With a history of over half a century behind it and a clear mission oriented towards sustainability, the Caviro agricultural cooperative presents its first sustainability reportWith its 36,500 hectares of vineyards, cultivated by 12,800 winegrowers, in seven regions of Italy, the Caviro Group is the largest winery in the Belpaese.Born in Emilia Romagna, in Faenza, in 1966, today it is the leading agricultural cooperative in the wine sector and can count on thirty-one members, who produce 728 thousand tons of grapes every year (10 percent of Italian grapes).An effort that in 2018 allowed the group to market 174 million liters of wine in over seventy countries around the world.Numbers that allow us to understand the weight of a company that, in addition to representing an entrepreneurial success, has distinguished itself over the years for its circular economy model.A model that the company claims as one of the first in Europe capable of achieving an almost total recovery rate (99 percent) of its waste materials.A mass of 560 thousand tons per year.To make all this possible is teamwork, based on innovation and investments aimed at enhancing more and more and better the by-products of the agri-food supply chains.Suffice it to say that in this kind of projects the group has invested 100 million euros in the last ten years, reaching very important goals, also from an environmental point of view.Above all that of energy self-sufficiency, obtained thanks to the recovery of grape waste and through a path that lasted twenty years.To share values ​​and best practices with all stakeholders and be an inspiration to the industrial sector, Caviro has decided to draw up its first sustainability report.A passage considered as the natural evolution of one's path.The president of the group Carlo Dalmonte and the general manager SimonPietro Felice presented it as a preview to the press in Milan on 22 October.“Sustainability means asking questions about one's actions, both as citizens and as companies”, said President Dalmonte, “because companies are not foreign bodies, but are inserted into society, the environment and the economy.Convinced of this, we wanted to give visibility to those less accounting, but equally important, aspects of our work.A rigorous and transparent work that also served us as a self-analysis ".As reference points of its 2019 sustainability report, Caviro wanted to insert some of the SDGs of the UN Agenda 2030, recognizing in them a common value and inspirational basis for its work."At least seven of the sustainable development goals set by the United Nations impact our actions every day", commented President Dalmonte, "demonstrating that great principles, which may seem distant, instead affect us closely".The initiatives and efforts of the group are in fact oriented towards the health and well-being of people (objective 3);access to reliable and clean energy (objective 7);sustainable economic growth (objective 8);the efficiency of resources and industry (objective 9);sustainable production and consumption patterns (goal 12);combating climate change (objective 13);promoting effective, responsible and inclusive societies and institutions (objective 16).Caviro's concrete and growing commitment to sustainable development is manifested in its virtuous scheme of circular economy.A model that, in fact, eliminates the concept of "waste" and aims to make the most of all resources.During the presentation of the sustainability report, the general manager SimonPietro Felice highlighted the steps of this path, underlining the importance of the cooperative identity of the company, as an instrument for the protection and development of the producers themselves;and of the economy of scale, which makes possible investments that would otherwise be unthinkable for small businesses.The economic circle set in motion by the group is very clear and shows how attention to the supply chain as a whole allows it to be safeguarded over time, making it both sustainable and competitive.The integrated cycle set up over the years by the company manages, in practice, to treasure all the natural resources of its vineyards, feeding itself and decreasing the use of raw materials.An all-round advantage, which sees the by-products of wine becoming resources for the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, food and agronomic industries.For example, a dozen noble products destined for industry are extracted from the marc (i.e. the skin that remains after pressing the grapes), such as ethyl acid, tartaric acid, enocyanine (a natural dye ) and polyphenols (phytochemical compounds very important for the health of the organism).Instead, from grape seeds (grape seeds) derive precious essential oils, which are in great demand in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical fields.Obviously the extraction of these elements requires "very expensive processes", as explained by the general manager.“Our Caviro Extra task force invests an average of 8 million a year for these operations and has been doing so for more than fifty years, using thirty-five hectares of land”.Even the scraps of these processes manage to have a second chance, revealing themselves to be precious renewable sources of electricity.The plants of the subsidiaries Caviro Extra and Enomondo in 2018 produced 109 thousand MWh of electricity (to be clear, the annual needs of over 40 thousand families), allowing a saving in climate-altering emissions of 68 thousand tons of CO2.This production has led to an important milestone: the coverage of the entire energy needs of the group's production plants.Not only.“We also collect the waste of other winegrowers, who could hardly exploit them as resources”, explains Felice.These revenues become a further liquidation for our members ".The guarantee of origin (Go), that is the qualification of plant issued by the Energy Services Manager (Gse), which certifies that the electricity produced derives from sources renewable.And it's not over yet.Because recently the group has launched another energy production system, which uses production waste (such as lees, wastewater and pruning) and other by-products of the dairy and food sectors, to obtain a double advantage: that of producing biogas and fertilizers .“In June 2019 we inaugurated the first biomethane agro-industrial plant in Italy”, explains the director, “It is intended for service stations for methane vehicles, and will have a production capacity capable of supplying 18 thousand cars in one year.Fertilizers, on the other hand, are given free to winegrowers, to fertilize their vines ".A perfect closing of the circle, in which each resource was able to best express its value and complete its cycle.There are many other initiatives reported in the 2019 sustainability report. Attention to consumers is at the center, for example, of Conoscere alcolco, a social campaign to raise awareness on moderate and responsible consumption of alcoholic beverages, to which the group has joined, in in line with the objectives of the Gaining Health program promoted by the Ministry of Health.The protection of producers and employees translates into numerous efforts in the areas of training, health and safety.Indicative of this trend are the over 11 thousand hours of training and an index of frequency of accidents at work (7.0 in 2018) much lower than the average of the agri-food sector (22.8).There are three macro objectives for the future declared by the group.First of all, the reduction of emissions at all levels.Central here is the issue of the decrease in road transport, to which Caviro intends to allocate further efforts, increasingly favoring the railway network and naval transport.Joining Orchestration, the first collaborative logistics project in Italy, is strategic to optimize transport flows and achieve the dual objective of making travel cheaper and reducing empty kilometers of transport.Another macro objective is the reduction of water waste.To date Caviro is able to recover 30 percent of the water used in its production processes, but aims to double the figure and reach up to 80 percent.Last is the commitment to safety in the workplace.“A topic on which a lot has already been done and in which Caviro is very virtuous, but which will remain central”, concluded the general manager."To this end it is necessary to change the culture and make people responsible for themselves".The 2019 sustainability report of the Caviro group will soon be available on the company's website.This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial - No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.Read other articles on these topics: wine, sustainability report, industry, best practicesEnvironmentally friendly crops, reduction of emissions in production, recyclable packaging, circular economy projects and support for the "rice communities": Riso Gallo's path to sustainability.Orange Fiber's goal is to foster the convergence of fashion towards sustainability by offering innovative products even on a large scale.The People program focuses on the growth of people, a fundamental element together with Planet and Profit of naturally sustainable startups.From the ingenuity of a startup, natural packaging is born that tantalize sight, touch and smell thanks to the use of chamomile and lavender processing waste.With the educational project Moments not to waste and with the Talent Kitchen competition, Whirlpool brings the theme of food waste to schools.A rewarding and supportive creative path.Andriani and the ApuliaKundi startup have launched a project that allows the water from the pasta production to be reused to grow organic spirulina.All the children, at least once, had a snack with the tart.That of Germinal Bio combines well-being and respect for the Planet, without forgetting the taste.With the new fully recyclable paper packaging, La Molisana cuts 230 thousand kilos of plastic per year and continues its commitment to sustainability.Technological innovation also plays a central role in agriculture.Proof of this is Mutti, with InstaFactory: the mobile factory that takes the field.