Equalitas. Sustainability in the world of wine today is guaranteed
The Minister of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies Maurizio Martina and the new company Equalitas launch the standard born from the confrontation between Federdoc, Unione Italiana Vini, the CSQA-Valoritalia group, 3A Vino and Gambero Rosso.
Certain parameters for companies, transparent communication with consumers.
Official presentation at Vinitaly 2016, on 12 April at 4.30 pm at the stand of the Ministry of Agricultural Policies - pavilion Lombardia Palaexpo A2 - in the presence of Minister Martina.
Its name is Equalitas and its task is to measure and certify the evolution towards sustainability of the Italian wine sector.
The society. Born as in -depth analysis and comparisons between Federdoc, the Italian Union of Vini, the CSQA -Valoritalia group, 3th wine, Red Gambero and a vast audience of producers, collects the concrete planning of the programs developed in recent years as a witness - as a tergeo within UIV and the forum for sustainability - which have had the fundamental merit of widening the vision of the sector, incorporating and declining experiences already implemented at national level and declining. and feeding on the extraordinary experience of Expo 2015.
The parameters. The standard - "Equalitas - Sustainable wine" - will be voluntary and will respond to a series of easily measurable parameters: biodiversity, consumption, carbon footprint, phytosanitary management, but also interaction with local communities and therefore the social impact of companies. Sustainability will be approached according to the three social, environmental and economic pillars.
The sharing. Parameters that were shared in a preliminary phase with over 4,000 companies through extended questionnaires, which were gradually refined and detailed with a direct comparison with over 500 wineries, expression of all the souls of the supply chain: small and medium producers, cooperatives, large winemaking and bottling companies.
Needs. The "Equalitas - Sustainable wine" standard responds to a series of needs that can no longer be postponed in the wine sector: first of all, adopting a shared, objective scheme that can be certified by a third party. The impartiality of the certifying entity allows companies to work on a voluntary standard that has profound benefits in internal terms - self-assessment of their production systems and improvement of performance - and external, in the relationship with consumers: the certification, sanctioned by the collective brand that will be presented at the next Vinitaly, makes it possible to offer the information transparency necessary to facilitate customers' understanding of higher price levels.
“ We have thought of consumers and companies” explains Riccardo Ricci Curbastro , president of Equalitas “ the former want good wines but also certainties when it comes to sustainability; the latter needed a tool capable of transferring their commitment to this fundamental issue with immediacy and simplicity. Equalitas - the name says it all - makes everyone start from the same level and with the same rules, and for this reason it offers a transparent framework of competitive sustainability, within which each company will paint the picture according to its own style and sensitivity".
The hope now is that the extraordinary synthesis work done within the wine supply chain and which led to the birth of "Equalitas - Sustainable wine" can be taken as a basis by the Ministry of Agricultural Policies to define a general regulatory framework, in line with EU directives on the sustainability of agri-food production.
Equalitas is the newco created by Federdoc, Unione Italiana Vini, CSQA-Valoritalia group, 3A Vino, Gambero Rosso with the aim of creating a movement of stakeholders for a homogeneous, shared and competitive vision of sustainability in the Italian wine sector.
