Yealands triumphed at The Green World Awards 2024, winning the “Champion of Champions” award, underscoring its leadership and innovation within the global sustainability landscape.
The awards, held in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Monday 25th March 2024, saw Yealands recognised across multiple categories, including wins for Regenerative Practices, Carbon Reduction, Climate Change, and two wins in the Sustainability category.
Andree Piddington, Yealands Sustainability Manager said, “It’s an absolute privilege to receive this award. At Yealands, sustainability is very much part of our DNA – and something we have been committed to from the day the company was founded. We have sustainable initiatives across the breadth of our business and supply chain, with clear targets in place and an amazing team working towards achieving our goals.”
The Green World Awards are one of the top environmental awards in the world, rewarding and promoting environmental best practice across a variety of industry sectors. Winning five awards across four categories, Yealands was the overall winner and named Champion of Champions for 2024, with the honour of hosting the Green World Awards in New Zealand in 2025.
“This win recognises the journey Yealands has taken, its’ innovative approach and the evolution of their sustainability and carbon reduction strategy.” The Green World Awards Judges remarked, “Yealands Wine Group, established in 2008 with a focus on producing top-quality wines sustainably, and has led the way in environmental responsibility.”
Achieving Toitū carbonzero accreditation from day one, Yealands has reduced emissions by 42% since 2019. Future plans include innovative initiatives like biochar production and renewable energy projects, aligning with ambitious goals to become carbon positive by 2050. Community engagement and collaboration underscore their commitment to sustainability.”
In 2019 Yealands set their 2050 vision of becoming carbon positive, with an interim target of a 50% reduction by 2030. Since then, YWG have electrified their irrigation systems, light weighted and increased the recycled content in their glass bottles and are currently expanding the solar capacity – with many more initiatives in the pipeline.
“In 2021 we implemented our 30-year, intergenerational biodiversity plan to protect and enhance the natural landscape of our vineyard and region. The plan covers 270 hectares of land where we will restore waterways and plant over a million trees. We believe through improving biodiversity we are creating an eco-system that is healthier, requires less inputs, and will be more resilient to climate change – and ultimately produce better quality wines.
“We also recognise that we all need to work together to achieve the commitments set out in the Paris Agreement, so it’s important for us to share what we have learnt with our community and the wider wine industry,” said Piddington.
The Green World Awards 2025 will be hosted in New Zealand. Ceremonies have been previously held in countries including the United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the United States.
