Sustainability

Bulk wine importing and UK packing of product

Kingsland were the first UK company to bring wine into the UK in bulk flexi-containers, a method that is now industry standard. With over 120 million litres packed last year alone, this represents an enormous carbon saving on bottled at source products, removing the need to transport glass and other packaging materials around the world.

  • Per bottle, there is approximately 40% less CO2 emissions by shipping wine in bulk rather than in heavy glass around the world.
  • From a production point of view, there is more flexibility on the formats & materials available, including lighter weight glass, but also more environmentally friendly formats like paper & card options (bag in box is a great example of this)
  • A standard 20 foot/6 meter container will hold 10,584 litres of bottled wine. The same container will hold 24,000 litres of wine in a flexi-tank

Did you know?

The emissions from mechanically recycling a 24,000 litre flexibag equate to just 6.75Kg of CO2e, compared to 7.27Kg for a rigid metal ISO tank, which also requires 2,500 litres of water and 2.5 kg of detergent per cleaning!

Bottle lightweighting and use of higher efficiency materials

In 2010, working in partnership with Tesco, Cooperative and one of its glass suppliers, Kingsland launched the world’s lightest screw cap bottle at 300 grams. Less glass is less energy and carbon during production, less weight during transport, and ultimately less post-consumer waste.

Photovoltaic (PV) panels and renewable energy

During 2012, Kingsland invested nearly £300,000 in a 250Kw photovoltaic panel array on two of its largest warehouse roofs. Working at peak output, the array can meet nearly 70% of the site’s demand. In 2022, these panels will have saved in the region of 1100 tonnes of CO2

Looking to the future, the business has big plans to utilise more locally generated renewable electricity — watch this space!

Did you know?

Averaged over the entire planet, the amount of solar energy arriving at the top of Earth’s atmosphere is approximately 340 watts per square metre (W/m2)! Most of this energy is either reflected back into space or absorbed by the Earth’s surface.

Towards Net Zero for Carbon

Like all businesses, Kingsland are aware of their carbon footprint, and the need to reduce this in line with current scientific projections on the effects of climate change. During 2022 and beyond, Kingsland will be looking more closely at its Scope 3 emissions (those emissions which occur largely off-site across its value chain), with a view to quantifying its total emissions (Scopes 1, 2 and 3).

View more. 

Setting Science Based Targets (SBTi)

But we want to go further. Understanding total emissions is essential, but is meaningless without a concrete plan for reduction. Kingsland will look to set Science Based Targets for emissions reduction in line with a 1.5° warming scenario.

ISO14001 Environmental Management System

Our ISO14001 accreditation is the bread and butter of our day-to-day management of environmental impacts. From employee training to communications, the EMS helps the business keep on top of its legal requirements, and stay abreast of upcoming changes.