No Planet, No Pinot!

The way we were

For a few years now we have been so proud of the quality of our packaging, and our customers have absolutely loved it too. We have loved hearing how every box has felt like opening a present with the way we hand wrapped all our bottles in tissue paper. We have loved the reactions to the jokes we were able to incorporate into the stickers used to seal each bottle in it’s little tissue pouch. We have loved how people have featured our boxes in their perfectly curated photos in their stories and feeds. Our packaging has been a way for us to put a little of ourselves into each special box. Like a lot of things around here at the moment though, it was time for a little bit of change...

100% Biodegradable. Fully Compostable.

These are two phrases you will see branded boldly across our evolving packaging, and well, they mean a lot to us.

We went on a long and winding journey to come up with an exciting and innovative way to package our wine, heading down a few dead ends along the way, until we found our perfect packaging pair. Some of the dead end paths we went down were exploring the options to use natural renewable resources like mushrooms, cornstarch, seaweed and even grape skins. We learnt a lot about how these natural materials are being used to make beautiful, biodegradable packaging around the world. It was exciting to see so many like minded businesses taking steps to introduce packaging for their products that do not burden the earth in the same way more traditional materials like plastics and foams(yuck!) have.

Where we ended up finding our special new packaging, was the unlikely and humble sugarcane plant. Sugarcane is the world’s largest crop by production quantity, with over 2 billion tonnes produced annually. After all that sweet, delicious sucrose is extracted from the plant though, producers are left with massive amounts of waste. We are now going to be happily repurposing that waste to give our customer’s equally delicious wines, a protective bed to lie in when we ship it to them each month. Our brand new inserts inside our boxes offer great protection to the wine and great value to the earth.

A brand new insert alone wasn’t enough though. We still had the pesky little problem of a few little pieces of plastic being used for our handles. We took the time to design our new sugarcane inserts and to redesign our cartons to allow us to creatively integrate a handle into our packaging structure. This little change, well, it means a lot. Our entire packaging can now be either recycled (in the case of our cardboard cartons) or composted (like our exciting new inserts). In any case, no matter what you do with our boxes once you are done with them, they are going back into the earth, with no harmful nasties left over to enter waterways or oceans.

Our customers spoke. We listened. We changed.

When we say we want the feedback of our customers, good and bad, we mean it. So while it’s great to brag a little about how positive so many people have been over the years about our delicately wrapped wines, we have also had a number of people let us know that there was a bit of excess in the name of packaging vanity. We are talking about our tissue paper. As much as we have loved hiding our wine bottles in each box like a christmas surprise, we were being made more and more aware by our customers that it would be even better if they could have a few less pieces of rubbish going into their bins each month. We’d be lying if we said it wasn’t hard to let go of this important part of our customer experience. At the end of the day though, we agreed with what we were being told. Sometimes, less can be more. It’s why we love our customers, because they think just like us. What matters to them matters to us.

So, is that it?

Not quite. We have a few more great ideas we are working on to further reduce our environmental impact. Some in our packaging, some in our delivery methods and some in ways to reduce our overall carbon footprint as a business. Did someone say carbon neutral? We have a long way to go as a planet, but we will make sure we play our part as a responsible business in keeping it in good health. That’s the Good Pair Days way.

After all, no planet, no pinot!