Making waves against plastic pollution

Sustainability is no longer an aim for any business operating in the 21st century — it is an imperative.

Yet, achieving objectives around sustainability must meet consumers’, especially younger generations’, demand for action on environmentally friendliness and social responsibility.

Against such a background, all sectors of the food and drink industry are embracing sustainability not just to meet consumer expectations but also to have a positive impact on the world.

Sustainability has become a major focus for the wine sector. This is because not only do green initiatives save on costs, reuse resources and meet compliance requirements, but they also help to create brand recognition among customers.

Companies that are seen as being environmentally sensitive tend to create a vision for others to buy into. Such points were the starting point for Sea Change, an eco-friendly and sustainable wine business, born in 2018 after talks regarding how it can help combat the issues surrounding plastic pollution and marine litter. Parent company 10 International previously created a brand entitled Pink Elephant which partnered with the Elephant Family, a charity which protects Asian elephants and the surrounding habitats.

Sea Change’s strong beliefs that wine businesses have a responsibility to the environment means it works with individuals and organisations who share its ethos and outlook.

One kindred spirit is the “hugely inspirational” Jo Ruxton MBE, the founder of the charity, Ocean Generation.

With her background in marine debris and plastic pollution as well as TV & film production (she contributed to the celebrated The Blue Planet production team), Sea Change founder, Simon Rolfe, recalls how he knew from their first meeting that both parties would form an impactful partnership. Ruxton was so distressed by the worsening pollution she could see first-hand that she set up a grant-giving charity that Sea Change now works closely with.

Since it launched Sea Change, its original list of two UK based charity partners has grown to 11 located all over the world. These organisations include Ocean Generation along with regional partners that benefit from sales within a given territory for example Sea-Changers (UK), The Olive Ridley Project (Indian Ocean) and Clean Coasts (Ireland).

“With each bottle of Sea Change wine sold, we donate a portion of the profit to support many of their projects: from driving environmental awareness within governments and industry to setting up sanctuaries and small local beach cleans,” Simon Rolfe tells Food & Drink Technology.

Actions
Sea Change’s role in helping protect our oceans and marine life has struck a chord with consumers who want to make small changes to their everyday lives. Sales ring to the tune of over 2 million bottles since launch across the world, and it has raised in excess of 600,000 euros for different charity partners.

Sea Change Wine has been designed with minimal packaging in mind to reduce potential waste and to maximise its environmental credentials. Key design elements include:

● Lighter weight glass bottles designed to minimise transport impact and raw material usage
● The removal of unnecessary plastic wraps and foils around our corks
● Renewable plant-based closures and label paper from sustainable forests, made in part from grape waste

“We reduced our bottle weights where we could by taking off the capsules that we thought were unnecessary on the bottle of wine,” Rolfe says of the move to minimise the packaging’s impact.

“You know, billions of bottles of wine are produced every year, and they’ve all effectively got a plastic composite capsule cover over the top. It’s an aesthetic that’s not needed so we removed that specifically from Sea Change.”

Sea Change tries to make the ethos of the business run from the dry goods to the donations, and it only works with producer partners that sign up to its ethical charter.

“We make sure all our winery partners are aligned from an ethical perspective with ourselves, and also, we rank them every year on their sustainability steps,” Rolfe adds. “We have an impact statement. That shows all the wineries sort of graphically on a sort of like bunch of grapes. You know, are they doing something for water reuse? Are they recycling? Do they have solar to all of the different aspects? So, yeah, it is something that we think is important to run right the way through the business for sea change from sort of vineyard to bottle.

“The sea change charter underpins quality. It’s our ethos and reputation. It is vital, not only to the business, but also to our consumers that are enjoying the product. They want to know that their wine does have provenance, that it is produced by a winery that does care, and that it’s produced by a winery that doesn’t tolerate any of the sort of labour issues that you might see deployed in other parts of industry around the world.”

Green Friday
Embracing the eco alternative to Black Friday that is Green Friday, Sea Change, doesn’t produce unnecessary point of sale material. Instead, retailers can use digital material, and consumers, on the other hand, are incentivised., Sea Change has chosen to double its donations from every online purchase the entire week leading up to Green Friday.

For those that don’t know, Green Friday (which took place on 29th November 2024) is an alternative retail milestone with a positive, sustainable impact. The event shifts the focus away from traditional Black Friday consumerism and offers consumers a way to shop sustainably while contributing to a worthy cause. The movement encourages getting active and healthy, enjoying nature with loved ones, and supporting impactful initiatives that benefit the community.

“We’ve got a really loyal customer base,” Rolfe says of the repeat custom via its e-commerce website. So consumers that enjoy Sea Change and love the wines also love the ethical message that underpins the brand.”

The core message that Sea Change wants to get out in terms of strategy is purchase a wine of your choice that you enjoy, however purchase one that also does something for the greater community, does something for the oceans and gives back.

“The opportunity to double the donation during green Friday just enhances that method and for our online customers, just increases positivity.”

Moving forward
The immediate future for Sea Change will see it build on successes from sales of wine at sporting events such as the Dubai Sevens, and high profile listings on Virgin Atlantic, and in the hotel sector.

“We’re excited to see where the opportunities lie in 2025,” an optimistic Rolfe adds. “We think we’ll keep growing internationally, and we’re looking forward to working with our charity partners more.”

While it remains difficult to make products 100 per cent sustainable, what can be done is embarking on developments to minimise the impact on the planet, and to benefit society.

“When I retire, I want to leave the world, through the business work I’ve managed to do, in a little bit of a better place for her than when I started. And I know my business partners all share this sort of vision of what we want to do.”