

Each participant receives an individual report on their performance, benchmarked against other program members, with practical resources to help them improve their practices where needed.

"Wine Tasmania uses the Vin Program results to guide priority activities and will therefore be focusing on the key areas for improvement including biodiversity, waste and biosecurity management in 2021," Mr Smart said.

There were 22 participants in this year's program, and the aggregated score was 2.37 out of a possible perfect score of 4.

Mr Smart said the 2021 program, was made available to members for free this year in recognition of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has had on wine producers.