Environmental Policy

We at Howard Park Wines believe we have a moral obligation to preserve our rural environment. We believe that a continued focus on good environmental management is positive not only from a sustainability and good business practice point of view but will also help us create a better and a more healthy product.

Howard Park is committed to high standards of environmental performance across all of our business activities with a focus on the Winery & Vineyard sites. We comply with the regulations set by the Department of Environment and have voluntary commitments with the National Packaging Covenent and the WFA Entwine program. We see this process as one of continuous improvement with an aim to minimize our environmental impacts.

Winery Environmental Plan

As stated in our Environmental Policy Howard Park is committed to minimizing our environmental impacts, we have changed our thinking and our approach to growing grapes and making wine, moving towards biological farming practices.

The change has been both philosophical and pragmatic in terms of sustainability and environmental responsibility but also by improving our soils, the result is healthier fruit producing a much better quality wine. There are a number of ways we have approached this, as listed below.

We have joined the voluntary organizations of:

• The National Packaging Covenant - a national organization that ensures that we minimize all packaging used on site.
• Winemakers Federation of Australia's Entwine initiative - an initiative directed at wineries and vineyards that makes us focus on our overall impact on the environment. It specifically mentions the areas of pollution prevention & waste minimization.

Howard Park also has done the following:

• Recycling - A recycling program in place for all paper, cardboard & plastic – with individuals in each department charged with monitoring the staff & collection. We also recycle all our dividers from cellar door for reuse. We have also invested in a press for plastic & paper, so that we can compress our waste for easy collection by the recycling companies.
• Considered the environment in product creation - We have moved to lightweight bottles for the majority of our MadFish products – both the original series & Sideways. These bottles are up to 28% lighter & as such provide significant energy, water & freighting efficiencies per bottle. We also use 100% recycled board for the Sideways range.
• Sheep - We have fencing running through the middle of the property to house about 500 sheep from the wheatbelt. The sheep are here from Autumn to Spring & help maintain the weeds between the vines in lieu of machinery.
• Wastewater - The waste water from the winery is recycled for use in irrigation of some trees onsite. We monitor & report our wastewater loading rates on the treelot via irrigation & the soils within the treelot. We are licensed to operate under the Environmental Protection Act 1986 by the Department of Environment & Conservation. Howard Park also estimates & reports emissions to air, land & water as part of the governments National Pollutant Inventory legislation.
• Rainwater - All the rainwater off our roof is used to fill our water tanks, when that runs out we have a calcite filter that allows us to alternate to dam water without compromising the site water quality.
• Marc pit - All solid waste (marc & sludge) generated by the winery is composted on the marc pad. The compost is then applied onto the vineyard to increase organic matter & soil moisture nutrient retention. It is also used for further composting for Biodynamic preparations.
• Reducing our dependence on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides - adopting Integrated Pest Management strategies (IPM) and by utilizing the best available technology to apply and contain vineyard sprays.
• Organics / bio-dynamics are now a big part of our vineyard management practice. We have adopted, and are integrating bio-dynamic practice and organic methods as part of our overall goal of achieving continuous improvements in the sustainability of our vineyard operations.