12 Ways To Be an Earth-Friendly Wine Drinker

The world’s environmental problems can seem overwhelming. Can your actions as an individual wine consumer even make a difference?

“Yes, absolutely,” says Kimberly Nicholas, a leading global sustainability scientist with a specialty in wine and the author of Under the Sky We Make: How to Be Human in a Warming World. “Wine drinkers are a really powerful group because they have this love and connection to a time and a place and a product and the people who made it, which is being affected now by climate change. We have skin in the game. There’s something we really care about at stake.”

Wine lovers can drive progress on better practices across the industry, says Nicholas. “Our consumption is globally significant,” she notes. “And because of the other roles we play—as role models, citizens, professionals and investors—we have a lot of power that can help to change systems.”

With that in mind, it’s important to learn how you, the individual wine consumer, can make small changes in your daily life to help your wine habit be more sustainable for the environment. From exploring more eco-friendly packaging alternatives to diving into the nitty gritty of organic, biodynamic and regenerative viticulture certifications, there is a wide spectrum of opportunity for wine lovers to be making positive environmental impacts in their daily lives. Here are some of the best ways to start those changes today!

1. Explore New Wine Packaging Alternatives

2. Try Out a Lightweight Wine Bottle

3. Make Sure to Correctly Recycle Your Wine Containers

4. Shop Local to Decrease Your Carbon Footprint

5. Invest in a Wine Tote or Reusable Carrier Bag

6. Look for Wines with Eco-Friendly Certifications

7. Research Your Favorite Wineries’ Environmental Efforts

8. Support Repurpose Initiatives for Used Corks

9. Discover the Many Possibilities from Upcycled Winery Byproducts

10. Explore More Plant-based Wine Pairings

11. Talk to Your Wine Community

12. Learn What All the Buzzwords Mean

1. Explore New Wine Packaging Alternatives

Cans are becoming a favorite vessel for many natural wine producers, such as Maker, due to its easy recyclability. (Sarah Zac/Courtesy Maker)

An increasing array of packaging options means you may be able to avoid bottles altogether for casual drinking. Many alternative containers are more economical and can reduce wasted wine, glass waste and carbon emissions from shipping.

Consider trying one of the many new higher-quality wines available in aluminum cans—the most frequently recycled container in the U.S.—or bag-in-box wines, which are space efficient for shipping. Wineries have even adopted recycled (and recyclable) paperboard bottles with a pouch inside, flat PET plastic bottles for easy stacking and 750ml aluminum bottles, such as Bogle Family’s new Element[AL] brand, whose bottles are 80 percent lighter than standard glass.

When dining out, wine on tap is a great option. A typical 20-liter steel keg holds 26.5 bottles worth of wine and has a lifespan of up to 30 years, according to Sonoma-based Free Flow Wines, which kegs wine for more than 150 producers, including prestigious names such as Paul Hobbs, Ken Wright Cellars and Ridge. The Gotham Project, an East Coast wine producer that also imports and kegs overseas brands, estimates that due to its expansive capacity and reusability, one keg eliminates the use of about 3,000 bottles over its entire lifespan.

Many Wine Spectator Restaurant Award winners include kegged wine selections on their lists; a few examples include City Winery locations, Farmstead restaurant in Napa Valley, and St. Anselm in New York and Washington, D.C. Southern chain Sixty Vines offers, yes, 60 wines on tap, many organic or sustainable. Other chains include Shake Shack and Whole Foods groceries that sell wine. Find Free Flow’s restaurant customers through their Account Finder.

Kegged wine is becoming a more popular wine storage alternative, with big ecological and economic benefits for restaurants. (JackF/GettyImages)

2. Try Out a Lightweight Wine Bottle

Glass bottles, ideal for extended storing and aging, are the traditional containers for fine wine. The downside is that due to their production and weight, they represent somewhere between one-third and one-half of wine’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to research by Sustainable Wine Roundtable (SWR), a group of wineries, retailers and other companies connected to the wine industry.

Despite consumers’ association of heavy bottles with superior wine, many wineries have been switching to lighter-weight bottles. Last year, to speed up “lightweighting,” SWR announced the “Bottle Weight Accord,” a global initiative to get retailers to reduce the average weight of the 750ml bottles they sell by 25 percent before the end of 2026.

Whole Foods Market and Naked Wines U.S. joined seven European retailers to kick off the accord; in total, they sell around 250 million bottles of wine each year.

Abandoning the heaviest bottles, lightweighting their store-brand wines and working with winery suppliers could result in a carbon reduction of more than 25,000 tons a year.

3. Make Sure to Correctly Recycle Your Wine Containers

Glass bottles are the most likely drinking vessels to be incorrectly recycled, often leading to them ending up in landfills. (AscentXMedia)

It’s true that glass is endlessly recyclable. However, according to Environmental Protection Agency data, as of 2018, only 39.8 percent of all the glass wine and liquor bottles produced in the U.S. are recycled.

One of the reasons the U.S. lags the European Union (where overall glass recycling is around 75 percent) is the pervasiveness here of single-stream recycling. While it may seem convenient to throw everything in one container for collection, any bins contaminated with nonrecyclable waste (including broken glass), end up in a landfill. So check and follow the rules of your recycling hauler.

And be aware that options exist. Encourage your town to switch to multiple-stream recycling. Or utilize collection points where residents can drop off pre-sorted materials (go to Earth911.com to see if there’s one near you). Ask your state legislator to support a bottle bill that establishes a refundable deposit and redemption centers for beverage containers—including wine and liquor bottles, Tetrapaks and bag-in-boxes, as California’s new law does.

4. Shop Local to Decrease Your Carbon Footprint

Transporting wine to distributors and consumers accounts for an average of 15 percent of a winery’s carbon footprint, according to International Wineries for Climate Action, based on audited data from 34 of its member wine companies. That could be more if a winery primarily sells direct to consumer or to distant export markets.

“The wine industry should be moving away from flying and trucking wine to putting it on ships and rail,” says Nicholas. “Those are inherently lower carbon and have the potential to be really zero carbon.” Consolidating and coordinating deliveries in an efficient way is also key, she adds.

So for everyday wine purchases, prioritize local wine shops over the lure of offerings from Internet retailers far away. (And on the U.S. East Coast, wines sent by ship from Europe likely have a lower carbon footprint than those trucked from the West Coast.) “I don’t think it’s inherently a problem to order stuff online,” says Nicholas, “but the problem is expedited shipping—that would mean flying, which is high carbon.”

Every U.S. state makes wine, and most have vineyards. Supporting local vineyards, especially near densely populated areas, helps keep them in business and thus protects agricultural land from urban sprawl. And skipping a flight or a very long drive will do far more to reduce your carbon footprint, according to Nicholas, than other changes to your wine and food habits. (“If you plan a roundtrip flight from New York to London, you can drink 1,250 bottles of wine for the same amount of carbon emissions,” she quips.)

5. Invest in a Wine Tote or Reusable Carrier Bag

Wine totes aren’t just ecologically friendly, but a fashion forward choice as well. (Justine Di Fede Photography)

In locations that don’t restrict single-use shopping bags, many wine sellers still bag bottles individually in paper sacks and then place them in plastic. Unfortunately, single-use plastic bags can take 20 years under optimal conditions to photodegrade (and possibly indefinitely, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)—into microplastics that leach into our soils and waterways and can be ingested by fish and other creatures we eat.

One solution is to add a specialty wine tote to your arsenal of reusable bags; with features such as built-in dividers, padding, insulation and various capacities available, they are better at preventing breakage and will last for years.

6. Look for Wines with Eco-Friendly Certifications

Wineries that meet rigorous farming and production standards are permitted to place logos or use certain language directly on their labels. Below are some important designations to look for.

Four of the certification logos you may find on wine bottles in the United States

Made from Organically Grown Grapes: Indicates wine made entirely from grapes harvested from vineyards free of synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. Certifiers: CCOF and Oregon Tilth in the U.S., the EU Organic green-starred leaf logo, AB or Ecocert in France, Ecogruppo in Italy, and more.

Organic Wine: To carry the USDA Organic seal, in addition to the requirements for “organically grown grapes” (above), wines must use only approved materials and no sulfites can be added (keeping the total under 10 parts per million).

Made from Biodynamically Grown Grapes: In addition to organic certification, this includes requirements for composting, biodiversity, homeopathic treatments for the plants and farming in tune with the natural rhythms of the earth. The goal is to create a self-sustaining ecosystem.

Biodynamic Wine: In addition to the above, wines must be made with minimal manipulation, using approved processing substances and indigenous yeasts, and no sugar or acid or may be added. Sulfites may not exceed 100 parts per million. Certifier: Demeter

Certified Sustainable: Must go beyond eco-friendly farming and winemaking to address economic and social concerns, with continuous improvement required. Many counties, states and regions have their own certifications, with requirements tailored to their needs. Among the largest is Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing.

Regenerative Organic Certified: A rigorous, relatively new initiative with a focus on regenerating soil health, that combines organic, biodynamic and sustainable practices. On top of organic certifications for vineyards, it mandates cover crops, composting and minimal soil disturbances and sets standards for animal welfare and fair treatment of workers. Certifier: Regenerative Organic Alliance (ROC)

At Miguel Torres’ Chilean estate, domestic geese are valuable biodynamic vineyard assistants due to their proclivaty for grazing on young grasses and weeds near vine trunks that are difficult to reach with machinery. (Marin Photography)

Start your search with wines from regions that have fully embraced sustainable practices.

New Zealand: 96 percent of its vineyards are Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand certified and over 90 percent of its wine is made in certified wineries, indicated by the SWNZ logo. Sustainable Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Noir, anyone?

Sonoma County: About 99 percent of the county’s vineyard acres, spanning Chardonnay, Cabernet, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Syrah and more, bear some type of sustainable certification. The Sonoma County Sustainability logo indicates a minimum 85 percent certified sustainable grapes.

Chile: The Chilean government has established an extensive 351-item sustainability code for viticulture and vinification, including best practices for energy efficiency, water usage, the use of massale selection for conserving and preserving vine materials, as well as equitable labor practices and ethical tourism. Chile’s Sustainability Code is considered to be one of the most comprehensive globally, making the country a world leader in sustainability efforts and ethics.

7. Research Your Favorite Wineries’ Environmental Efforts

Eco-focused wine companies can earn many different sustainability certifications, validating everything from carbon-reduction efforts to green buildings and zero-waste operations to bee-friendly farming. However, you often won’t see all these logos on their wine bottles.

“We have to choose. We can’t put a Christmas tree of everything on the bottle,” says Carolina Gotuzzo, director of corporate affairs and sustainability at Chile’s VSPT Wine Group, whose brands include Viña San Pedro 1865, Leyda and Tarapacá.

Check the back label for a QR code providing more details or visit the winery website.

8. Support Repurpose Initiatives for Used Corks

Mind The Cork is a design firm specializing in contemporary, eco-friendly cork homeware and lifestyle products, such as these unique canisters. (Mind the Cork)

Crafters can make only so many trivets, wreaths and keychains to keep corks out of the trash. ReCORK, founded by Canadian footwear brand Sole, partners with wineries, retailers, restaurants, bars and events to collect natural corks and turn them into shoe insoles and midsoles, replacing petroleum-based plastics and foams.

ReCork accepts corks at many locations around the U.S. (see Recork.com/us/locations) then combines them with bark trimmings that it buys from cork manufacturers, helping to support the overall industry and preserve Mediterranean cork forests, a sustainable ecosystem that sequesters millions of tons of carbon dioxide a year.

The TerraCycle Pickup program allows residents in many parts of the U.S. to schedule monthly pickups of items that can’t be recycled curbside, including corks (natural and synthetic), coffee capsules, plastic caps and more. (See the full list and coverage areas at Terracyclepickup.com).

9. Discover the Many Possibilities from Upcycled Winery Byproducts

Le Domaine Skincare is one of several brands that use ingredients from wine grapes after they are pressed. (Le Domaine Skincare)

Winemaking leaves behind pomace (skins, seeds and pulp) that can account for up to 30 percent of harvested grapes’ weight. While pomace often ends up in vineyard compost, added to livestock feed or distilled into spirits such as grappa, increasingly today, it’s upcycled into other consumer products.

Pomace (also called marc) is rich in fiber and antioxidants that benefit humans, so it’s turned into nutritional supplements, grapeseed oil for cooking and gluten-free grapeseed flour for baking. Some wineries have created skincare products, cosmetics and spa treatments touting the “anti-aging” benefits of grape compounds such as resveratrol and hyaluronic acid. Caudalie, Esdor Cosmetics and Le Domaine Skincare all originated with European wineries, while California vintners Barbara Banke of Jackson Family Wines and Peggy Furth of Chalk Hill founded a biotech company, Sonomaceuticals, to transform pomace into ingredients that can be used in various supplements, beverages and foods, including chocolate, with their brand WellVine.

Vine to Bar chocolates incorporate grape marc to make them a healthier treat. (Courtesy of Wellvine)

10. Explore More Plant-Based Wine Pairings

One of the best ways for food lovers to help the environment is by eating more plants and less meat, particularly red meat—since raising livestock requires more land and water and emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas. (A 2022 study from University College London researchers found that meat-based meals had, on average, 14 times more of an impact on the environment than equivalent vegan meals.)

“Plant-forward” dishes—ones that put vegetables, whole grains and fruits in the foreground—have swept across fine dining and fast/casual restaurants. But eating more plants doesn’t limit pairings to Sauvignon Blanc: Think super Tuscans with mushroom bolognese, Mencía from Spain with a beefsteak tomato sandwich, Pinot Blanc with a butternut squash galette.

Sign up for our free Healthy Living email newsletter for new recipes with wine pairings twice a month.

11. Talk to Your Wine Community

As a consumer, one of the most important things you can do is speak to wine professionals about climate issues so they know how important it is to you. (Thomas Barwick)

“One thing that’s very powerful is to talk about [the issues],” says Nicholas. “Open up a climate conversation by opening up about your love of wine—and your concerns about how it’s being affected.” Wineries, wine shops and restaurants will prioritize environmental concerns if they hear from customers who shop with that in mind. Ask your local retailer to label eco-friendly wines on the shelves. Ask the sommelier for a wine that matches both your meal and your values. If you’re visiting a winery, ask about their practices in the vineyard, winery, marketing and distribution sectors. Most businesses are proud of their environmental initiatives. Supporting those that take positive action makes a difference.

12. Learn What All the Buzzwords Mean

Biodynamic: This whole-farm approach to viticulture, with a certification offered by Demeter, starts with an organic certification and then goes further to lay out how to compost, improve biodiversity, treat plants homeopathically and farm in tune with the natural rhythms of the earth. The goal is to create a self-sustaining ecosystem.

Natural Wine: This philosophy of “non-intervention” in the vineyard and winery doesn’t have a formal definition in the U.S. But in addition to farming organically, biodynamically or regeneratively, “natural” winegrowers typically hand-harvest, ferment with native yeasts, don’t use additives in their winemaking (including sugar, acid and even enzymes and yeast nutrients permitted in organic winemaking), add little to no sulfites, and don’t fine or filter their wines. As a result, most natural wines come from small producers.

Sustainable Wine: These programs require environmentally friendly farming and winemaking, along with equitable treatment of employees and the local community. Growers may be permitted to use synthetic pesticides with restrictions, in minimal amounts and often only when they impact the local ecosystem less than the organic options. Sustainability’s philosophy of “continuous improvement” means wineries must do more than simply meet the same standards year after year.

Certified Sustainable: There isn’t a global or U.S.-wide certification; many countries, U.S. states and individual regions have their own programs. Appellation-based certifications may tailor the requirements to their own climate, terrain, and environmental and social concerns. Other programs focus on specific topics such as protecting waterways, increasing biodiversity, reducing water and energy use, or addressing climate change.

Regenerative Farming: This holistic approach—which holds promise for reducing the impacts of climate change—emphasizes restoring soil health, reducing erosion and increasing the amount of carbon that farmed land can hold.

Organic: Colloquially, the phrase “organic” has become a term used to describe many food and wine products with the intention of emphasizing their “all-natural” origins and beneficial health qualities. Usually anything that is referred to as “organic” is assumed to have been grown or produced with minimal use of chemically formulated fertilizers, synthetic additives, growth stimulants, GMOs, antibiotics, or pesticides. In common usage, the word is often synonymous with “healthful,” “holistic,” and “natural.” However, without a certification, “organic” is just a word, and cannot tell consumers anything about how their food or wine was actually produced. For this reason, many countries have passed various legal restrictions around using the word on marketing materials without obtaining a third-party certification. See Tip #6 for Organic Certification Designations.