We are very proud to announce an important result on the sustainability front: the Equalitas certification obtained by the main Italian certification body, Valoritalia, which thus officially positions the company among the most virtuous firms in the sector.
“I represent the 5th generation of a family that has been operating in the world of wine for a century and a half. This certification offers a tangible demonstration of the importance that our company has always attached to sustainability, especially in terms of safeguarding the extraordinary territory that hosts us: Conegliano, the heart of the Prosecco region now a World Heritage Site. Over the years, we have launched numerous projects with universities and research centers in order to reduce our environmental impact. We monitor water consumption, the entire production process and pay the utmost attention to waste disposal, but we also pay great attention to social aspects. We care about the well-being of our employees and the community, and we demonstrate this by supporting many charity initiatives and sports associations.” Explains Luca Serena, currently in charge of Serena Wines 1881, winery that occupies the 16th place in the national rank of the major producers of wine and ranks in the top 5 Prosecco producers, with 86 employees and 28 million bottles produced, with a 2021 turnover of 84 million euros split equally between domestic consumption and export share.
Equalitas is a voluntary protocol, which wineries who aspire to implement, regulate and certify the strict procedures aimed at optimizing every effort made in the direction of sustainability decide to abide by. Equalitas imposes severe measures relating both to respect for the environment – by encouraging practices that respect water, air and soil – and to economic and social sustainability, recognizing the latter as the pillars of an optimal corporate positioning.
“Sustainability is not to be understood as a static vision or an immutable state – explains Luca Serena – but as a process in continuous evolution, capable of combining the three fundamental and inseparable dimensions of development: Environmental, Economic and Social. The path of attention to the environment was initiated by us in unsuspected times, when the term sustainability was not inflated, and often trivialized, as in our days and today many consumers reward the ethical choices that are upstream of the final product”.
But, in practice, what is a company called to do to comply with the strict parameters required to obtain the coveted Equalitas certification?
“In our case, the sustainability path goes from production to processing up to bottling and sale of the finished product – explains Luca Serena – and from the moment we decided to aim for Equalitas certification, about a year ago, we immediately initiated a first phase of training of our staff making use of the highly qualified consultancy of Unione Italiana Vini.
At the end of this training course, which took place last June, we undertook the certification audit in the light of which all three pillars of sustainability were widely satisfied by our company, from an economic, social and environmental point of view”.
In relation to the environmental pillar, Serena Wines has already distinguished itself in the past for having undertaken some circular economy initiatives. Suffice it to recall the “RafCycle®” project, an innovative recycling solution, which, by managing to separate the various components of the self-adhesive labels, leads to their reuse, giving life to new materials with a strong eco-sustainable footprint. Or again, the Cheers2Life project, focused on the production of renewable and sustainable energy, launched in collaboration with the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice to exploit the polyphenols of red berried grapes, from whose lees, typically a processing waste, are extracted the constituent element of a newly conceived photovoltaic cell which uses organic dyes to produce electricity.
Serena Wines 1881, in addition to what has already been done, has set further objectives to be achieved within the next three years:
– modernization of the waste water treatment plant, equipping it with the latest management technologies. This objective, thanks to a considerable economic investment, is already in an advanced state of realization
– development of new solutions for the internal reuse of washing water aimed at minimizing water consumption
– insertion along the entire production chain of special tools capable of accurately detecting the consumption of water, electricity and gas in order to optimize each phase of the process, making it as less impactful as possible at the environmental level
– a new photovoltaic system to be placed on the roof of the company in order to make it more self-sufficient in terms of electricity. The important available area, about 20 thousand square meters, will allow for adequate exploitation.
In the social field, Serena Wines 1881, already the protagonist of noteworthy actions such as the many sports sponsorships or the guaranteed support for the Alex Zanardi Obiettivo 3 project and the DonneSiFaStoria initiative, by 2025 aims to achieve the following corporate objectives mainly aimed at improve the working environment in terms of safety:
– become an increasingly safe and welcoming workplace, in full balance with the community and in harmony with the host environment
– implement investments for maintenance and renewal of the lines, paying particular attention to the aspects of safety in the workplace
– rethink internal roads to reduce internal vehicle traffic, with a consequent decrease in atmospheric emissions (the works, already started in 2019, should be completed by 2023)
– implement the company software to enhance staff skills, and improve company flows with positive repercussions also on economic aspects
– increase the number of hours devoted to employee training, increasing their professionalism and contributing to the improvement of general working conditions
– develop a hospitality project within a private estate, in order to foster dialogue with the community and increase contact with the public.
“Our first Sustainability Report will be published shortly, which will contain the details of each action processed for sustainability purposes, only briefly mentioned here. All these measures, aimed at improving the entire production process in every phase, constitute a great challenge for us, especially in light of the current economic and geopolitical scenarios – underlines Luca Serena – but will be carried out with perseverance and increasing commitment, without however never lose sight of production and qualitative performance, such as to guarantee a qualitatively excellent final product”.