PS1: Environmental and Social Management systems
The main facility of Tbilvino is the production plant located in Tbilisi including administrative and manufacturing areas. Tbilvino has a big wine cellar, which can keep up to 3 million liters of wine and has also small wine cellar for so called Special reserve wines aged in French oak barrels. The company doesn’t own vineyards, and grapes are sourced from more than 300 farmers in the Khakheti region - approximately 150 km from Tbilisi - where crushing and some fermentation take place.
Management Systems and Assessment:
The development of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study for the proposed project is required by Georgian authorities. The company will perform an Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) assessment for its new project before construction and will implement industry good practice for the working places and machinery purchased. The Ministry of Agriculture’s Food Safety, Veterinary and Plant Protection National Bureau performs food safety audits once a year and the Company has a valid Operation License that is renewed as required by the Georgian authorities.
Both Tbilvino and Government degustation (tasting) committees regularly perform tests to evaluate the quality of the wine and each export party also undertakes this procedure. In addition, an executive Australian wine expert visits the production facility every harvesting season and provides advice. The company’s operations are ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 22000:2005 certified by a UK Certification company and each certification is valid until February 2013.The company has conducted a hazard analysis and developed a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan. The management system integrates quality and food safety requirements and consists of a Management System Manual including the policies and procedures required by ISO 22000 and ISO 9001 supported by the HACCP Plan. Going forward, the company will further integrate Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) Management System elements – in line with ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 - into its Integrated Management System.
Organization:
The Executive Director of Tbilvino takes ultimate responsibility for implementation of the Integrated Management System and ensures timely review of all elements for continuous improvement and effectiveness of the system. Responsibility for the two main aspects of the System is delegated to the Import and Local Procurement Logistics Manager (System development and implementation) and Head of Laboratory Dept (food safety), respectively. In order to streamline the management of EHS matters, the Company will nominate a corporate EHS Coordinator and make use external EHS consultants as necessary, e.g. for the assessment of its new facility.
Training:
All employees are provided with induction and technical safety training program after being hired and receive job-specific safety training twice a year. As per the attached Environmental & Social Action Plan (ESAP), 10% of total employees at each facility will be given First Aid training, and First Aid equipment will be made available in readily accessible places.
Monitoring:
Currently the company does not monitor effluent discharges, air emissions and occupational health and safety (OHS) statistics. The use of water, electricity and natural gas are monitored and logs are kept in special forms. The Company will extend its monitoring program to include wastewater volume and quality, air emissions and OHS statistics, as indicated in the ESAP.
Reporting:
Reporting of key EHS key performance indicators will be done internally as per the requirements of the integrated management system and externally to the national regulatory agencies. The Company will submit an Annual Monitoring Report on Environmental and Social Performance to IFC, in accordance with the IFC requirements.
PS2: Labor and Working Conditions
Human Resources Policy and Management:
Tbilvino manages its human resources in accordance with internal procedures that cover staff selection and career development aspects, including recruitment process, job descriptions, induction and safety trainings and working instructions. These are consistent with Georgian Labor Law. Nevertheless, the company will prepare a Human Resources Policy in line with PS2 requirements, explicitly mentioning freedom of association and non-discrimination. Currently Tbilvino employs 77 people, 34 of whom are women and 37 of them are administrative staff. At employment, each staff member is introduced to the Chief Engineer and receives instructions on safety measures and work process. They are also provided with their labor contracts and job instructions. Specific safety instructions are available for the workers at the bottling line, diesel generator, electric cars (in the winery) and security.
The employment contract includes a one month probation period and is renewed every 3 months for unqualified workers. The company reported that 80% of workers’ contracts are renewed continuously for last five years. Contracts specify working hours, annual leave days, remuneration, responsibilities and termination clauses. The Company reported that there is no difference between workers and administrative employees in terms of benefits and pension. The Company also hires seasonal workers based on daily contracts during the two month harvesting period at the rented crushing facility in Khakheti. Working hours are defined as 9am to 18 pm with a lunch break and workers are entitled to 24 days of paid annual vacation leave. Employees are paid a fixed monthly salary and fixed bonus which in this case are GEL 275 and GEL 30 (approximately 164$ and 18$, tax included) respectively. Country minimum wage is about GEL 20. There is no established governmental social security system in Georgia; the Company is currently in negotiations for private health insurance for all employees. The minimum age of employment is 18. There is no issue related to forced labor or child labor.
Workers’ Organization:
There are no trade unions involved in the company’s operations. The Company reports that freedom of association is respected and that each employee is free to join a worker organization. As indicated in the ESAP, the company will introduce the selection of worker representatives in the absence of union, to express their concerns and grievances regarding working conditions and terms of employment.
Non-Discrimination and Equal Opportunity:
The Companies is an equal opportunity employer and does not make employment decisions on the basis of personal characteristics unrelated to inherent job requirements. The company will ensure that this is clearly stated in the new HR Policy.
Grievance Mechanism:
The Company has an open door policy and an informal employees’ grievance mechanism. As reported by the company, employees can directly communicate their concerns to management representatives. Aside from internal grievance mechanism, external worker protection mechanisms are ensured by Georgian labor laws. The Company will place a number of suggestion boxes at locations throughout the existing and planned facilities, to allow employees submit suggestions or complaints.
Retrenchment:
There are no current plans for retrenchment, however if it becomes unavoidable, the company will implement a retrenchment plan in accordance with PS2.
Occupational Health and Safety:
The Company has a procedure for the preventive and occasional maintenance of all equipments and the Chief Mechanic is responsible for the application of this procedure together with the technical control of the entire facility. Daily checks are performed for generators, water supply, gas supply, heating and lighting systems. The preventive maintenance program will be systematized accounting for high risk pressurized gas equipment, boilers and compressors. The Company will also perform comprehensive risk assessments (with specific focus on confined space) and job safety analyses for all production and bottling lines and workplaces to further reduce the risk of accidents.
A work permission system will be developed for confined spaces entry, hot works, electrical works and work at height and incorporated into the Integrated Management System. Carbon dioxide asphyxiation is a significant risk in wineries especially during red wine fermentation process. Tbilvino will follow safety instructions when testing fermentation progress; oxygen content and toxic gas measurement devices will be provided to the relevant employees before entering fermentation tanks and other confined spaces. The Company does not perform accident reporting and recording for direct and temporary workers. Going forward, the Company will start maintaining Occupational Health and Safety Statistics and keep a record of related inspections. This will be included in the Annual Monitoring Report to be provided to IFC. The identified risks will be documented and corrective actions will be taken to reduce them to an acceptable level.
Bottling is performed at the Tbilisi facility and the capacity is 3000 bottles per hour. The system is fully automated and machine guarding is in compliance with the international standards. Workers in charge of the bottling line are also provided with the instructions on the European Union Standards that regulates the safety rules for handling such equipment. Noise measurements will be performed at the bottling area. Workplace measurements will also be conducted for the parameters such as lighting in accordance with the respective regulations and evaluations of risk level.
Several analyses are performed throughout the wine production process at both internal laboratory of Tbilvino and independent external German laboratory company (GTZ). The state of art internal laboratory is operated in line with GOST standards (Technical standards maintained by the Euro-Asian Council for Standardization, Metrology and Certification). Material Safety Data Sheets are readily available in the laboratory, however personal protective equipment (PPE) usage needs to be improved. Wine material is analyzed for the content of alcohol, sugar, tartar acid, volatile acid, iron, extract components and sulfur. The stability of wine and the sterility of equipments are checked before bottling. Also during bottling process and at the storage stage, random checks are conducted. Laboratory calibration certificates are available and up-to-date. The capacity of the kitchen and social areas at Tbilisi facility will be improved to meet the current demand while the design of these areas will be prioritized in the newly constructed facility in Khaketi. There are 40 tanks in wine cellar that are currently cleaned manually with water hoses and cleaning agents such as NaOH and Citric Acid.
Fire extinguishers and fire hoses are available at the Tbilisi site and fire drills are conducted once a year. The number of fire extinguishers will be increased and a fire detection and alarm system will be installed; in addition, emergency lighting and exit signs will be installed, in keeping with good industry practice.
Supply Chain:
The company does not own vineyards and grapes are sourced from more than 300 farmers in the Kakheti Region. There is a significant oversupply of grapes during the harvest season in Georgia. The Company does not make contracts with farmers; instead, grapes are selected according to their quality and purchased from their growers. Irrigation is not necessary in this part of Georgia. CuSO4 (copper sulfate) is mainly used for stopping fungus in grapes. The company will provide Georgian translations of Material Safety Data Sheets to the supplier vineyards. The company maintains a list of approved suppliers that has been evaluated according to the history of supplier in providing the services, price claimed for the product, quality, warranty conditions, terms of cooperation and post purchasing service provision. The Company will update its approved list of suppliers to account for environmental and occupational health and safety concerns as required in the ESAP.
PS3: Pollution Prevention and Abatement
Resource Conservation and Energy Efficiency:
Wine production requires around 8-9 liters of water per 1 liter of wine, 2-3 liters of which is consumed at the primary facility in Kakheti and 6 liters is consumed at Tbilisi production facility. These figures are in line with industry average. As mentioned in PS1, the company performs daily monitoring of several parameters and analyzes over-consumption of these resources and identifies efficiency improvement measures. The company has implemented several resource efficiency measures in this regard, such as installing counters, reducing the diameter of the water pipes thus reducing the water consumption, changing compressors with more energy efficient ones. The company will undertake an internal Clean Production (CP) Audit to identify opportunities to further save energy and water such as installing water spray guns for the cleaning of the tanks in wine cellars. Tbilisi facility has two sets of 630 KW transformers; one is in use and the other is stand-by. Electricity and natural gas consumptions are 328,360 KWh and 33,577 m3 respectively.
Air Emissions:
Air emission parameters; NOx and dry gas excess O2 content will be monitored for the two natural gas boilers located in Tbilisi, which have capacities of 40KW and 24 KW respectively.
Water and Waste Water Management:
The company obtains the process and domestic water from city networks and daily water consumption is around 17 m3/day. Currently there is no wastewater treatment plant at Tbilvino facilities. Effluent goes to the central municipal waste water treatment plant which needs to be renovated. Following the site appraisal, the company submitted effluent measurements to IFC (G Natadze Scientific-Research Laboratory of Sanitary, Hygiene and Ecology, Tbilisi); analytical results of pH, COD, BOD5, Total Phosphate, Total Nitrogen, Total Coliform are 6.67, 1.25, 2, 0, 0.58 mg/l and 800 respectively and in line with IFC’s Guidelines. The company will measure pollution parameters monthly and will submit these to IFC as part of the Annual Monitoring Report. An effluent treatment process will be designed and constructed for the planned crushing and processing facility in Khakheti as mentioned in ESAP.
Solid and Hazardous Waste Management:
Non-hazardous wastes, such as second hand card board, polyethylene packing materials, pallets, beaten bottles are stored on site and collected and recycled by licensed company under a waste contract (No: 3348773). Domestic solid waste is collected and disposed by the municipality.
Cooling agents:
R405 is used for cooling purposes.
Pesticide Use and Management:
Pest control is implemented through pest traps which will be properly marked and protected. The traps are managed by a specialized company, which regularly visits the plant to change the pesticide.
PS4: Community Health, Safety and Security
The Company is located at an industrial area in Tbilisi, at D. Saradjishvili Avenue and owns 14,545 m2 non-agricultural land parcel with a railway line. There are no households in the vicinity of the company and facilities are surrounded by other alcoholic drink plants and no complaints have been received so far.
The Company has unarmed security personnel and ensures that they are regularly trained and certified as per Georgian requirements. The Tbilisi plant is monitored via CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) systems.
Tbilvino has an active grievance mechanism for customer complaints and regularly monitors the number and root cause of complaints and under the scope of the integrated management system. The Company has a well- established traceability and recall mechanism that covers each step of the chain and includes situations where the previous manufactured product is reworked into new batches. The company’s wines have won prestigious wine competitions like Decanter (UK), IWSC (UK) and Mondial de Bruxelles.
PS5: Land Acquisition and Involuntary Resettlement
The Company owns 40 ha land in Kvareli, Kakheti Region and will use 2 ha of this land for the construction of the new modern crushing and pressing facility including new laboratory, filtering system and refrigeration which will replace the existing rented facility. The company will not need to undertake land acquisition. In the eventuality of future expansion projects involving land acquisition, the Company will address potential impacts in accordance with Georgian requirements and PS5.
