ISO Certification
All Villa Maria wineries and company owned vineyards are certified with the environmental management system - ISO14001.
The overall idea of this ISO accredtation is to establish an organised approach to systematically reduce the environmental impact of Villa Maria's wine production.
BioGro Certification
In February 2009, Villa Maria was the first major New Zealand winery to achieve BioGro organic certification for our winery and bottling facilities in Auckland.
This means wine made from grapes grown at Villa Maria's organic vineyards is bottled at the main bottling facility, enabling us to trace organic certification for our organic wines from grape to bottle. The finished product may also wear the BioGro logo.
BioGro is a not-for-profit organic producer and consumer organisation, actively working to grow organics in New Zealand.
Villa Maria's Joseph Soler vineyard in Hawkes Bay operates on organic principles and 21 ha is certified by BioGro New Zealand. Rather than relying on herbicides or pesticides, this vineyard uses organic products and seaweeds to prevent pests and promote growth. We are in the process of converting other vineyard sites to organic practices as well.
CEMARS Certification
In 2010, Villa Maria marked another milestone in sustainability, achieving Certified Emissions Measurement and Reduction Scheme (CEMARS) certification, as part of its strategy to reduce the company’s carbon footprint.
CEMARS is an internationally recognised carbon reduction programme developed in New Zealand by Landcare Research and focuses solely on measuring and managing an organisation’s carbon footprint or greenhouse gas emissions profile.
The path to certification saw Villa Maria measure all carbon emissions from the growing of grapes, winemaking and bottling as well as contributing emissions from vehicles, freight, air travel and manufacture of packaging. The objective is to reduce both overall emissions and emissions per unit of production.
"Receiving CEMARS certification is a great achievement and a significant milestone for Villa Maria. Over the years we have launched many initiatives aimed at reducing environmental impact and CEMARS represents the next step taken in that journey,” said our Executive Director, Fabian Yukich.
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