Session 4. Roadmap for a sustainable industry
Tracks
Plenary Program
| Monday, June 27, 2022 |
| 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM |
| Halls C & D, ground level, Adelaide Convention Centre |
Speaker
Cath Oates
Proprietor
Oates Ends
Chair introduction
4:00 PM - 4:05 PMBiography
Cath Oates grew up in the Margaret River Wine region and since gaining post graduate winemaking qualifications from the University of Adelaide in 1999, she has held senior and flying winemaker roles in Australia, USA, Italy and New Zealand, most recently as Group Winemaker at Mud House Wine Group (NZ) and Chief Winemaker of Plantagenet Wines. In 2015 she launched her own brand, Oates Ends, from the inter-generational family vineyard in Wilyabrup. She has a winemaking consultancy business and is a regular judge on the international wine show circuit. A highly engaged member of the wine community, she is a current Non-Executive Director of Wine Australia and has previously served as the Vice-Chair of Wines of Western Australia and President of both the Margaret River and the Great Southern Wine Producers Associations. During her time in NZ, she served on the Sustainable Winegrowing NZ Advisory Committee and is a passionate advocate for sustainability.
Dr Mardi Longbottom
Manager of Sustainability and Viticulture
The Australian Wine Research Institute
State of the Nation
4:05 PM - 4:20 PMBiography
Mardi began her career in the wine industry in the early 1990s helping to establish her family’s vineyards in Padthaway, South Australia. Shortly afterwards she gained her viticultural degree and held technical and vineyard management positions spanning numerous Australian wine regions. Mardi returned to The University of Adelaide in 2002 where she completed a Masters and PhD in Viticulture and was a lecturer in Viticulture. For the past fourteen years, Mardi has focussed on research and extension of wine industry sustainability projects including regional climate risk analyses, benchmarking greenhouse gas emissions from vineyards, the management of corporate water assets, and in her role as Manager of Sustainability and Viticulture, she manages the Australian wine industry’s sustainability program ‘Sustainable Winegrowing Australia’. Mardi is a graduate of the SA Governor’s Leadership Foundation Program, a former Director of Australian Grape and Wine Inc and former President and Director of the Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology.
Richard Heath
Executive Director
Australian Farm Institute
Measuring natural capital in a viticultural landscape
4:20 PM - 4:35 PMBiography
Richard Heath is Executive Director of the Australian Farm Institute, an independent agricultural policy research organisation. Richard is a Nuffield Scholar and was a farmer at Gunnedah for 20 years until 2012. Previous to his current role Richard was Associate Professor of Agronomy and Farm Management at the University of Sydney. He is currently also a director of the Grains Research and Development Corporation and member of the CSIRO Agriculture and Food advisory committee.
Richard Leask
Director
Leask Agri
Sustainability credentials through regenerative farming
4:35 PM - 4:50 PMAbstract
Sustainability programs and practices are now common (if not expected) across all agricultural industries. The Australian Wine Industry is no different with development of the SWA program aimed at increasing our knowledge of, and improving the industries environmental impact.
The climatic and economic challenges facing the wine industry are well known with some impacting growers now including, erratic rainfall patterns, increased input costs and labour shortages. Others like rising temperatures and extreme weather events are becoming more common place. Coupled with this is a consumer becoming more knowledgeable about the environmental footprint of products they purchase and a global push to reduce carbon emissions placing increasing pressure on producers to not only evolve their farming systems but make them more transparent.
Regenerative agriculture has been touted as the ecological farming system of the future. At its core it appears to be a simplistic set of principles however it underpins a paradigm shift in land management thinking and the way production systems interact with the environment around them. Wine is uniquely placed with a direct line to the consumer to showcase its environmental credentials, but is sustaining what we currently have going to be enough? Regenerative agriculture has a land restoration agenda at its core that may be the next step in sustainability for the Australian wine industry.
The climatic and economic challenges facing the wine industry are well known with some impacting growers now including, erratic rainfall patterns, increased input costs and labour shortages. Others like rising temperatures and extreme weather events are becoming more common place. Coupled with this is a consumer becoming more knowledgeable about the environmental footprint of products they purchase and a global push to reduce carbon emissions placing increasing pressure on producers to not only evolve their farming systems but make them more transparent.
Regenerative agriculture has been touted as the ecological farming system of the future. At its core it appears to be a simplistic set of principles however it underpins a paradigm shift in land management thinking and the way production systems interact with the environment around them. Wine is uniquely placed with a direct line to the consumer to showcase its environmental credentials, but is sustaining what we currently have going to be enough? Regenerative agriculture has a land restoration agenda at its core that may be the next step in sustainability for the Australian wine industry.
Biography
Richard Leask is a second-generation winegrower based in McLaren Vale, South Australia, with twenty-six years’ experience in various Australian wine regions. Presently, he is at the helm of Leask Agri, a vineyard management company focusing on regenerative agriculture principles over family-owned and client vineyards totalling 180ha. He is co-owner of boutique wine label Hither and Yon with a strong focus on climate adaptive varieties. Richard has been a passionate advocate of biological and regenerative farming for over a decade and is one of the founding chapter authors of the Sustainable Winegrowing Australia program. He is a 2017 graduate of Wine Australia’s Future Leaders Program. In 2019 he was awarded a Nuffield Farming Scholarship to study regenerative agriculture systems across farming enterprises globally. In 2021 he was a finalist in the ASVO Viticulturist of the Year Award and is a founding trustee of the Regenerative Viticulture Foundation.
Greg Savage
General Manager
Orora Glass
Circular packaging economy
4:50 PM - 5:05 PMAbstract
Biography
Greg Savages glass career has spanned over 30 years with roles for ACI / OI across Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and with Amcor / Orora when he moved to South Australia in 2010. Orora is passionate about sustainable packaging with its commitment to the future detailing key pillars of circular economy, climate change and community. Greg is a member of the executive committee for International Partners in Glass Research (IPGR) that works on Research and Development investment in the glass industry with a key focus on reducing carbon emissions in glass manufacturing.
Mrs Lulie Halstead
COO Wine, The IWSR Group
Wine Intelligence
What does sustainability mean to global wine consumers?
5:05 PM - 5:20 PMAbstract
In an era of the growing importance of sustainability within the context of ESG, how are consumers in key global wine markets relating to sustainability in wine?
Based on new consumer insight from 15 wine markets globally, Lulie Halstead will explore how motivated wine drinkers are by sustainability credentials for wine and what motivates them to choose – or not choose - wine based on these factors. She will share insights around how consumers perceive organic wine, what biodynamic means to them and what barriers could be preventing further consumer engagement with sustainable wine.
Based on new consumer insight from 15 wine markets globally, Lulie Halstead will explore how motivated wine drinkers are by sustainability credentials for wine and what motivates them to choose – or not choose - wine based on these factors. She will share insights around how consumers perceive organic wine, what biodynamic means to them and what barriers could be preventing further consumer engagement with sustainable wine.
Biography
Lulie founded Wine Intelligence in 2002, now a division of the IWSR Group and backed by Bowmark Capital. IWSR is the leading global beverage alcohol market data and insight specialist, with coverage in over 160 markets, whilst Wine Intelligence is widely regarded as the leading wine focused consumer behaviour insights organisation globally.
Over the past 20 years, she has been a regular keynote speaker at high profile international wine conferences and retains her academic links as a guest lecture and advisor on Masters and MBA programmes. Her client work includes advisory roles to the leadership teams of some of the world’s leading wine businesses.
She is a trustee of the WEST (Wine and Spirits Education Trust) and more recently, has established a vineyard in East Sussex, England which will, she hopes, be delivering full yields in 2024!
