Just how valuable the House of Rémy Martin’s longstanding commitment to sustainable development is was borne out by the pandemic; the House poured more than ever before into its "Sustainable Exception" programme over 2021/2022. The three pillars of its CSR strategy permeated everything it did: guaranteeing sustainable terroirs and production processes, making its unique know-how a unifying force, promoting a "long-term culture".
The House’s target of 70% HVE-certified partner areas among its terroirs by 2024 remains a priority. In April 2022, the fifth annual "Centaurs of the Environment" awards ceremony saw another 32 of the House’s winegrowers get certified. The House does everything it can to help its winegrowers in this respect: through its "Technical workshops", it offers them training to hone their skills.
Through HVE certification, the House fully espouses the principle of continuous improvement in ecological farming methods, and practices to address climate change. It is constantly looking for new ways to do this, conducting full-scale experiments on its estates. These have included developing resistant grape varieties, introducing biocontrol, working with BirdLife International’s partner organisation in France to preserve biodiversity, etc. Over the past year, 15 of the House’s winegrowing partners have been trialling the French Wine and Vine Institute’s decision-support app, DeciTrait. This app assesses a vineyard’s exposure to various diseases (mildew, powdery mildew, black rot, etc.) and shows which treatments are indicated and when, to eliminate any unnecessary use of plant protection products. In time, the app will be made available to all Alliance Fine Champagne winegrowers.
The Sustainable Exception programme is also about motivating employees to help protect the House’s terroirs - the aim behind the "We Care Days" organised with Les Jardins Respectueux over the past year. Les Jardins Respectueux manages community learning gardens in Chateaubernard to shine a spotlight on environmental issues locally. The House’s teams joined in its "Charente River Rehabilitation" programme, focused on agroforestry and arable farming practices.
Sustainable hospitality was also a focus in the past year, expanding know-how and developing new talent in this field. The Nouvelle-Aquitaine’s Regional Tourist Board named the House a "leading player" in sustainable tourism in 2021 - one of the rare wine tourism operators (accounting for just 5% of recipients) and the only major Cognac house to have been awarded this distinction.
The Directorate General for Enterprise and the non-profit Entreprise et Découverte invited the House to be part of the French government’s call for know-how tourism projects. It sits on the Strategy Committee, alongside La Monnaie de Paris and EDF, and is involved in devising a national action plan to showcase outstanding made-in-France expertise and to make France the European leader in this field. The most recent addition to the House’s tourist offering is its "Savoir-Faire Discovery" tours, where visitors get to meet some of its top talents and see them at work. The first of these took place in January 2022. Other new tours were successfully launched in 2021: the "Sustainable Exception: Behind the Scenes" tour, where visitors hear all about what the House is doing for the environment, and the "Slow Exploration from the Vineyard to the Distillery" electric bike tour, set up in partnership with La Bulle Verte.
And then there is the House’s "long-term culture". Since 2020, the House has been reducing and simplifying its packaging wherever possible. It uses the Packaging Performance Index (PPI) to measure the carbon footprint of its production processes and assess the environmental impact of its packagings, from the most environmentally friendly down to those that need rethinking. The aim is to minimise environmental impact and for the House to transition to 100% recyclable or re-usable packaging by 2024. The House is maximising shipping efficiency: it has an action plan to reduce its overall carbon footprint by 2.7% (equating to 2,200 tons of CO2 savings). Overland transport and its impact are also under the microscope. Options include using greener, sail-assisted cargo ships, optimising road haulage, switching to biogas, etc.
To be credible, the results must be clear to see, but the Group nonetheless has the power to promote its House’s achievements through effective communications. This is why it has invited renowned French astrophysicist Christophe Galfard to be a brand ambassador and spokesperson for Rémy Cointreau’s environmental commitments in France and internationally. The motto is "the better we understand the laws of nature, the better we can protect our planet". The House has also joined the International Dark Sky Association, or IDA. Founded in 1988, the IDA campaigns against light pollution to preserve starry night skies around the world. Working with the IDA ticks all the boxes in terms of the Group’s environmental commitments: protecting biodiversity, improving people’s well-being and reducing energy consumption.
Looking ahead, the Group’s value strategy and long-term thinking mean that it will continue to invest in the brand awareness and luxury positioning of this House and its two brands: Rémy Martin and Louis XIII.
