Europe's leading drinks publication, The Drinks Business, last night named an Australian family owned and operated winery winner of the Best Green Launch at the 2010 Green Awards in London.

Wakefield Wines won the award at The Drinks Business Green Awards which recognises and rewards drinks businesses for significant environmental, sustainable and climate change initiatives. The inaugural event comes at quite possibly the most crucial time for environmental awareness across commercial industries.

The Best Green Launch is awarded to a beer, wine, spirit or soft drink launch that has promoted an environmentally friendly cause, has sustainable issues at its core and clearly demonstrates a reduction in its environmental impact during production. Wakefield Wines, known as Taylors Wines in Australia and New Zealand, was the only Australian entrant in the international Best Green Launch category and won for its September 2009 launch of Eighty Acres - the world's first 100 per cent carbon neutral range of wines based on a complete cradle to the grave Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) compliant to ISO14044.

The LCA, maintained by The Australian Wine Research Institute, allowed Wakefield to define an accurate total carbon footprint and subsequently work to minimise emissions prior to off-setting the balance. To assist with the reduction of emissions, Wakefield has moved the Eighty Acres range into O-I's new Lean + Green(TM) lightweight bottles that are 40 per cent lighter than normal bottles and reduce CO2 per bottle by more than 15 per cent.

Wakefield then selected Carbon Neutral, an Australian not-for-profit organisation which provides carbon offsets including Verified Emission Reduction Units (VERs), to offset the sum of carbon emissions. Wakefield Wines and Carbon Neutral are committed to purchasing their VERs through domestic projects, independently certified by the Australian federal government, ensuring the avoided emissions maximise the benefit to the local environment.