In September 2021, Winc created their first Social Agenda with the goal of positioning the organisation as a company that has a positive impact on every worker, learner, carer and teacher across the country, every day. Winc understands the importance of having accountability to both their people and the planet. In taking care of everything a workplace needs to work, Winc has an underlying obligation to do the right thing by the communities in which they live and operate.
The Winc Social Agenda outlines the six focus areas where they can make the biggest impact – and the commitments they have made to deliver this. These areas are:
- Safe Work Practices – be proactive to keep their people safe ensuring they go home unharmed, every day.
- First Nations People Support & Empowerment – take action to address the imbalance in opportunity for First Nations Peoples.
- Climate Change – reduce carbon emissions from Winc’s business activities.
- Responsible Packaging/Management of Waste – improve the sustainability of their Own Brand packaging, improve Winc’s recycling rates and reduce waste to landfill, make deliveries of their 45,000 Winc boxes every working day more efficient and facilitate the move away from single use plastic products.
- Gender Equality – ensure inclusiveness and equality is expected and valued at Winc.
- Ethical Sourcing – trade ethically and take action to protect human rights in the supply chain.
The current Social Agenda progress report, where Winc has documented the real and meaningful progress they have made against all six priority areas can be found at this link.
In this case study, we will deep dive into the areas of Climate Change and Responsible Packaging/Management of Waste.
Climate Change
Climate change now effects every country on every continent. It is disrupting national economies and affecting lives through changing weather patterns, rising sea levels and more extreme weather events such as bushfires and floods. The carbon emissions from human activities are driving climate change and continue to rise. Winc is at the beginning of their journey to reduce carbon emissions and are committed to improving their efforts.
A key measure of success was the reduction of Scope 1 tonnes of Co2 emitted per million dollars of revenue by the end of 2023. This is calculated by Scope 1 truck fleet emissions in metro areas. As of December 2023, Winc has exceeded their 5% target, achieving an 18% reduction. And since commencing this journey, just over 2 years ago, Winc has reduced their Scope 1 carbon emissions per million dollars of revenue by 40%!
This major step change has been achieved by improving the efficiency of their distribution activities through fewer deliveries per order, stronger availabilities, less out of stocks and fewer customer returns. In addition, Winc proactively encourages order consolidation to reduce carbon emissions and packaging waste.
Winc has solar panels installed at three Distribution Centres (NSW, VIC and Townsville) as well as at their Mascot Head Office. The Townsville solar panels have been in place for five years and regularly return more electricity to the grid than the site uses. As a result, Winc has saved 370 megawatts of electricity which equates to 971 less tonnes of Scope 2 carbon emissions being produced.
Winc will continue to improve operational efficiency by installing solar across multiple sites and converting to green energy usage where practical.
Responsible Packaging/Management of Waste
Winc has made a commitment under the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation membership in four areas:
- Make Winc Brand packaging more sustainable.
- Reduce the waste generated by Winc, and increasingly recycle so that less goes to landfill.
- Make their 45,000 deliveries a day more efficient in the amount of cardboard used.
- Assist customers to eliminate their use of single use plastics ahead of legislative principles.
In 2023 Winc’s primary target was to redesign the packaging of a further 5% Winc Own Brand products to be more sustainable to achieve a total of 10% of all Own Brand SKUs to be converted to more sustainable packaging. As at December 2023 this was exceeded to represent 11% of all Own Brand SKUs. As a result, 5.7 million more Winc Own Brand products are sold every year featuring more sustainable packaging.
When it comes to landfill, the target was to increase the percentage of total waste diverted from landfill for recycling to 65% by the end of 2023. As at December 2023, this target was exceeded. The volume of waste diverted from landfill to recycling was 74.6%, or 1,696 cubic metres. That’s about the same as 190 garbage trucks every year now being diverted!
In the area of single use plastics, Winc’s goal was to assist their customers to eliminate their use of single-use plastics by encouraging a transition to sustainable alternatives and remove single-use plastics from sale aligned to state legislation requirements. As a result, 571 million less single-use plastic items have been sold by Winc since legislation was first introduced.
Conclusion
Transparency and accountability lie at the heart of Winc’s commitment to social responsibility. The Winc Social Agenda is a publicly available document which outlines their commitments, programs and performance as they work to build a more sustainable future.
In 2024 Winc’s focus is to accelerate progress in the area of carbon emission reductions, the minimisation of waste, the introduction of more sustainable packaging and the economic and social empowerment of First Nations People. You can access the full report here.
If you would like to work with Winc towards a more sustainable future, please ask your Winc Account Manager.