Project Highlights
Funders
Sustainable Winegrowing of British Columbia Program
Partners
Implementation dates
April 2019
-
December 2019
Commodities
Grapes
Beneficiaries
British Columbia Wine Grape Council producer and winery members
About the project
As sustainability became a market requirement in global wine trade, the British Columbia Wine Grape Council evolved its Sustainable Winegrowers BC (SWBC) program from a voluntary self-assessment to third-party assurance. SWBC partnered with SAN, which provided high-level technical support to build a credible assurance framework—reviewing the sustainability standards, designing performance assessment protocols, and setting up monitoring through SAN’s iHub data platform—so vineyards and wineries could demonstrate verifiable, continuous improvement.
Outcomes
SAN reviewed and structured the SWBC Standards for Sustainable Vineyards and Wineries, producing field-ready versions of both standards with clear sustainability criteria and assessment checklists, plus preliminary operational documents to manage certification and field assessments. The work also piloted the standards and field materials in practice to validate and refine the assurance approach.