Fabian Yukich, Executive Director of Villa Maria Wineries, told us about how he’s managed the company to embrace sustainability in all areas of their operations.

He shared with us the impact of sustainability on Villa Maria’s  packaging developments.

Fabian has been involved in wine for a long time. He owned his own vineyard in his early 20s. He has been driving sustainability at Villa Maria since 1998 and has been instrumental in embedding social, environmental and financial sustainability into the core of the company's culture. Under Fabian’s management the company became the first major New Zealand wine producer to achieve CEMARS (Certified Emissions Management and Reduction Scheme) certification and BioGro Organic certification from the vineyard to the winery.

In 2006 Fabian was appointed to Villa Maria’s board and in 2010 he was presented the Sustainability Champion Award at the NZ Sustainable Business Network Awards recognising his contributions in this area. Two years later he collected the 2012 Supreme Green Ribbon Award at Parliament in Wellington, recognising Villa Maria’s outstanding and on-going contributions to protecting New Zealand's environment. 

Not only did Fabian share his story and experiences with us, he had also, very generously, set up a chance for us to visit the factory - check out the photos below.

And of course we got a chance to taste some of Villa Maria’s fantastic products!

To find out more, check out Villa Maria’s website, which features their new look:http://www.villamaria.co.nz