Cork – so much greener than other stoppers?

The world's leading cork producer Amorim of Portugal has sent out a summary of the company’s first annual Sustainability Report for anyone not wanting to plough through all 86 pages of it – though admittedly there are lots of pictures to cheer it up. They have pulled out various highlights, as you’d expect in a press release, starting with:

“Natural cork has an important role in fighting climate change.”

Based on a provisional study by the Portuguese School of Agronomy, Amorim calculates that cork forests fix 5% of Portugal’s total CO₂ emissions. The carbon thus fixed is released back...