We were lucky enough this year to be asked to take part in a University of York -led project to help small businesses like ours tackle some of the big issues facing our planet and communities.
Environmental and social sustainability has been at the heart of Terra Sarda Wines since we started our journey. But there's no getting away from the fact that, whether we bring the wines to customers or take customers to the wines, we generate emissions.
We own that. And we want to do more to reduce it. But, like many small businesses with limited staff, budget and time, we were over-faced by the task. The green mountain sometimes seems almost impossibly tall to climb.
When Emma Lindsay at the York-based consultancy The Impact Shift, who's viewed the sustainability challenge through the eyes of big corporates as well as independent startups, floated the idea of a study, we were excited but a little nervous, to be honest. We couldn't expect students to understand the limitations on a small business owner. And we were worried that we wouldn't be able to live up to the aspirations of a younger generation who care so deeply about tomorrow. And there was a lot of form filling and figures to get our heads around, surely?
But the really lovely thing about working with these young people was that, despite them not having any direct experience of what it's like being the Mr Ben character at the centre of a startup (you put on a different hat every five minutes), they 'got' it.
With the help of some of our fabulous growers, they conducted an audit of our supply chain, from the vineyards of Sardinia all the way to our tiny back office near York in the UK. Their report was professional, insightful and the recommendations pragmatic, creative and, most important, affordable. There's no point, after all, in going green if it just puts you in the red. It was a thoroughly positive experience for us and our suppliers.
It was also encouraging to find that, in many respects, we were already on the right track - we just weren't measuring and communicating it enough!
For example, we thought we knew our winemakers pretty well, but the project prompted us to ask questions of them that we hadn't before - and some of the answers surprised us.
We seek out sustainable vineyards, but it turns out many are even more eco-conscious than we understood. That's maybe because it's simply part of the winemaking culture in Sardinia to follow more natural winemaking or organic production methods and so some practices weren't thought remarkable enough to mention!
Small independent growers over many generations found ways to work with nature rather than tame it with machinery and chemicals they couldn't afford. So we're tapping into a legacy that serves today's environmentally and socially fragile world well.
Businesses like them - and us – are often more sustainable than larger companies by default. Reduce, reuse, recycle isn't a modern mantra; it's the one my grandparents' generation lived by. And it's hardwired into many of our farmers in Sardinia!
They don't waste their money on intensive production methods when they can borrow from the wisdom of generations of thrifty growers who came before them. They prefer to spend passion on making honest wines.
So, when you choose to buy a bottle from them rather than off a supermarket shelf, you won't be lining the pocket of a shareholder who probably can't name a single worker in the vineyards they are invested in. You're making a direct connection with Mario or Sandro, Nicoletta or Luisa, or countless of our other winemakers and their families. Real people making a positive difference to their environment and their communities.
Thank you to everyone involved in the Sustainability Audit who helped us see things from a different perspective, inspired us to do things better, and made us realise that you don't have to climb a mountain when it comes to sustainable business. You just need to plant your flag on a few manageable hills... and then let people know that you're doing your best.
