Champagne Seeks Lighter Footprint

Eco-consciousness has hit the elixir of intoxicants. France's Champagne industry is going green, trying to make amends for an estimated 200,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emitted each year. The largest part of that destructive footprint is its typically heavy bottle.

Dom Pérignon, a Benedictine monk, made the glass thicker in the 1600’s to help control the bottles from exploding. His distinctive bottle design came to embody the luxuriant nature of the contents, and the imbibing experience.

Fast-forward to the 1970’s, when the bottle’s standard weight had augmented to two pounds each. Now, the Champagne industry—which accounts for 10% of three billion bottles of sparkling wine annually—intends to reduce its carbon footprint by 25% by 2020, and 75% by 2050.Continue reading...