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Thursday, September 2, 2010
Champagne bottles trimmed down in an effort to cut carbon emissions
Posted by Katie Machol on Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 12:00 PM
In an effort reduce their carbon footprint, the Champagne industry is working on making their bottles a deeper shade of "green" by slimming them down and reducing their weight. In turn, this will not only reduce resources used to make the bottles, but it will also cut carbon emissions from the transportation process.
The Champagne industry emits 200,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide yearly (production and shipping making up one-third of that figure) and they are currently researching efforts to reduce their carbon footprint by 25% by 2020 and 75% by 2050 -- the redesigned bottle being the first of these endeavors.
"This is how we’re remaking the future of Champagne," Thierry Gasco, the master vintner for Pommery, stated to The New York Times. "We’re slimming the shoulders to make the bottle lighter, so our carbon footprint will be reduced to help keep Champagne here for future generations."
The reengineered bottles use 2.3 ounces less glass, lowering carbon emissions by 7% per bottle, and allows delivery trucks to transport 2,400 more of them per trip. This will cut carbon emissions by 8,000 metric tons per year, which is comparable to taking 4,000 small cars off the road.
Inhabitat reports: "The region’s trade organization, Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC), is recommending that producers switch over to the new bottle, which started production in 2003 — well-known brands like Moët & Chandon, Veuve Cliquot switched over this year."
While not mandatory, the CIVC has hopes that all of the Champagne producers will start using the lighter bottle by next April. Consumers will then start seeing more of them on store shelves after their three-year fermentation period.
Information via NYTimes and Inhabitat; photo: Stéphane Lavoué for The International Herald Tribune.
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