Environmental sustainability

A certified, committed Company

Compagnie Française des Grands Vins has been committed to environmental sustainability for over a decade, resulting in the crowning achievement of obtaining ISO 14001 : 2004 certification in 2009, and the creation of its first Environmental Policy.

Main points

CFGV is still committed to adapting and innovating its formulation processes on all three sites,
with the creation of its second Environmental Policy in 2014, which includes the following main points :

Objective of 100% regulatory requirements compliance
Water management control improvement
Improved understanding of our energy consumption
Calculation of a carbon footprint of the activities of each site
Waste sorting and recycling improvement

This Environmental Management System, which is overseen and managed on a daily basis by our Environment Department, a team of five, has since transformed into a veritable oversight tool that will make reducing our environmental impact one of the Company’s core priorities.

Environmental Excellence

Our exacting environmental performance indicators allow us to evaluate both our everyday efforts and large-scale products :

Water
36 cL of water are necessary, on average, to produce one CFGV bottle.*
This ratio can even reach 27 cL of water* for some of our products. Since 2000, water consumption has decreased by a factor of 2, or even 3, depending on the production site.

Energy
110 Wh (electricity + gas) are required, on average, to produce one CFGV bottle.*

Waste
12 grams of waste are generated, on average, to produce one CFGV bottle.*
100% of waste is sorted at each site and goes through a disposal or recycling process that adheres to environmental protection’s highest standards.

Carbon
Through an internal initiative, CFGV has calculated each of its sites’ carbon footprint, as well as an analysis its products’ life cycle. These two complementary tools help us to consider initiatives for the future, evaluate our ongoing progress and leverage our product innovation.

*2015 data

Recognition for our Initiatives

Because the environment is of crucial importance in the daily operations of CFGV, many important initiatives have been taken to protect it. Here are just a few examples :

In 2014, some four-legged staff members joined the team at company headquarters to help maintain the landscaping. These little Ouessant sheep and goats delight the personnel at the site, as well as neighbours, and help to re-establish the ecological balance in this pasture, which would otherwise be groomed by machine mowers.

New lines, buildings, machines and processes are replacing old technology at each of the sites, resulting in a positive impact on our energy and water consumption. CFGV has been recognised for its technological efforts, finishing as a finalist in a major energy consumption competition in the agri-food industry in 2016.

A new process for the 75 cL version of our Charles VOLNER brand, which will decrease its natural resource consumption and annual carbon emissions by nearly 20%.

One of our standard wines is shipped over 95% by railway rather than road transport.