Is trying to communicate sustainability to consumers a waste of time?

By Hanna Halmari

In this podcast Toby Webb, founder and executive director of the Sustainable Wine Roundtable, and marketing consultant Joe Fattorini have a candid conversation about communicating sustainability to consumers.

Toby, representing his personal views and not those of the SWR, takes a deliberately provocative stance. He kicks off the conversation by suggesting that communicating sustainability in today’s wine industry “is a waste of time.” Trying to communicate sustainability is too difficult at the moment, he says, and it instead distracts us from the real business of sustainability in wine.

Joe, with his background as a tv presenter, marketing consultant, and wine merchant, brings in a different perspective, having typically worked closely with the customer as the starting point. Listen to the discussion to find out what points they agree on, and where they disagree.

SWR Logo

Sustainable Wine is the free online magazine of the Sustainable Wine Roundtable (SWR).

Join 130+ companies in collaborating to define sustainable wine. Click below for details.

Find out more

About the author

Hanna Halmari
Editor

Hanna Halmari is the editor at Sustainable Wine and head of conferences at Innovation Forum. She specialises in research, conference production, and stakeholder engagement, helping companies tackle supply chain sustainability challenges across agriculture, manufacturing, packaging, and human rights. Hanna holds an MSc in International Development from King’s College London, where she developed a strong interest in political economy and post-communist transformation. She speaks Finnish, Bulgarian, and English, and enjoys travelling and discovering new wines.