Would you be happy to pour your friends a glass of wine from a wooden cask or sip your favourite rose from an aluminium can? Are there more sustainable wine drinking options for consumers and will they go for them? This is a questions marketing researchers at an Australian business school are asking.
While alcohol is forbidden in Islam, there is a growing wine market in Mediterranean countries, such as Israel, which is emerging as boutique wine tastemaker. Winemakers in Canada have started using plastic corks which you can still find on European-sold wine (cork is being depleted faster than it grows) and people have gotten used to them. But can drinking habits accept a flask made from wood, from pottery or from terapacks?
Conventional glass wine bottles are the wine industry’s largest source of carbon emissions, with the manufacture of a single bottle generating 1.25kg of carbon dioxide. In total, the production and transport of glass wine bottles make up more than two thirds of the wine industry’s total carbon output. Here are 10 ways to lower your personal carbon footprint, in case you are wondering.
Traditional glass bottles have long been the preferred choice of packaging among wine lovers due to the belief that wine looks and tastes better in glass. While glass bottles have been the wine industry’s go-to for centuries, they are not the most carbon-friendly option available. They are however a better alternative to plastic which does not break down and which probably won’t be recycled. In America only 5% of plastics are actually recycled.
Researchers from the University of South Australia’s Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science and the University of Adelaide’s Business School have explored people’s wine packaging choices, and how attributes such as price, brand, and messaging can influence them.
Researcher Jakob Mesidis says previous wine packaging research has largely focused on wine label and closure (cork or screw-top) preferences, but little attention has been paid to the format of the packaging. He says, “We knew that consumers weren’t buying alternatively packaged wine at the same rate they were buying it bottled, so we wanted to know what we should change to motivate them to choose more sustainable options.”
Australia’s main alternative wine packaging formats are the ‘bag-in-box’ (also known as cask wine) and aluminium cans, although new formats, such as flat plastic wine bottles, are gradually entering the market each day. Consumers might also be curious about the effect of plastics and the acidic environment of wine leaving toxins into the final sip.
These alternative formats are up to 51% more carbon efficient than glass, but Mesidis says Australian consumers are resistant when it comes to these more environmentally friendly options. He does not provide data on MENA, European or North American consumers in countries like Canada or France. “There are some underlying prejudices in relation to alternative wine packages as they are seen as the cheaper, low-quality option when compared to glass bottles, which come with a sense of heritage and luxury,” he says.
So, what can the wine industry do to bring consumers on board?
In a survey of 1200 Australians, the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute found that cask wine and flat plastic wine bottles were the most preferred formats after traditional glass bottles. Cans were the least preferred, as they were closely tied to specific occasions, such as drinking outdoors. There was no creative options such as hand-made pottery which could be converted into jars for other purposes, mentioned in the survey.
Results found that package format was the biggest influence on people’s choices. Price came second, while the importance of brand and eco-messaging varied depending on the respondent’s age and how many eco-friendly behaviours they claimed to engage in.
Alternative wine formats were also typically bought more by younger people. Consumers were found to be more likely to choose alternative wine packaging when it is priced at a mid-to-low price range and if it comes from a well-known, prestigious brand.
“If a smaller, less-known winery’s mission is to grow its brand as much as possible, relying solely on alternatively packaged wines is not the way to go. Most Australians—for the time being—are still going to reach for a glass bottle when they’re at the shops,” Mesidis says.
“Larger, more prestigious brands are likely to see more success with alternatively packaged wine. Ultimately, this research provides wine marketers with a foundation for their low-carbon wine packaging strategies, rather than blindly navigating this relatively new field.
