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With WinePilot, Bourgogne is gearing up to become carbon neutral

26/03/2024

In June 2023, the Bourgogne Wine Board (BIVB) agreed on the path to be followed to achieve carbon neutrality for the Bourgogne wine sector by 2035, and will be making the WinePilot tool available to all its professionals starting on April 2, 2024.

Developed by the company FoodPilot in partnership with Adelphe in 2022, this innovative platform serves as a gateway to the approach, enabling each company (domaine, négoce, cellar) to assess its carbon footprint, draw up its own reduction plan and simulate its impact.

At the heart of France's strategy to become carbon neutral by 2050, the BIVB partnered with Adelphe in 2022 on the “Objectif Climat” project to contribute to the decarbonization of the wine industry. After two years in development, the project methodology is moving from the test phase to implementation, with Wine Pilot, a digital tool developed by the company FoodPilot.

This tool, made available free of charge by the BIVB, will help wine estates, wine merchants and cooperative wineries calculate their carbon footprint and reduce their emissions across the board. It will guide professionals towards optimized solutions and an easily achievable action plan.

At the same time, Wine Pilot provides the industry with an overall view of the carbon footprint of the Bourgogne winegrowing region, thanks to the pooling of data provided by companies (made anonymous). By monitoring developments, the BIVB will be better able to steer the industry's path towards carbon neutrality by 2035: a 60% reduction in CO2 emissions and regional compensation for the remaining 40% that cannot be reduced. This will result in reducing CO2 emissions to 4.8 tonnes per hectare per year.

"We must move forward together to meet the challenges of decarbonization, because on our own, the objective may seem unattainable," admits Laurent Delaunay, President of the BIVB. "It's not about reducing our production–we want to maintain it while taking care of our resources and limiting climate change. This is an issue that involves us, but one that will also impact and involve the generations that follow us. It's a natural step for a sustainable industry like that of Bourgogne wines, which has existed for nearly 2,000 years. We need to move forward together to multiply the virtuous impact of each decision."

Winegrowers play a key role in WinePilot
In order to develop a pragmatic tool specifically tailored to the needs of the industry, 20 Bourgogne winegrowers and négociants participated in its development, contributing to various testing phases. This has enabled the tool to be adapted to the realities of each industry, combining user-friendly features with practical information. This tool is intended to become a true decarbonization GPS. It should make it easy for everyone to indicate their starting point (initial carbon footprint) and to set an individual trajectory over time (5 to 10 years), by choosing the actions that will have the greatest impact and make the most sense for their vineyard, winery and marketing.

WinePilot offers a very practical three-part menu:

• Calculate the simplified carbon footprint of your wine business: It all starts with the Semi-Specific Questionnaire. The user is invited to complete a few data points, which are fairly easy to find, to obtain an initial assessment. This questionnaire currently focuses on 20% of the data, which corresponds to 80% of carbon emissions.

This enables users to define the most effective actions for achieving a significant reduction. The entire value chain is covered, according to the profile of each company (energy, agricultural practices, purchasing, packaging, business travel, distribution, etc.).

• Establish an action plan to improve your carbon footprint: This is where things take shape, with realistic proposals, from the vine to the winery and marketing.

The impact of each decision is precisely evaluated. The tool also lets you choose the time frame (5 to 10 years) needed to achieve the set objectives.

• Compensating and achieving neutrality: The other important aspect of the “Objectif Climat” project, in order to achieve neutrality, is to measure and develop carbon storage within Bourgogne itself. Everyone will be able to assess the carbon storage capacity of their parcels of vines and the surrounding area.

As a result, agroforestry and grassing will continue to develop over the coming years.

An inspirational tool to motivate more than 3,000 players

Of course, other tools and partners exist to calculate and manage one's carbon footprint. If the BIVB has chosen to take part in the WinePilot initiative, it is to create a virtuous circle. "The overall goal of the industry is ambitious. To achieve it, we now need to involve more than 3,000 individual companies. This tool is the gateway to this process. It will encourage each company to examine its own practices and take the most appropriate measures", says François Labet, Vice President of the BIVB.

He adds “WinePilot will enable us to move forward together, to encourage goodwill, to stimulate individual efforts and, above all, to have a comprehensive view of the effectiveness of everyone's efforts. Each company will have its own dashboard and will be able to easily compare its results with those of similar companies (wineries, merchants, cooperatives) in the same geographical area.”