By Sandra Taylor

Sandra Taylor is an internationally recognized expert on environmental sustainability, social responsibility, agricultural supply chains and public relations. Sandra has a life long passion for wine and is a graduate of the Wine MBA program at Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Bordeaux-Ecole de Management (Bordeaux Kedge Business School in France). Her first book, The Business of Sustainable Wine: How to Build Brand Equity in a 21st Century Wine Industry, will help readers gain important insight into the complicated world of agricultural sustainability and what it is for a wine to be a sustainable food product. Drinking and learning about wine is fun and her book will share her favorite sustainably produced wines.

Sandra is currently working on her second book - A Consumer Guide to Sustainable Wine -- to explain and demystify the various methods for sustainable winemaking to the average consumer. This book will also help consumers reduce their own environmental footprint when purchasing wInes for their enjoyment. This Consumer Guide will contain numerous wine recommendations, along with tasting notes and food pairings, including wines that are affordable -- $9-$20 per bottle -- as well as luxury wines for collectors.

One day she would like to write her memoirs and tell the story of her life, from growing up in Birmingham, Alabama in the 60’s, her exciting career to travels around the world. She also wants to write a book to share insights on her successful career transitions from law to diplomacy to the C-Suite and to vineyards.

For now she is content to write about her cutting-edge business experience in the fields of sustainability, as a corporate executive with Starbucks Coffee Company and Kodak. Sandra is a wine educator and founder of Fine Wine Divas, a learning experience for women on the origins of wine grapes, geography, terroir and food pairing. Her consulting firm, Sustainable Business International has offices in Washington, DC and San Francisco, CA.

You can read her regular column at Wine Review Online and view her book site at Discover Sustainable Wine dot com.

Modern agriculture is the largest single contributor to global greenhouse gas production, deforestation, and water consumption. Biodiversity, climate change, energy, soil degradation, and water scarcity are critical issues. Consumers are increasingly and justifiably concerned about where their food and beverages come from and whether they are produced in a responsible way, often without an understanding of how to determine the provenance of the products they consume. Wine is no exception.

In The Business of Sustainable Wine, internationally recognized expert in environmental sustainability, Sandra Taylor, offers a new view of how the industry can be an important actor in sustainable agriculture and provides a unique insight for the consumer on what to look for on supermarket shelves. The Business of Sustainable Wine analyzes sustainability trends in wine regions around the world. Drawing on case studies from a multitude of commodity industries, Taylor gives producers the tools to integrate sustainability into their winegrowing and marketing, and retailers’ procurement managers will learn how to assess sustainable attributes of wines on offer. Like fair trade cocoa and shade grown coffee, wine must, sooner or later, meet the powerful demands of social activists and a growing consumer contingent for ethical and organic products.

Introduction

CHAPTER 1
Sustainability Defined: Agriculture, Consumption, and the Triple Bottom Line

CHAPTER 2
Sustainability in Wine: Organic, Biodynamic, Sustainable, and Conventional Viticulture and Winemaking

CHAPTER 3
Sustainability Around the World of Wine: A Review of Sustainable Certification Programs by Region and Industry Associations

CHAPTER 4
Sustainability and the Customer: Educating and Marketing to the Consumer

CHAPTER 5
Role of the Trade-Distributors, Retailers, and Restaurants: Educating the Crowd

CHAPTER 6
Social Responsibility to Workers, Community, and Business Ethics

CHAPTER 7
Measuring Sustainability and Carbon Emissions: Life Cycle Analysis and the Wine Value Chain

CHAPTER 8
Conclusion: Greener Wines and a Better World