The UseWine Erasmus Plus European Project has now officially started and I recently travelled to Limassol, Cyprus with John Moore to take part in the first partner meeting.
Working with the project partners from Cyprus, Austria, Spain, France, Portugal, Romania and Poland the aim of this first meeting was to agree and plan how the project would proceed and how it will support the development of rural businesses and entrepreneurs in the wine industry.
Triple Bottom Line
The principles and application of the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) framework will be used to examine social (people), financial (profit) and environmental (planet) factors within the wine industry thus leading to increased sustainability.
UseWine Objectives
The key objectives of the project are:
- To assist Wine SMEs in establishing a sustainability strategy that will include environmental and social elements
- To foster a TBL culture in Wine entrepreneurship
- To create common strategy among the Wine SMEs, the local authorities and the social and environmental stakeholders applied through policies which support TBL
- To develop leaders among the Wine SMEs and local authorities who will manage the TBL change
- To establish performance indicators to measure the penetration of TBL principles in Wine entrepreneurship
In a nutshell, these objectives will be achieved by targeting specific groups: wine SMEs; social and environmental stakeholders; and local governments and authorities. A survey based on key indicators will be carried out to initially identify areas of strength, weakness and similarities within these target groups. This will then lead to the creation of a training programme which will be used to develop leaders within the wine industry, helping them to make the transition from the conventional business models they use to the TBL model.
To measure the impact of the work, which will take place over the next three years, the survey will be repeated and the results will be presented at the final conference in Spain in 2017.
By the end of the meeting the participants felt that a lot had been achieved, not least the design of a website specifically for the project, www.usewine-project.com .This will be just one of the communication methods used to disseminate information and activities throughout and beyond the life of the project.
UseWine Logo
Another positive outcome from the meeting was that the partners agreed on a logo to represent the project:
The logo will be a constant reminder to all involved of what the UseWine project is about: creating an impact on the sustainability of profit, people and our planet.
Get Involved
If you are involved in the wine industry or know of any organisations which may benefit from the Erasmus plus UseWine European project then please contact us today.