CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA—June 23, 2020—Lubanzi Wines, the upstart, young, and socially-conscious South African wine co. and one of the fastest growing South African wine brands in the United States, is now Climate Neutral Certified and a member of 1% For the Planet—a testament to its commitment to neutralize and minimize the adverse environmental effects of wine production from vine to glass.
Lubanzi Wines is determined to practice sustainability in all facets of its business and, as a result of this dedication, is recognized as both a Certified B Corporation and a Fair-Trade business. The Climate Neutral Certification, however, introduces a rigorous set of new standards to ensure environmental sustainability. The annual three step certification process requires an estimation of the company’s emissions footprint for the previous year, the purchase of carbon offsets of an equal amount to that estimation, and the implementation of an emissions reduction plan.
1% For The Planet, separately, essentially represents a self-imposed ‘Earth Tax,’ and as a result, Lubanzi donates 1% of all sales to fund projects committed to the preservation and restoration of our natural environment.
As per Climate Neutral’s estimate, Lubanzi Wines offset the 168 tCO2e its cumulative actions created in 2019. In keeping with their philosophy of benefitting the community from which it comes, Lubanzi Wines purchased an additional 73tCO2e worth of offsets from Credible Carbon, a Cape Town based carbon offset provider dedicated to funding impactful projects in South Africa. These offsets supported Walker’s Recycling, a family-owned glass recycling project also operating in Cape Town.
“We aim to use the resources we have to do something meaningful about the crisis affecting our planet and our climate. This is a behemoth task, and it’s global. No matter how big we get, we can’t do it alone. It will take everyone, and we want our consumers to hold us accountable to this mission. That’s a really important role to play. A series of individual commitments – and actions – from organizations, flowing down through to the individuals within them, can become something very big and very transformative” says Co-Founder Walker Brown.
Effective immediately, Lubanzi Wines is initiating its emissions reduction plan for 2020, which includes a 10% per capita reduction on air travel miles, a 50% reduction on spending on plastic materials per case, and a 20% emissions reduction from packing materials.
“We recognize the social and environmental impact of industry, and every day is an opportunity for us to be innovative and aggressive in an effort to combat that. These goals are a place to start, but we’re thinking bigger. The climate crisis is a human issue, and we are servants and shepherds of our planet, not the other way around,” says Brown.
About Lubanzi Wines:
Lubanzi Wines is a start-up, sustainable, South African wine company, created in Cape Town by two young travelers, Charles Brain & Walker Brown, alongside a small collection of well-known South African winemakers, viticulturists, farm laborers, and humanitarians. The name Lubanzi comes from a wandering dog that followed the founders on a 6 day, 100-mile hiking trip across South Africa’s remote Wild Coast. Built upon the notion of pioneering a more sustainable & equitable supply chain, 50% of its net profits are returned to a non-profit supporting the communities who labor on the country’s wine farms. Lubanzi is distributed in over 30 U.S. states & 2 additional countries. For more details & where to find it, visit https://www.lubanziwines.com/ or call +1 (202) 573-7292.
