Nagambie region winery Tahbilk is close to becoming 100 per cent ‘naturally’ carbon neutral, as decades of tree planting and environmentally-minded decision-making works wonders within the winery’s ecosystem.
Tahbilk environmental manager Hayley Purbrick's family has been making wine for five generations, and she is passionate about ensuring the land the popular winery sits on is sustainably managed.
Since 2013, Tahbilk has reduced its emissions by 45 per cent across the organisation, and with the help of about 160ha of native revegetation and the purchase of carbon credits, today it is effectively carbon neutral.
"We’ve been neutral in that context since 2012, and what we’re aiming to achieve is to go ‘naturally neutral’,“ Ms Purbrick said.
"We’re about three per cent away from achieving that goal, and we think by the middle of next year we’ll be neutral by way of our own revegetation.“
Ms Purbrick said the team behind Tahbilk realised about a decade ago that “at some stage the community would catch up and carbon credits in the market would be price prohibitive for us”.
“So we needed to take a proactive stance to get ahead of the wave,” she said.
Ultimately, Ms Purbrick also feels it’s the responsible thing to do.
“From our perspective, we’re a multi-generational family-owned business,” she said.
“We have a huge incentive to ensure we can grow grapes in the region long into the future. It’s for future generations.”
Creative initiatives such as using heat-reflective paint on the restaurant roof reduce reliance on air-conditioning, and thereby electricity consumption.
Trees planted in line with native biodiverse values create a forest that sequesters enough carbon to offset Tahbilk’s footprint.
It may also be a savvy business decision, as consumers look for environmentally conscious products.
“In European markets they were starting to show an interest in carbon neutral products (10 years ago),” Ms Purbrick said.
“Across the board, not just in the wine industry, the community has caught up to a lot of the international markets — in particular in the last few years.
“COVID has really helped Australians recognise they’re part of a global world. We only have one planet. This is it.
“COVID has helped accelerate that for Australia, which is just awesome."
Once Tahbilk becomes ‘naturally’ carbon neutral, Ms Purbrick’s focus will shift towards sharing her expertise with the community, lending a hand to those who wish to follow a similar path.
"We use a lot of local businesses to help us at Tahbilk, and we’d love to work directly with our community to support them in going down the carbon neutral pathway,“ Ms Purbrick said.
“As an example, the wrapping we put around our bottles — can we make it biodegradable?
“The idea is to work together to find a solution.”
Ms Purbrick said she was eager to hear from anyone in the region who had questions or suggestions.
“Reach out if you’re interested in knowing more, or have an idea,” she said.