The environmental advantages of natural cork stoppers have long been known by cork producers. Now those advantages are being increasingly recognised by environmental organisations and the global wine industry.

A truly sustainable natural resource, cork is one of the few forms of product packaging that is completely environmentally friendly — it is renewable, fully recyclable and biodegradable.

Cork is the bark of Quercus suber, an oak that has flourished in the Western Mediterranean basin for millions of years. In Portugal alone, there are more than 725,000 hectares of cork forest, representing 30 per cent of the global total.

Cork forests help maintain the delicate ecosystems of the Mediterranean and prevent soil degradation across large areas of Portugal and Spain.

The forests provide vital habitat for a range of flora and fauna, ensuring a rich biodiversity. They are home to some of Europe's most endangered species including the Iberian lynx, Barbary deer and Imperial Iberian eagle.

Without wine cork production, farmers would be forced to replace cork trees with other crops, a move that would unsettle a unique balance between social, environmental and economic needs that has existed for hundreds of years.

Cork forest management is a powerful example of positive interaction between humans and nature as the harvesting process is based on sustainability. By law, trees may not be cut down and bark can only be stripped once every nine years.

According to Amorim's marketing and communications director Carlos de Jesus, the recent Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) accreditation of cork forests validates the unique ability of cork to contribute to the advancement of environmental, economic and cultural aspects of the Mediterranean.

Amorim, the world's leading wine cork producer supplying 25 per cent of the global market, is the first company to obtain certification of cork stoppers from the Forest Stewardship Council.

The certification of Amorim corks follows the FSC accreditation in 2005 of a portion of cork forest in Portugal's Alentejo region and several of Amorim's cork processing units.

Mr de Jesus says the FSC certification of a batch of Amorim stoppers completes a 'chain of custody' that extends from forest management through to the final product.

“In part, FSC certification is recognition of something that has been there for centuries — and because it asks more of growers and producers it will have a positive impact on cork quality,” he said.

Apart from achieving chain of custody certification for three of its production facilities, Amorim has also achieved ISO14001 accreditation — an internationally recognised standard of excellence relating to environmental practices.

“For Amorim, FSC certification of our production processes is an endorsement of our environmental practices and further testimony to the value of cork as the only truly environmentally friendly wine closure,” said Mr de Jesus.

The use of cork as a wine closure has the backing of the global conservation organisation, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

The WWF has called on the wine industry to make cork the preferred closure for wine. The organisation says synthetic and screwcap closures are more harmful to the environment and it argues that the future survival of the cork forests depends upon the market for cork closures.

Around the globe, 'green consumerism' has become a major focus for business and this is no more evident than in the UK supermarket chains, which sell almost three-quarters of the 80 million cases of wine purchased by British consumers each year.

Tesco, Britain's biggest retailer, has announced plans to introduce green labelling to show its customers how much carbon dioxide has been generated as a result of a product's manufacture, packaging and transport.

The initiative follows a decision by rival retailer Marks & Spencer to become 'carbon neutral' within five years. The five-year plan includes a commitment to using sustainably-sourced packaging materials.

Energy consumption in production is another area where cork has a distinct advantage over alternatives. Both screwcaps and synthetic closures require enormous amounts of energy in production, adding to carbon dioxide emissions and global warming.

Cork closures, on the other hand, have a very small carbon footprint. And in the forest, the cork oak not only has the capacity to produce oxygen, but its unique cell structure captures greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

Additionally, unlike synthetic stoppers, used wine corks are biodegradable and highly recyclable. Although recycled wine corks are never again used as stoppers, the product has many other uses in industrial applications, building, domestic products, sport and leisure.