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The carbon footprint is understood to be "all greenhouse gas emissions caused directly or indirectly by a person, organisation, event or product" (UK Carbon Trust, 2008). This environmental impact is estimated by making an inventory of GHG emissions and this can be understood as a measure of the impact it generates on the environment, specifically in terms of climate change.
In order to know how much and how Concha y Toro contributes to climate change, one of the first initiatives taken by the Sustainable Development Area was to estimate the Carbon Footprint for the year 2007. This estimate was made by Deuman, a consultancy firm specialized in the areas of energy and climate change. The scope of the calculation of the footprint was defined jointly with Concha y Toro, according to the focus of operative and financial control of its activities.
With respect to the GHG quantification, the Carbon Footprint was determined in accordance with a protocol known as “The Greenhouse Gas Protocol: A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard” of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the World Resource Institute (WRI), which establishes the following categories:
In a broad sense, the estimate of the company’s carbon footprint for 2007 provided the following information:
• 26% of the emissions are direct, the product of the use of fuel in moving and stationary equipment, application of fertilizers and use of refrigeration.
• 18% of emissions are the product of electricity consumption.
• 56% of emissions are indirect and associated with the export of products.
The estimate of the carbon footprint for 2008 was carried out internally by the Sustainable Development Area, following the same protocol as the 2007 assessment.
The results of this measurement showed that:
• 25% of the emissions are direct, the product of the use of fuel in moving and stationary equipment, application of fertilizers and use of refrigeration.
• 20% of emissions are the product of electricity consumption.
• 55% of emissions are indirect and associated with the export of products.
During the second half of 2009 an independent verification was performed by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The purpose was to detect opportunities for improvement and breaches of the best practices in the industry. This verification has a limited scope and includes, among other things, a methodic revision of the balance of emissions prepared by the company for 2007 and 2008, and the identification of opportunities for improvements in the calculation of the carbon footprint.
With this information, Viña Concha y Toro can take decisions like:
• Planning reduced energy and fuel consumption strategies.
• Evaluating alternative energy sources.
• Establishing specific targets for achieving these reductions.
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