Sustainability Report, Download - Via Wines

Message
from the CEO
It is my pleasure to present the first VIA
Wines Sustainability Report, prepared
using the Third Generation Global Reporting
Initiative (GRI) methodology, which
outlines our organization’s commitment
to sustainable principles and practices.
Sustainability is just one of the fundamental
pillars of VIA Wines’ strategy
for becoming one of Chile’s ten major
wineries exporting fine wines by the end
of 2018.
With the aim of broadly disseminating
our company’s philosophy of working
sustainably, we created a Sustainability
Committee that represents every area of
the winery, including viticulture, enology,
operations, quality control, maintenance,
and risk prevention, with Yerko Moreno,
Director of the University of Talca’s Technological
Center for Grapes and Wine
as our advisor. This committee met every
three weeks to set policies, review procedures,
and prepare the winery for the
certification process under the Chilean
Wine Industry’s National Sustainability
Code, promoted by the Technological
Consortiums of Wine.
It bears mention that in this very area,
we have signed the necessary agreements
for measuring our carbon
footprint. Poch Ambiental will advise us
in determining our footprint and Deloitte
will act as auditor. The work will conclude
during the first semester of 2011.
Operational excellence is part of our
philosophy for achieving our strategic
objective. In 2010, and after 18 months
of work, we completed the first stage
in which we reviewed our processes
with the final objective of providing our
customers with excellent service. This
work involved the entire organization and
produced a series of noteworthy results
that are detailed in this report.
The year 2010 was marked by the earthquake
that affected the country and put
us all to the test, especially considering
that our operations are located in San
Rafael, just 25 km (15.5 mi) from Talca,
which was highly affected. Fortunately
we can report that we did not suffer any
fatalities, although 26 employees were
affected with partial or total loss of their
homes. We helped all of them immediately
with boxes of food containing such
items as bottled water, flour, pasta, rice,
tomato sauce, oil, sugar, tea, and milk.
They also received sleeping bags, mattresses,
tents, flashlights, and diapers.
Later they were supplied with construction
materials.
The earthquake on February 27, a
harvest season with climatic characteristics
that resulted in 25% fewer kilos
harvested, and the appreciation of the
Chilean peso with respect to the dollar
all marked 2010. For VIA Wines, however,
the year ended with highly positive
sales results, an increase in our export
prices, the opening of new distribution,
and solid progress in our sustainability
program.
In this first VIA Wines Sustainability
Report, we not only inform our various
interest groups on matters of social responsibility
with respect to the economicfinancial,
social, and environmental
areas, but also assume the challenge
of improving continuously the results of
our indicators, with the aim of becoming
an industry benchmark in the field of
sustainability.
Sincerely,
Ricardo Urresti / Chief Executive Officer
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