It is an honour to be Chair of Sustainable Winegrowing Ontaio and be interviewed by James Chatto, contributor to Elle Magazine. ‘To qualify for the certification, both the vineyard and the winery must meet a number of environmental, social and economic standards – or, to put it another way, embrace the three pillars of place, people and profitability.Environmental sustainability is the most familiar and measurable of the three. Water and waste management, material handling and procurement and energy efficiency are all matched against the program’s benchmarks and scored appropriately. Farmers are also judged on soil health and pest management. Social sustainability can be harder to quantify, explains Andrea Kaiser, chair of SWO and the owner of Drea’s Wine Co. in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. ‘But people are understanding it more thanks to the current conversations about diversity, equity and inclusion,” she says. “It’s about being good employers and also good members of the community.” And the third pillar, profitability, is also essential, she adds. “The business itself must be sustainable if you’re going to make this work, preserve agricultural land for the next generation and keep the industry healthy.” '

READ FULL ARTICLE
https://ellegourmet.ca/sustainable-wines-canada/