IndiaCSR News Network
PUNE: Not even a single stone is left unturned when it comes to Sula’s journey towards conserving planet earth.
“At Sula, we’re focused not only on making great wine but also on making great wine well. And since great wine starts with the environment, it’s in our best interests to take good care of it.” says Cecilia Oldne – Sula Vineyards’ Global Brand Ambassador.
Sula’s sustainable agricultural practices and efficient winery operations are environmentally friendly, economically sound, socially responsible, and mindful of the earth’s limited resources. We are continuously working to improve our own sustainability and that of our growers, through experimentation and experience sharing. Sula’s key initiatives are as under:
- Sustainable Winery
- Sustainable Agriculture
- Community Engagement
Sula as a company understands its responsibility and is extra sensitive when it comes to environmental causes in no small amount due to the strong eco-conscience of its founder Rajeev Samant. Being a market leader this is crucial in order to lead the messaging of responsible practices in the wine industry.
The company has ensured a series of initiatives like rainwater harvesting, use of LED lighting, cleanliness drives and a focus on community engagement amongst other impactful initiatives.
As the world gets mindful of World Earth Day, Sula will be planting another 500 trees around Nashik.
Sula’s employees will also propagate this awareness to friends and families so that more people are included in the movement. Sula believes that this will be a small step to give something back to the environment.
A list of the environmental friendly agricultural practices and winery operations:
Cool Chilling: Minimizes the amount of energy consumed to cool grapes
Heating water sustainably: Using solar water heaters to heat large amount of water at 60°C
Cogenra Technology: Cogenra offers the most energy-effective solar solution technology, which reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions nearly 3 times as compared with photovoltaic (PV) alone and 1.5 times as compared with solar heated water alone, making Cogenra’s offering the most environmentally-friendly solar solution
Energy Efficient Lighting: Replaced all of the luminous bulbs and CFL in our winery & restaurants with LED lights. This helps in saving 15,500 power units annually
Optimized Drip Irrigation: This method saves approximately 40% of water usage
Integrated Pest and Nutrition Management: Minimizing and ultimately working towards completely eliminating the use of chemical fertilizers by incorporating green manure, compost and use of microorganisms like PSB (phosphorous solubilizing bacteria) and KSB (potassium solubilizing bacteria)
Employee Contribution: Each month, employees are given energy and water usage target, both at winery and at the vineyards
Skylight Project: The Skylight project aims to cut consumption of electricity helping us be more eco-friendly as well as save on rising power costs. Skylights are located in cellars, disgorging hall, storage, labeling hall, bottling hall and areas of The Tasting Room. So far they have installed 155 sky pipe sets and the power units compensated due to these are approximately 40,000 units/annum
These initiatives make Sula Vineyards one of the most sustainable and socially aware winery in the world. Every year Sula saves 691,642 Power units of energy by using Solar Energy as an alternative and saves 8.1 Crore litres of water with their efficient rain water harvesting system
Sula Vineyards has made children’s parks, sanitation projects, schools and other developmental institutions in and around Nashik. They have provided employment, education and training to the majority of the population in the region. Earlier this year, Sula Vineyards gave Rs 40 crores worth in farmer payments during the grape harvest thus contributing to the economic development of the region and the country as a whole.
Recently, Sula Vineyards announced the completion of 16 toilets in the Savargaon village, Nashik of Maharashtra. This exercise was in line with the Government’s emphasis of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan to promote and foster cleanliness and hygiene in India. Sula is also working towards improving the hygiene standards in the school through its recent Shishu Sikshan project.
Commenting on this, Neeraj Aggarwal, Sr. Vice President – Operations, Sula Vineyards says, “At Sula, we believe that the thoughtful initiatives like ours will seek to remind other organisations at both macro and micro levels of the necessity of keeping the ecology in mind. This is just the beginning and we at Sula work tirelessly to come up with more hard-hitting ideas that will contribute to the environment.”
