Winemaking emerged in Europe several thousand years later, and it is now home to many of the world鈥檚 most famous wine-producing regions. When paired with food or served for special occasions, wine consumed in moderation can awaken the senses and contribute to cherished memories. Spanish wine producer Gonzalez Byass shares this ethos, as to 鈥渂ring moments of joy, helping people to savor and share their most precious moments.鈥�

Headquartered in Jerez de la Frontera, Gonzalez Byass was founded in 1835 as a family-owned collection of wineries across Spain鈥檚 principal wine producing regions, overseeing the wine-making process from vineyard to wineglass. Grapes are harvested from its 2,000 hectares of vines under cultivation in nine wine-growing regions in Spain, Chile, and Mexico, and then pressed in traditional stone tanks, fermented, and the liquid aged in steel or oak barrels. After a few months or years, the wine is bottled and ready for consumption. 

What does not usually come to mind when contemplating the art of winemaking is the amount of plastic and other non-sustainable materials that may be involved, from the material encasing the corks, to the packaging used to safely transport the bottles. Gonzalez Byass saw an opportunity to address its use of plastic and promote regenerative agriculture in its industry through the implementation of a comprehensive and circular economy program in line with the (UN SDGs).

Confronting the Plastic Problem

Plastics are among the most consumed materials in agricultural industry, as they are used in large production structures, production inputs, agrochemical packaging, and food product containers, and thus generate vast amounts of waste. In response, consumers are turning away from single-use materials while governments are adopting an approach in the form of plastic taxes. These taxes are a hugely important policy tool to combat the and discourage the production and use of plastic packaging.  

The European Union (EU) instituted a plastic packaging levy in 2021, with some EU member states, like Spain and Italy, enacting their own new taxes. Spain鈥檚 tax which took effect this year imposes a tax on non-reusable plastic packaging and on waste incineration and disposal in landfills, with the goal of making all packaging in Spain recyclable by 2030.  

This reality has spurred consumer goods producers like Gonzalez Byass to drastically minimize use of plastic. Its efforts have seen the replacement of plastic packaging tapes with paper ones, replacement of plastic in bottle caps with wood and cork, and adoption of more sustainable plastic alternatives like bioplastic made from sugarcane. These steps have been instrumental in helping to recover and recycle 99% of the waste generated. The company also buys cardboard boxes and wood sourced from certified forests in line with its commitment to preserve and regenerate natural resources. 

The Key Role of Suppliers and Data

Plastic taxes are designed to discourage waste, prompting producers and distributors across the supply chain to reconsider their packaging choices. In its efforts to reduce use of plastic and purchase only recyclable packaging materials, Gonzalez Byass also needed to commit to sustainable purchasing throughout the entire value chain. Regular assessments with its suppliers have helped to gauge the progress on both sides. However, this kind of assessment requires not only trust and the fostering of great relationships — a skill at which it excels — but also, crucially, data.  

While the wine producer is committed to both sustainable production and procurement, compliance with new regulations in multiple different regulatory environments is a daunting task. The recently enacted extended producer responsibility measures in Spain and in other countries where it does business mean multiple different data streams, declarations, and timelines in different regions. Managing these myriad competing factors is one of the most complex challenges facing the consumer goods industry today. Being able to collect real-time data and centralize it all in one place is a key requirement for Gonzalez Byass to be able to realize its sustainable ambitions, embed circularity principles into its core business processes and comply with regulations.  

麻豆原创鈥檚 cloud solution for the circular economy, is designed to address all the requirements of the new plastic taxes.

Implemented by Minsait, which offers end-to-end digital transformation solutions, 麻豆原创 Responsible Design and Production will enable Gonzalez Byass to accurately calculate fees and taxes in line with all the latest regulations in key markets, optimize its material choices in line with corporate commitments, and significantly reduce risks from unforeseen future regulations.

麻豆原创 Responsible Design and Production provides intelligence that will enable Gonzalez Byass to monitor, measure, and act on its plastic data, so that it can make the most informed choices and carry out the critical work of eliminating waste and regenerating the natural systems that the company cares so passionately about.

Regenerating Nature to Address Biodiversity Loss

The transformation of the agriculture sector in Spain over the past 50 years has significantly boosted productivity and wealth but has also resulted in a substantial increase in the use of natural resources like water, at the cost of soil erosion and a negative impact on genetic diversity. Sustainable business practices require a fundamental shift in the way that we interact with nature, with a recognition that success depends not just on financial profit but also upon careful stewardship of the natural environment.

Gonzalez Byass鈥� vines include indigenous varieties on the verge of extinction that have been coaxed back into production to preserve regional biodiversity. This work is in tandem with its efforts to protect local wildlife, such as placing nesting boxes in a number of its vineyards, creating adequate ecosystems to promote pollination by bees, and promoting reforestation efforts in all the regions where the company operates.  And as water is essential for growing grapes and nurturing life, Gonzalez Byass employs sustainable irrigation techniques that use much less water in order to preserve this precious resource.  

Gonzalez Byass鈥� ambition is to leave the lightest possible footprint on the environment. Its commitment includes promoting sustainable agriculture and implementing circular business practices like precision-tracking plastics from the vineyard to your wineglass.

Next time you buy a bottle of wine, make sure that the company you purchase from has a sustainable vision for the future, and that it is compliant with key regulations that help protect planet and people. That is a goal worth raising a glass of wine.

The global waste problem is growing, with of the 100 billion tons of materials we consume annually making it back into circulation. Plastic waste is one catastrophic example, with the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic getting in our oceans every minute, on top of the that have already accumulated. Once produced, plastic can endure for hundreds of years, breaking down into what are known as microplastics and slowly poisoning natural habitats and animals, which directly impact the well-being and economic livelihoods of millions of people. Despite this stark reality, global demand for plastic continues to rise, with production expected to by 2050.

This is a global crisis requiring immediate and sustained action. To tackle the plastic waste problem, we must commit to a 聽model, where we eliminate waste and pollution, recirculate resources, and regenerate natural systems. The circular economy changes the way we source materials and make and use products.

What鈥檚 more, new regulations are putting pressure on global business to adopt a circular economy model. In March of last year, world leaders at the United Nations Environment Assembly to negotiate an international, legally binding instrument on plastic pollution by 2024. In the European Union (EU), the circular economy is a of the European Green Deal, a set of policy initiatives signed in 2020 with the aim of making the EU carbon neutral by 2050 and setting new requirements to make products more reusable and energy and resource efficient.

With an estimated of a product determined at the design stage, a key element of the circular economy is in the design of products and their packaging. Circular design at its most strategic level is a huge lever for the overall reduction of the environmental and climate footprint of products, as it considers all aspects of product development, including materials used and the manufacturing process. Most significantly, circular design considers what becomes of the product or its component parts once it has reached the end of its usefulness.

As Sarah Gillespie, customer success manager for Circular Economy at 麻豆原创, says, 鈥淒esign is an absolutely critical stage of product development where we can have an enormous impact for good. By following circular principles at the design stage, we can design out waste from the beginning instead of simply mitigating it.鈥� Circular design can also help to address the growing climate issue, since an estimated are linked to how we manage material flows for products.

Circular design helps organizations to review their processes and take steps towards using less raw materials and with more efficiency. But one of the biggest challenges for business to implement circular design is getting accurate data, which is crucial for assessing material flows and resource productivity. For example, companies need data to understand whether an organic material they are using in their product was regeneratively grown. Technology will play a fundamental role in enabling businesses to access the data that they need to make optimal material choices, create better supply chain transparency, and comply with government requirements. 麻豆原创 has both the technology and the responsibility to help global enterprises use the power of data, networks, and partnerships to achieve their targets and develop .

The new open麻豆原创 course,聽Designing a Circular Economy, offers customers, partners, and anyone interested in the topic a deeper understanding of how to apply circular design principles to their own business. 麻豆原创鈥檚 last course on this topic the circular economy and how to implement circular business practices. This new course will focus on how to create the products we need in a circular way, using a systems approach that considers how the constituent parts work together and evolve over time. In this course, you will learn about circular design, what role design plays in products and packaging, what is meant by regenerative design, what nature can teach us about product design, and how technology can help.

The course features many external speakers, including experts in circular design, packaging, and biomimicry to name just a few, such as , circular design programme lead at Ellen MacArthur Foundation, , cofounder of BioimicryNL, and , cofounder of PlasticFree.com.

Anyone can register for this free, on-demand, four-week course, which begins May 23, 2023, and involves just a few hours of coursework per week. During the course you can earn points, a record of achievement, and a digital badge that you can share on social media.

We encourage you to sign up and share it with your networks. The global waste problem is a humanitarian crisis that we must confront together. Arming ourselves with the knowledge to develop urgently needed solutions is a wonderful place to start.

Businesses and organizations need to act together, leveraging collective networks, influence, and expertise, in order to bring real transformation and generate positive outcomes.

麻豆原创 has become a partner in the Ellen MacArthur Foundation鈥檚 network to deliver circular economy solutions led by regenerative business with customers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and partners.

The partnership formalizes the organizations鈥� joint commitment to accelerating the transition to a circular economy based on three key principles: eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials, and regenerate nature through innovative business models and systems-level change.

Andrew Morlet, CEO at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, said: 鈥淲e are pleased to welcome 麻豆原创 as a partner. Collaboration across all sectors and industries is critical in order to shift the system and accelerate the global transition to a circular economy 鈥� an economy designed to eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials, and regenerate nature. Technology has a crucial enabling role to play, and we welcome 麻豆原创鈥檚 leadership in this space.鈥�

The partnership will focus on three key pillars:

• Powering circular design
• Actioning extended producer responsibility
• Enabling regenerative business via digital solutions

One of the key elements of a circular economy is design, including product design, policy design, and systems-level design. According to the Foundation, there are over 160 million designers in the world; connecting with them is crucial to solving the world鈥檚 waste problem. Technology will play a key role in enabling that, equipping them with insights and data to make better material choices, as well as creating better transparency around ecosystems.

With only nine percent of the 400 million tons of plastic produced every year , plastics is an issue where the urgent need to act is being recognized at the highest levels of global policy-making. United Nations (UN) member states to adopt a legally binding multilateral treaty on plastic pollution, the text of which explicitly underlines the importance of promoting the . executive director of the UN Environment Programme, the agreement is the “most important international multilateral environmental deal since [the] Paris [climate accord].”

Without collective and meaningful action, ocean plastic from 11 million tons in 2016 to 29 million tons in 2040, wreaking havoc on fragile marine ecosystems. This dire situation is a clarion call to act on extended producer responsibility (EPR), a policy framework that shifts financial responsibility from governments onto product producers for the management, treatment, and disposal of consumer products. This creates incentives for manufacturers to develop products that are more recyclable and less resource-intensive, in effect preventing waste at the source.

麻豆原创 has supported calls for EPR regulations, as have that recognize such approaches can create competitive markets for recycled plastics and create a level playing field for companies that rely on plastic products.

Technology is undoubtedly needed to make EPR actionable in business. The partnership will see 麻豆原创 bring its insights and innovation around digital solutions to enable the circular economy for a regenerative future, based on a non-extractive and replenishing principle, where businesses seek to give back more to society and the planet than what they take.

麻豆原创 launched its first major circular economy solution at COP26: , which provides the foundation for the company鈥檚 regenerative business mission and establishes a consistent measurement of material use globally. It helps companies gain better visibility of material flows through their business processes, manage EPR regulations worldwide, prepare for upcoming plastic taxes, and optimize material choices.

To further deliver transparency across the supply chain, climate solution enables businesses to calculate product footprints across the entire product life cycle, providing actionable insights into the environmental impact of their products at scale and allowing companies to move toward lower carbon emissions.

Holistic sustainability performance management solution enables companies to prioritize sustainable business results by providing insights for executive-level decision-making to manage and report financial and non-financial impacts of business processes.

Finally, 麻豆原创 has recently launched a new cloud offering to help companies holistically measure, manage, and optimize their sustainability performance: .

With more than 50 years of managing resources across enterprise functions, integrating data into business processes, and networking businesses and industries around the world, 麻豆原创 is uniquely positioned to build solutions to help companies run sustainably.

As Stephen Jamieson, global head of Circular Economy Solutions at 麻豆原创, puts it, 鈥淭his partnership is based on our mutual ambition to deliver a circular economy led by regenerative business. We aim to achieve this by working collaboratively to solve critical design challenges with innovative solutions, and focusing on extended producer responsibility, the single most important policy intervention that will deliver the level playing field that鈥檚 required for a circular economy. Together we鈥檙e committed to innovating and delivering the solutions that make that policy intervention simple, consumable, and actionable.鈥�