Sustainability
Sustainability is often described as a combination of attributes including environmental stewardship, community support and economic viability.
The cork industry is often cited as a model for a sustainable industry, as its scope includes the protection of valuable environments and, by its very nature, is dedicated to renewable and recyclable practices.
Cork Oak Forests
Cultivate Sustainability
Community Support
Maintaining and harvesting oak cork forests is a centuries old tradition. The cork industry employs thousands of people throughout Portugal. These skilled manual workers also tend to come from families who have harvested and tended the cork trees for generations. Entire communities across Portugal rely on the cork forests not only for employment, but to preserve and protect the rich cultural heritage of these communities. The majority of skilled workers are employed in harvesting and production of the bark from the cork oak trees, and the cork sector also supports thousands involved in associated industries like nurseries, transportation and research.
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The UN has reported that cork forests play an important role in both environmental protection and poverty alleviation. They strongly endorse the processing of non-timber forest products such as cork as a crucial step to support the environment, employment and growth.
The cork industry is widely credited with protecting the cork forest, which is an important source of grazing habitat, hunting and tourism.
Environmental Stewardship
According to the World Wildlife Fund, “Cork Oak landscapes are a prime example of the balance between conservation and forestry management anywhere in the world. They also play a key role in ecological processes such as water retention, soil conservation, and carbon sequestration.” These forests are also critical in preventing the spread of desertification in this region of the world.
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Cork trees can live to be 200 years old and are harvested for their bark every nine to ten years. 90% of the cork oak forests in Portugal are privately owned by families, who for generations have tended these forests, ensuring not only their survival but their continued growth.
Over 350 plant and animal species call the cork forests home. They provide refuge for millions of migrating birds and are home to a number of endangered species. . These forests are critical to global health on par with the Amazon and Indonesian Rainforests.
Economic Viability
The cork industry enjoys solid economic performance as the wine industry – particularly in the premium sectors – shows strong growth. Other profitable uses for cork have emerged with new products in the industrial sectors, particularly in home furnishings and fashion. These sectors have embraced cork for both its performance and sustainable qualities.
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It is the wine business, however, that drives the cork industry and has been the focus of the most attention. The past decade has seen the cork industry invest tens of millions of dollars in research and application of new methods designed to position cork to remain as the leading wine bottle closure of the future. Newly developed systems of washing, material handling and quality control have already created great improvements in quality and consistency. Much of the past emphasis has been on reducing the incidence of cork taint. Though the chance of occurrence is not eliminated – most customers of NCC members acknowledge the improvements and estimate the occurrence at less than 1%.
Future research is anticipated into the role natural cork plays in the flavor development in wines. While most sensory comparisons between natural cork and other closures focus on oxygen permeability, many feel that the association of natural cork with “developed wine flavors” is caused by more than natural cork’s superior performance as a barrier. The roles played by other flavor components found in natural cork have not been fully studied.
The Carbon Footprint of Corks
Did you know?
The Mediterranean cork forest acts as a carbon sink for 14 million tons of CO2.
The average Net Ecosystem Exchange for CO2 for cork producing forests is -10.6 tons/ha. That is the equivalent of -278 grams per cork. When adjusted for the GHG emitted during cork production, the result is a net carbon balance of -276 grams per cork.
The following table compares the carbon footprints for major closure types.
This analysis shows that the carbon offset attributed to natural corks is equivalent to the annual CO2 reduction provided by 83 solar panels per 1,000 cases of wine!
As part of their commitment to sustainable practices, many wineries target reductions in greenhouse gasses. These efforts are particularly suited to creating specific performance benchmarks. Their scope can include all areas of operation including production, agriculture and logistics.
The choice of bottle closures is often overlooked, but can be an important factor in reducing a winery’s greenhouse footprint. All published estimates show that the production of Natural Cork has a lower carbon footprint than any alternative. More importantly, if you calculate the carbon fixing behavior of the cork forest, the net carbon balance can provide a significant figure that may be applied to overall sustainability goals.
Cork: Renewable & Recyclable
How to Recycle Your Corks
About: “ReCORK recycles natural wine corks to create carbon-negative material solutions. ReCORK was founded by Canadian footwear brand SOLE in 2008 and quickly grew to become North America’s largest natural cork recycling program. With the help of an extensive network of Collection Partners we’ve collected more than 130 million natural wine corks for recycling to date.”
Renewable
Depending on the growing region, cork trees are harvested every nine to twelve years. The trees are not cut down and can be expected to live for 200 years. This makes the industry a near-perfect example of renewable production.
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Most modern wine cork factories utilize cork dust from the processing plant to co-generate electricity. Larger scraps are reserved for use in agglomerated cork production. Virtually every piece of the wood harvested is utilized. Solid waste is minimal.
The process is repeated every decade for the life of the tree. Harvested trees normally live past 200 years. They are generally considered to be more healthy than those trees that have never been harvested.
Recyclable
Natural wine corks consist of wood and a thin coating of silicon/paraffin (for better extraction from the bottle).
Used corks have long been collected for craft purposes to make wreaths, coasters, and in one famous case - a full size sailing ship that traveled Portugal's Douro River!
Until recently, there was little opportunity to return the wine corks. This has now changed with the advent of several recycling program in North America. Two of the fastest growing have opened numerous receiving facilities in the U.S. They arrange for delivery to industrial cork facilities, where the wine corks are ground into small pieces for reassembly into cork sheets suitable for flooring, gaskets and a growing list of new products.
Healthy Cork Oak Forests
are Ecologically Beneficial
Cork oak forests support one of the highest levels of biodiversity among forest habitats, as well as the highest diversity of plants found anywhere in the world.
In cork oak landscapes, plant diversity can reach 135 species every square meter; many have aromatic, culinary, or medicinal value.
Cork oak landscapes contain more than 30 different brackens, some of them very rare, and cork oak microflora many species of fungus.
The fertile undergrowth is thick with heathers, leguminous plants, rock roses, and herbs.
Vital services
The trees help conserve soil by protecting against wind erosion and increasing the rate at which rainwater is absorbed.
Water erosion is also less in areas below upland forests that intercept rainfall, while reservoirs linked to irrigation and hydroelectric installations are protected from eroded soil.
Cork oak landscapes store carbon, reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, especially in the early years of their life when they grow fast. In Spain, the Andalusian forests store more than 150 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, of which cork oak trees store nearly 11 per cent.
Cork oak trees store carbon in order to regenerate their bark, and a harvested cork oak tree absorbs up to five times more than one that is not. (WWF)
Wintering birds
Cork oak forests also host a rich diversity of fauna, including spiders, spadefoot toads, geckos, skinks, vipers, mongoose, wild cats, roe deer, boars, Barbary deer, and genets.
Countless millions of wintering birds from northern Europe, including virtually the entire common-crane population, shelter in cork oak landscapes in the Mediterranean.
Storks, kites, vultures, buzzards, and booted and short-toed eagles gather at bottlenecks like the straits of Gibraltar and Messina and the Bosphorus, where they can climb in thermals and cross safely.
Cork oak landscapes also provide vital ecological services.
Key Partners in Sustainability
World Wildlife Fund
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Cork harvesting is an environmentally friendly process during which not a single tree is cut down.
In addition, because of their economic value, local communities take care of the cork oak forests. This helps reduce the risk of fires and desertification.
Everybody can help save the precious cork oak landscapes of the Mediterranean and protect them against desertification, fires and other threats which could lead to their disappearance.
It is crucial that demand for cork bottle-stoppers is maintained.
Above all, you can choose cork products. The wine industry can promote the use of cork bottle-stoppers in recognition of the environmental and socio-economic value of cork oak landscapes.
Cork producers, meanwhile, must improve the quality of cork stoppers, especially by addressing wine taint and leakage, and communicating progress to the wine industry and consumers.
Wine drinkers have to demand that their favorite wine store stocks bottles with cork stoppers.
This all needs to be combined with improved management and restoration of cork oak landscapes, including certification by the
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
Both the cork and the wine industry can help by supporting the FSC certification effort.
WWF supports cork because it is natural and recyclable and it supports jobs and biodiversity.
By choosing cork you:
• support 100,000 livelihoods in the Mediterranean region;
• guard against desertification, fires, and a number of serious environmental threats facing Europe.
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The precious and versatile vegetable tissue known as cork is the outer bark of the cork oak tree, not the trunk, as people might think.
Cork is most easily stripped off the tree in late spring and early summer when the cells are turgid and fragile and tear without being damaged.
The tree quickly forms new layers of cork and restores its protective barrier.
No tree is cut down. This simple fact makes cork harvesting exceptionally sustainable, leading to a unique balance between people and nature.
It’s a highly skilled business in the western Mediterranean, where each generation has tutored the next in a continuous process from the time of the ancient Greeks.
The harvesting cycle is 9-12 years long, and it takes at least 25 years for a new tree to become profitable.
The first stripping produces cork that is too hard to be easily handled. It’s used in products like flooring and insulation.
9 to 12 years later a second harvest produces better material, but still not good enough for cork bottle-stoppers.
Only the third and subsequent harvests produce cork with an even structure good enough to be used for wine closures.
The cork oak tree will then provide a harvest for some 200 years.
Cork’s natural properties make it eminently suitable for its principle use worldwide: as a bottle-stopper.
It is very light, yet impermeable to liquids and gases, elastic and compressible, an excellent insulator, fireproof, and resistant to abrasion. Above all, it is completely natural, renewable, and recyclable.
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The cork oak landscapes are mosaics of forest habitats, comprising cork, holm and deciduous oak species, stone and maritime pines, wild olive trees, maquis, and pasture.
The habitats have been ranked among the most valuable in Europe and are listed in the European Council Habitats Directive.
In total the western Mediterranean produces about 300,000 tonnes of cork each year.
Portugal is by far the most important cork producer. About 60 per cent of cork production now comes from there.
Cork oak landscapes are one of the best examples of balanced conservation and development anywhere in the world. They also play a key role in ecological processes such as water retention, soil conservation, and carbon storage.
Their conservation is crucial.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - Forestry Division
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Non Timber Forest Products represent a group of important industries that promote sustainable environmental and economic development. Some NWFP are also important export commodities. At present, at least 150 NWFP are significant in terms of international trade, including honey, gum arabic, rattan, bamboo, cork, nuts, mushrooms, resins, essential oils, and plant and animal parts for pharmaceutical products.
Promotion of NTFP industries is one of the most important initiatives of the United Nations through the UN Forest Products Division - FAO. It has instituted a specific program - "Promotion and Development of Non-wood Forest Products (NWFP)" as one of its current priorities.
"The mission of the NWFP program is to improve the sustainable utilization of NWFP in order to contribute to the wise management of the world's forests, to conserve their biodiversity, and to improve income-generation and food security.