How is the planning going for the Sustainablity in Drinks event?
The planning is going extremley well for our first SID event. All those we are speaking to, whether potential exhibitors, associates or visitors are so excited by the concept and its vision. Looking back, it is quite amazing what has been achieved in a relatively short space of time. Whilst it’s a bold statement to make, we think SID will feature the largest collaboration of global sustainability advisory bodies for the drinks industry, ever staged in the UK, which is astonishing for SID’s first year.
Who do you think will get the most out of the event and you are keen to attract to attend?
The team behind Sustainability in Drinks. From left to right: Janet Harrison, Judy Kendrick, Anne Jones and Fran Draper
All those who are in or supplying to the drinks industry who are looking for help to source sustainable products, information and advice will benefit from attending.We are keen to attract a wide range of visitors including buyers from major retailers, producers, independent retailers, bars and restaurants, importers and distributors.
The exhibition is free to attend, but pre-registration and approval is required. This is about quality, targeted visitors who have a genuine interest in sustainability.Many of those visiting will be at various stages on their sustainability journey, or maybe haven’t even started and are looking for help with those first steps – the event is very inclusive and will cover all of these stages.
What is your overall objective and targets for the event?
Very often, when starting a new event, priorities change as the project develops, however, we’ve found that our original objectives and targets remain the same and are already being met, certainly in terms of exhibitors, collaborators (associates) and founding partners.Put simply our objectives are:
- An opportunity for the drinks industry to come together ‘under one roof’ to find suppliers, products and advice to help step-change their response to climate change.
- Bringing experts and colleagues together to form a community of professionals who can provide relevant information, thereby creating positive changes within the industry.
- Attendees to leave with a practical plan of action to help them with their sustainability planning.
The sheer number of professionals and advisory bodies who have stepped up to offer their help and resources to bring the event to life is quite humbling and hopefully this means that visitors will get even more out of SID than we ever thought might be possible.
You are essentially running two events in one - with a conference and a exhibition - can you explain what the format of the event is?
Jancis Robinson MW will be sharing her views on sustainability during the conference on October 14. Photo by Colin Hampden-White
There is a SID Conference on Monday October 14 which is being held at the WSET in Bermondsey 3pm-6.30pm. This aims to set the tone for the two days and is an opportunity to hear from and network with all the speakers. The event is limited in number (around 70 places) and the cost is £65 to attend. You can register and buy tickets here.
The SID exhibition is on the following day, October 15 at St Mary’s Marylebone 10.30am – 5.30pm.It will be free to attend, with pre-registration and approval required.The link to register is here: https://sustainabilityindrinks.com/visitor-registration-form/
The floor of the exhibition will be split into four areas and feature up to 60 exhibitors in:
- Wine production
- Other drinks producers including spirits
- Advisory, trade bodies, audit and compliance
- Products, services and alternative packaging formats
Running alongside the exhibition are five ‘SID Talks’ with an impressive line up of speakers. Each talk will last for around 40 minutes and they willbe situated in the education zone (lower ground floor of the venue)
The Talks are:
11am: Getting Started in Sustainability - SID Top Tips: with Anne Jones, founder of wine sustainability consultancy Limestone & Jones, Rosie Davenport independent sustainability consultant for Impact Focus, Fran Draper founder of sustainability consultancy Drink Net Zero and Phil Korbel co-founder of the Carbon Literacy Project.
12pm: The Future Direction of Sustainability: with Stephen Cronk, CEO Maison Mirabeau, climate journalist Nick Breeze, Chris Smith of Beyondly and Jamie Hutchinson, CEO of Cordon Technologies.
1pm: The Race to Net Zero: with International Wineries for Climate Action (IWCA), Doug Wanstall of Beyond Zero, Isabel DiVanna, the Carbon Trust and Meagan Littlejohn of Sustainable Winegrowing NZ.
Laura Catena will be explaining Catena Zapata's approach to sustainability
2pm: The Great Packaging Debate: with Peter Stanbury of Sustainable Wine Roundtable, Robin Thompson of Encirc, Laura Catena, MD of Catena Zapata and Marta Mendonça of Porto Protocol.
3pm: Engaging the Supply Chain in the Sustainability Journey: with Barry Dick of Waitrose & Partners, Dom de Ville, director at The Wine Society and Calum Fraser of Discarded Spirits.
In terms of the conference the sustainability issue is clearly a wide one with lots of issues- what topics are you looking to cover in the conference and why have you chosen those?
The overarching theme of the conference is ‘Creating Value through Sustainability’ something which is key for all those working in the drinks industry. We are thrilled to have Master of Wine Jancis Robinson OBE and Judith Batchelar OBE as keynote speakers.The conference will be in the form of a structured panel debate, with each speaker giving the benefit of their extensive experience. Richard Siddle will chair the debate and the other speakers include SID’s founding partners:
- Robin Thompson, head of technical, Encirc.
- João Barroso, director of sustainability, research & development, Wines of Alentejo Sustainability Programme.
- Doug Wanstall, head of projects, Beyond Zero.
- Stephen Cronk, CEO, Maison Mirabeau.
(You can watch a video with Stephen Cronk of Maison Mirabeau explaining how it is looking to implement regenerative farming practices in a discussion with Anne Jones)
The topics covered are:
Jancis Robinson MW OBE: "Creating a more sustainable drinks industry for future generations"
Panel Discussion: “Value from production: how can your business add value through sustainable practices?”
Judith Batchelar OBE: “The cost of not taking urgent climate action”
Panel Discussion: “Value for business: how important is customer change in driving sustainable choice
There will then be networking and an opportunity to meet and chat to each of the speakers.We’ll have delicious wines supplied byWines of Alentejo and Maison Mirabeau, alongside some locally sourced light food.
Can people just come to the conference rather than attend the exhibition?
People can just book to come to the conference, should they like to do that.The cost of the ticket (a modest £65) is priced to cover the costs of the event.
Give us an idea of the range of companies, and services they offer that are taking part in the trade fair?
There is a large range of companies and services represented at the exhibition on October 15. You can see a selection of the exhibitors here.
Alongside exhibitors, we also have a hugely influential range of what we term ‘associates’ – a fantastic collaboration of trade bodies, certification schemes, education bodies and advisory companies.This is an indication of the credibility of the event itself. They are:
• IWCA: International Wineries for Climate Action
• WSTA: Wines and Spirits Trade Association
• Carbon Trust
• Carbon Literacy Project
• Regenerative Viticulture Foundation
• Porto Protocol
Visitors will be able to meet representatives from all these organisations on the day.
You also have some trade partners involved in the event - who are they and what is their role?
We are indebted to our founding partners, who took a leap of faith when we first formed SID and asked for their support.They have helped us with resources and time, enabling us to launch this ground-breaking event.They add further gravitas to the project and will have a physical presence at the exhibition, as well as being a major part of the conversation at the SID conference. They are:
Encirc: An industry leader filling over 400 million litres of beverages every year.Its unique approach to making glass containers, filling and distributing products sets Encirc apart from its competitors.
(You can watch one of the videos created for SID with a debate between Anne Jones, representing WineGB and WASP Wines of Alentejo Sustainabilty Programme)
Wines of Alentejo Sustainabilty Programme: The multi award winning Wines of Alentejo Sustainability Programme (WASP) is one of Europe’s most progressive regional wine sustainability initiatives.
Maison Mirabeau: Maison Mirabeau is a certified B Corp and is part of a global community of businesses that meet high standards of social and environmental impact and transparency. Stephen is driving the adoption of regenerative farming through the Regenerative Viticulture Foundation, which he co-founded.
Beyond Zero: An Environmental Asset Manager that has pioneered a number of firsts in the use of data, science and technology to maximise the return on investment in nature. It offers a range of services to help land managers maximise the value and impact of their decision making. Its robust and data-rich solutions measure, report and verify carbon emissions, sequestration levels and biodiversity gains to unlock and monetise the value of natural capital at farm, landscape and national scales.
Do you have other plans for SID on top of the initial event?
It is clear, from the amount of interest generated and the advice required within the drinks industry, that this is just the start point for SID.It could and will probably be a larger scale event next year – maybe over a number of days.Our original idea was to build this into an international event, attracting visitors globally. There are already exhibitors and visitors from New Zealand, Argentina, Portugal and Scandinavian countries, which has exceeded our expectations for the inaugural year. This just demonstrates what a much-needed event SID really is.
You have also produced some videos to help highlight the event and what people can expect - who has taken part in those and how do you watch them?
To give potential visitors a snapshot of what to expect from SID, we have filmed four zoom debates which we are releasing in the run up to the exhibition and conference.They feature a representative from each of the founding partner companies on a number of topics which will be explored more fully at SID.
Anything else to say?
We have been blown away by the reaction to SID.We even have a list of exhibitors who couldn’t make it in 2024 but would like to be involved next year.We’d like to thank all those who are taking part in the first year, it is a very impressive line up, which translates to a massive amount of support for those who are planning to attend.It really is an unmissable event.
* To find out more and sign up to SID click here.
