In today's society, it is very important to be environmentally conscious because of the effects our choices have on global warming. A person can be aware of their impact on the environment by tracking their carbon footprint. A carbon footprint is defined as "a measure of the amount of carbon dioxide produced by a person, organization, or location at a given time" (dictionary.com).Everything has a carbon footprint, even wine corks and wine screw caps! The figure to the right shows the difference in the carbon footprint left by natural corks compared to screw caps. Screw caps have a carbon footprint at least 4 times higher than that of a natural cork and at least double that of a Nomacorc (synthetic plastic) cork.
What are your thoughts -is that enough of a difference to make an impact on your decision of whether to buy a wine with a cork compared to a wine with a screw cap?
This post was brought to my attention by Shinn Vineyards on the North Fork of Long Island, new York. I question the data because it's missing a key factor, which is distance and transportation to market. If, for example, we happened to be producing screwcaps down the road from recycled aluminium (which I don't think we currently do), but we can't grow natural cork, the carbon footprint of the means by which it could be transported to the vineyard is a factor in determining how GREEN a product is.
ReplyDeleteFor this reason, those "GREEN" shopping bags that everyone is pushing now, are not in fact "GREEN" at all because the truth is that the vast majority are made in China, which somewhat negates the benefit of not using plastic bags. Og course if the plastic bags are also made in China, then a like for like comparison can be made, but as with all things, it's not as simple as it looks.
The juty is still out here on the North Fork of Long island regarding cork vs. screcaps. We need more data, or at least I do anyway.
Thanks for sharing!
and apologies for all those pesky typos I now see....
ReplyDeleteWe agree, there needs to be much more research on the subject of carbon footprint. It does however, make us think and be more conscious of our purchasing decisions. We need much more data and many of us are seeking it.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing, we appreciate it!