Codorniu wins award for waste reduction

Codorníu has been awarded the European Waste Reduction Award, in the Business and Industry category. This was awarded to the Spanish company for their promotion of good waste reduction practices following the launch of its lightweight cava bottles last September.

The European prize honours those organisations that design and implement innovative waste reduction practices.

A jury of independent European waste reduction specialists selected Codorníu’s Glass Reduction project from 4,346 initiatives across 24 different countries. The initiatives were rolled out during the second European Waste Reduction Week, from 20 – 28 November 2010. Pere Escolar, operations director and Eduardo Mas, head of quality, security and environment management, accepted the award at the prize ceremony held in Brussels earlier this year. 

During European Waste Reduction Week, Codorníu organised an exhibition at its cellars, including an interactive test and two informative sessions to publicise its Glass Reduction project.

Codorníu’s exhibition showcased its recent advances in lightweight glass bottle production, illustrating how this contributes to improving the environment by using less raw materials and reducing CO² emissions.  Visitors were able to test for differences between the lightweight and ordinary bottles and two information sessions were held for students from the Espiells School of Viticulture and Oenology.

Codorníu pioneered the lightweight cava bottle’s launch to market last September, positioning itself as a market leader and supporting legislation on the reduction and minimisation of environmental impact.

A European Project in 24 Countries
The annual European Waste Reduction Week, which promotes good waste reduction practices to the public, is part of a three year European Project backed by the European Commission’s LIFE+ programme.
 
The main partners involved include project leader, ADEME (French Agency for the Environment and Energy Management); ACR+ (Association of Cities and Regions for Recycling and sustainable Resource management); IBGE (Institute of Environmental Management for Brussels, Belgium) and LIPOR (Intermunicipal Waste Management Service of Greater Porto) as well as the ARC (Catalonia Waste Agency). Each organisation presented a submission for each of the five categories: Public Administration, Associations and NGOs, Businesses, Schools, Other institutions 

The Catalonian Waste Agency picked five Catalan nominees and of those, Codorníu was selected as the winner of the Business category. 

1 April 2011 - Felicity Murray