Carmen Wines Go Green with Lighter Wine Bottles

There are worldwide concerns for the environment, and everyone is doing their part to decrease the carbon footprint, especially consumers and industries. Consumers are demanding less packaging and the use of recyclable materials in their goods -- and wineries are a perfect example of adopting these ecological measures. Carmen is the first winery in Chile and in South America to follow environmental initiatives which began with the WRAP Wine Institute (Waste and Resources Action Programme) in the UK to create lighter glass wine bottles.

Carmen -- the premium winery from Chile -- has reduced the weight of its Classic tier wines. This initiative has resulted in scaling down the average bottle weight from 17.28 ounces to 14.81 ounces, a 15% reduction that will result in savings of more than 343 tons of glass per year. By using lighter weight wine bottles Carmen's carbon footprint is dramatically reduced, which in turn has a positive environmental effect across the entire supply chain. The decrease in bottle weight lowers the output for energy consumption, manufacturing materials, waste management and also facilitates resource handling.

For Carmen, the lightweight bottle is one more step toward reaching even greater constructive impact on the environment. "The search has just begun to establish the right weight in all of our wine packaging," commented Juan Pablo Ruiz, Carmen Export Director for the USA market. "According to extensive market research, the lighter wine bottles retain the essential packaging functionality and do not affect brand integrity, which makes for a winning situation. When it comes to environmental concerns and wine packaging, less is definitely more."

Ecological concerns have led many countries, such as Ireland, one of Chile's largest wine markets, to adopt strict environmental measures to care for the planet, including reducing packaging and recycling glass waste. As an example, the UK market -- the world's largest wine importer -- consumes approximately one billion 750ml bottles of wine each year, which in turn results in approximately 2.8 million tons of glass packaging entering the country's waste stream each year. Glass bottles represent almost 40% of all household beverage packaging, and reducing the weight of wine bottles will have a major impact on the environment. Decreasing bottle weight in Carmen wines is expected to result in savings of more than 1,875 tons of CO2 emissions each year - which is roughly the equivalent of the emissions from 500 cars!

About Carmen Winery
Carmen--founded in 1850 as the first Chilean winery--has a history of innovation and success. In 1987, the Claro Group acquired the brand to focus in the international premium wine segment. A new winery was built in 1992 and new vineyards were planted to produce the best quality wines from Chile and export them worldwide. Today, with exports of over 500,000 cases to more than 60 countries, Carmen is one of the most important Chilean wineries. Carmen owns 1,626 acres in the most prestigious Chilean growing areas such as Alto Maipo -- famous for its superb Cabernet Sauvignon -- Casablanca and Limarí.