Carbon footprint
There is, unfortunately, no ‘one size fits all’ solution when it comes to sustainability and so we’ve invested considerably to identify which changes we can make to lessen our effect on our planet. Our business’ greatest opportunity to make a change is through minimising our reliance on fossil fuels. As such, we’ve invested over £8million in renewable heat and energy generation at our sites across the North East of England and today our business is powered almost completely by renewable wind and solar energy.

Wind power: Our four wind turbines produce around 5.5million kWh (kilowatt hours) of clean, renewable electricity per year. We use around 42% of this electricity to run operations at our Greencroft Estate (including Lanchester Wines and Greencroft Bottling) with the remaining electricity – enough to power 800 three bedroom homes - feeding into the National Grid for use within our local community.

Solar power: We also have a 41 kilowatt solar array on the roof of Lanchester Wines’ office complex, which is calculated to produce enough clean electricity to cover our day-to-day use. The chemical reactions which occur within solar panels are more efficient at cooler temperatures so County Durham’s bright and sunny, yet rather chilly, weather is perfect for our solar panels.

Heat Pumps: As a business, we continue to make choices about our long-term sustainability which go above and beyond both legislation and common practice. We are pioneering world-changing heat pump technology using water from disused mines at our warehouses in Gateshead
- Our x2 Open Loop Water Source Heat Pumps have a combined capacity of 4mW (4million Watts) of heat
- We are currently heating 33,445m2 (360,000 ft2) of warehouse, maintaining an ambient temperature perfect for storage of wine
o We hope to extend the size of this area further as we refine the technology

This technology not only enables our customers to further reduce their carbon footprint, but also revolutionise how clean technology may be used in former mining areas across the world.

Saving Energy: We understand saving energy is just as important as generating it and have implemented a number of practices across our estate:
- Lights
o LED and low energy lighting projects now cover our lighting requirements
o Movement sensitive lighting areas have been installed throughout company-owned buildings to establish the most effective solution for our operations
o Combined, this has resulted in around £40,00 savings a year
- Warehouses
o Over 18,580m2 (200,000 ft2) of additional 240mm roof insulation (along with the existing 120mm) totalling 360mm
o Warehouse roofs double or tripled skinned (depending on the property)
o These provide year-round protection from extremes of temperatures, negating the need for additional heating and cooling
- Office
o Our windows are high tech glass which helps us to control the temperature, keeping us cool in summer and warm in winter
o We heat and cool the building using air source heat pumps which extract the heat from the air outside
o Our lighting is power-saving and automatic, turning itself off when a room is not in use, thus conserving energy

Packaging:
Lanchester has done much to raise the positive profile of premium wines shipped in bulk, helping further reduce the carbon footprint of imports by sidestepping ever more transportation of heavy glass bottles. This has also led to increasing use of innovative and alternative packaging solutions.