Presented by Libation Labs
Winemakers understand sustainability. Converting grapes into good wine requires a specific set of special environmental conditions. Preserving the integrity of the ecosystem and keeping the soil healthy means higher quality wine grapes.
“For wine brand owners and grape growers, sustainability is an important premise of running a vineyard,” said Andrew Allison, CEO and founder of Libation Labs. “With good sustainability practices, you can not only increase your profits, but also increase your sales by providing you with a better product. You see the direct result in the fruit with how well you handle the land and your sustainability practice in general.”
Allison’s company, Cuvée Collective, is launching an NFT wine membership club in late July, bringing a tradition-bound, luxury product into the cutting-edge digital space. But why marry wine and NFTs when a big part of the conversation about blockchain is its questionable environmental impact? The energy-intensive process of blockchain transactions and cryptocurrency mining generates an extraordinary amount of carbon dioxide. Bitcoin mining in the US alone in 2020 produced nearly 40 billion pounds of carbon dioxide† But Allison is tackling the reputation challenge head-on by building a sustainability strategy into the mission of Cuvée Collective and its NFT coins from the start.
“We create NFT wine collections for iconic and collectible wine brands from Napa and Sonoma Valleys,” says Allison. “For them, sustainability is a core value. We want to make a positive contribution to the wine country and ensure that family businesses can continue for generations to come. We need to make the same effort and think about the environmental impact.”
His team is working with Kevin Wilheim, CEO of Sustainable Business Consulting, to develop and create an action plan. The central concern: choosing which blockchain to build the Cuvée Collective company on. After a search for a company that takes into account and reduces its CO2 emissions, they have finally partnered with: Flow Blockchain by Dapper Labs†
Less energy than a Google search
Cuvée Collective offers an NFT utility, where members gain access to Napa Valley experiences: access to private wine mapping, tailored visits to partner wineries, curated events, and more. An overview of Deloitte’s energy consumption found that on the Flow blockchain, hitting each of those luxury NFTs uses less energy than a Google search or Instagram post. That’s because Flow ensures the validity of its transactions with the proof of stake model, which requires significantly less energy and is less CO2 intensive than the proof of work model, which blockchains like Bitcoin use. Proof of work is a consensus mechanism that asks users to validate cryptocurrency transactions by tackling a complex mathematical problem. Cryptominers are throwing a huge amount of computing power into their mining operations, so the carbon footprint of proof of work is huge and growing.
Proof of stake, on the other hand, is basically automated. Miners buy a chance to be chosen as a validator of the next currency block and are rewarded with block transaction fees if their bet is chosen, in a random selection.
In addition, Flow’s unique network architecture is also more efficient. As a result, total energy consumption will not increase significantly, even if activity increases by 100x or more – meaning the energy footprint per transaction decreases over time.
“It is important for Cuvée Collective to work with a blockchain that has put sustainability first,” says Allison. “It is critical to the overall partnerships with wine brands that we bring the best Web3 sustainability plan to the table to ensure we match the sustainability plans of the wine brands in their vineyards and in their wineries.”
Connecting the old world and the new
Sustainability was central to their choice, but a few other things stood out when tapping into Dapper Labs, the owners of Flow, says Allison. For example, usability, in a notoriously high-tech space, is important. They saw this in the company’s NFT project, NBA Top Shot. Dapper Labs designed it to be easily accessible for people who were brand new to cryptocurrency and NFTs. Sports fans does not need to know anything about blockchain or crypto investments to use the marketplace.
The parallels there with the general wine consumer public are right for Allison. “I don’t believe the wine consumer in general is in Web3 these days — it’s still relatively small compared to all the people in the world who consume wine,” he says. “The Flow blockchain will be the easiest, safest and most sustainable place for us to integrate new consumers into Web3 that aren’t there today.”
Ease of ramping up is another way to tackle the education curve many winery owners face – the unfamiliarity with Web3 that is common in the industry. The opportunity feels incredibly new to wine brand owners — and especially intriguing as a way to reach a younger audience.
Wine clubs, especially for more established brands, are aging. Reaching the portion of Gen Z that has reached drinking age, or affluent millennials, is something they still haven’t cracked widely. But with a curated NFT collection, they not only get a source of incremental revenue, but also a direct-to-consumer channel for the demographics they’re having a hard time reaching or haven’t reached yet.
“They are excited to collaborate on a new initiative that offers unique opportunities in a way that their current customers will understand and new consumers can discover,” said Allison. “And being able to talk about sustainability, and the choices we’ve made around sustainability, is very important for those conversations.”
Gen Z and millennials are especially aware of how the brands they interact with affect the environment — and they use their purchasing power as part of their commitment to those values. They want to support companies that put their money where their summary is.
Looking forward
The ultimate goal, Allison says, is to become a carbon-negative company. The company will begin generating revenue in the third quarter, with pre-sale registration closing on July 15 and a launch slated for the end of the month. from the company.
“From an ambitious point of view, we hope to be the place that brings the wine industry to Web3, although we think there’s a lot of education and evangelism needed,” Allison says. “We need to get rid of the assumption that people don’t care about sustainability, because sustainability in general expands the business. Sustainability takes all aspects of your business to the next level.”
For more information visit www.cuveecollective.com†
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