A challenging road to carbon neutrality

LEADERSHIP and change is not foreign to the five generations of the Chambers family at Lake Moodemere Estate in the Rutherglen wine region. Changing farming systems and the mix of activities in order to remain in business is critical, as are the leadership skills shown by Belinda, Michael and Joel Chambers. Lake Moodemere will soon be one of six wineries in Australia to become certified carbon neutral. With deep family connections within the wine industry and a history of previous generations providing leadership within the broader agriculture industry this adaptation to climate change and emissions reduction was a natural step. North East Catchment Management Authority spoke with the Chambers family in conjunction with hosting two Wine Australia workshops exploring carbon neutral wine and grapes at Rutherglen and Oxley during December. These workshops are part of the Carbon Farming Outreach Program, helping farmers learn how to reduce emissions, store carbon and navigate carbon market opportunities. When the Chambers family achieved sustainability certification for their Rutherglen vineyard on Lake Moodemere in 2021, they found a user-friendly framework that helped them create a stable ecosystem, reducing their reliance on synthetic fertilisers and expensive and intensive vineyard practices such as slashing and other unnecessary activities. Joel, who returned to Lake Moodemere Estate in 2018 after serving in the Australian Defence Force, where he had honed his skills in leadership and change, said sustainability certification was focused around growing grapes using sustainable regenerative vineyard practices that are better for the environment while allowing the production of an acceptable yield and high quality. He said while it was a logical step for the small family-owned winery and vineyard, it wasn’t without its challenges. “At the start we did go hard, the vineyard went into shock and we had the worst vintage we’ve ever had,” Joel said. For Joel’s father Michael, who established the wine label with wife Belinda in 1995, seeking sustainability certification made sense. Michael’s father Peter had already moved away from pesticides in the vineyard which was first planted in 1886. He said what really pushed them into the big time was the millennial drought as for a couple of years, the crop was a bit thin on the ground. But last year they had their highest yields ever and the best quality. “The vines have gone through this transition and they’re starting to produce up to eight tonnes a hectare which is all we need," Joel said. "And they’ve created this stable ecosystem where we don’t have to rely on any synthetic fertiliser. “The sign of a healthy vineyard is when you go through to put your fungicide spray on and you come out and the tractor’s covered in bugs and spider webs. "And you’ve gotta give it a really good wash down.” The Chambers family recently celebrated their centenary; 100 years of mixed farming and growing grapes on the Lake Moodemere property. At the same time Joel, who followed his parents Michael and Belinda, grandfather Peter and great uncle Bill into winemaking, has ensured Lake Moodemere will become the first carbon neutral wine operation in North East Victoria. But he says going carbon neutral at Lake Moodemere has been a “whole different kettle of fish”, in spite of the earlier transition to sustainability certification. “It identifies your bigger emission areas and our vineyard is now not a big emitter," Joel said. "It wouldn’t be responsible to try and reduce emissions further in the vineyard because then we are going to have a yield issue." In order to meet the challenges of achieving carbon neutral certification through the government-backed program Climate Active, the Chambers engaged a consultant, rather than go it alone as they had previously done with sustainability certification. “You need to reveal your entire input process and that goes from how you grow your grapes to how you operate your wine business; how we get our wine to our cellar club members or to the consumer,” Joel said. The process identifies high emissions such as transport, wine bottles and the production system. From there, the Chambers have worked to reduce their emissions and have bought a minimal amount of offsets to cover transport which accounts for about 70 per cent of their business emissions. Bottles are also a major emissions contributor, particularly the heavyweight premium claret bottle which until now has contained the Lake Moodemere family range. The Chambers were using some light and green bottles already, and have since moved to use them across their range. The only exception is for sparkling where there is no lightweight option for safety reasons. They are also working through reducing their emissions and aiming to become carbon positive via insetting, a form of offsets where the carbon absorbed by a property and soil is claimed. The climate active regulations currently do not allow the insetting of tree plantings or biodiversity, which is a “business as usual” part of any farming operation. The Chambers say changes to the way on-farm biodiversity plantings are allowed to be used in the emissions footprint calculation is critical in supporting farmers to become carbon neutral. “We’ve been working on our soil carbon in the vineyard for some time," Joel said. "It’s up around 3pc compared to our land over the road which sits at about 1pc. “If that can be registered and used; together with planted out areas that are not farmed, we will probably become carbon positive.” Michael, Belinda and Joel say their small management team has given them greater versatility than larger operations but even then, the cost of carbon neutral certification remains a big deterrent both to them and their winemaking colleagues. “So far it’s taken us two years because we spent an entire year getting our documentation together,” Joel said. "The big cost is your initial certification and then you have to report every year. “It would be nice to start to do that by ourselves; to do our own reporting and documentation. That would certainly lower costs." Right now, Joel said the carbon neutral certification will be a trial period at Lake Moodemere. While sustainability certification had delivered the winery good marketing opportunities and a point of engagement, particularly with its Cellar Club membership; it was still too early to know if carbon neutral certification would do the same. “I think we’re definitely gonna give it maybe five years and we’ll see where things are - the cost will come into it big time,” he said. Belinda Chambers said when Joel returned to Rutherglen in 2018 after four years in the military, she and her husband had committed to back him where his passions were. “And his passion was very quickly identified in the carbon neutral space for emissions,” she said. “It was challenging for us to get our head around and to believe it, but as we went through the journey that changed and we’re fully immersed now. “The strategy is to continue into the next generation and make sure that we’re investing in the kinds of things that Joel wants to continue with.” The North East CMA is helping farmers to make informed decisions about carbon farming with free workshops on offer. If you are interested in attending a training workshop or are interested in having training delivered to your group or network, contact Lachlan Campbell at lachlan.campbell@necma.vic.gov.au.

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