Winemaking, the Environmental Revolution & You

Lester Brown, founder of the Earth Policy Institute and often referred to as the guru of the environmental movement, is a man I’ve followed closely ever since he began publishing his State of the World annual reports in the 1980s. Mr. Brown, though he might decry much of what we humans are doing to collectively ruin things on this planet, is at heart an optimist, and offers a keen big-picture view about the potential of investing in the Environmental Revolution.

“Restructuring the global economy according to the principles of ecology represents the greatest investment opportunity in history. In scale, the Environmental Revolution is comparable to the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions that preceded it.

“There are differences in scale, timing, and origin among these three revolutions. Unlike the first two, the Environmental Revolution must be compressed into a matter of decades. The other revolutions were driven by new discoveries, by advances in technology, whereas this revolution, while it will be facilitated by new technologies, is being driven by our need to make peace with Nature.

“No sector of the global economy will be untouched by the Environmental Revolution. In this new economy, some companies will be winners and some will be losers. Those who participate in building the new economy will be the winners. Those who cling to the past risk becoming part of it.”

We need people like Mr. Brown to do some of our visionary thinking for us. We also need government, business, and people to act on these ideas. At the beginning of this decade, the people of Benziger Family Winery decided to become part of the future, using a variety of different approaches to conserve resources, reduce pollution and become a Green Business. A recycling program reduced their solid waste generation by 41%. A Process Wastewater Management System allows them to treat and reuse their wastewater for irrigation, which saves between one and one-and-a-half-million gallons of water per year. In addition, the winery has reduced annual energy consumption by 33%.

In fact, the Sonoma Green Business Program, the first multimedia environmental compliance program in the Bay Area, served as a model for the development of the Bay Area Green Business Program. The county offers Sonoma Green Business certification to businesses and government agencies that achieve compliance, and Bay Area Green Business certification to those that implement additional pollution prevention and resource conservation measures. In 1999, Sonoma Green Business received a prestigious national award from the Joint Center for Sustainable Communities.

How can wineries “green” their businesses? First bring their operations into compliance with all environmental regulations, then adopt pollution prevention and resource conservation practices. The Bay Area Green Business Program offers a variety of options for meeting program standards.

Examples include:

• Encourage green practices in employees by starting Green committees which meet monthly.
• Recycle cardboard and shrink wrap through the use of balers.
• Install ozone systems to sterilize barrels and eliminate the use of hazardous chemicals.
• Conserve energy & water by using high-pressure/low volume cleaning equipment to reduce water usage.
• Reduce energy usage for cooling tanks by using refrigeration jackets.
• Purchase new equipment, such as vacuum pumps to eliminate water used in bottling operations and self-cleaning presses used in crush operations which reduce water use
• Use pumice and diatomaceous earth as compost in the vineyards.
• Protect against pests in vineyards naturally using permaculture gardens.
• Reuse waste water on vineyards and landscaping.
• Convert waste wine into marketable vinegar.

If you are a key influencer or decisionmaker at a winery, you can do your part to invest in the Environmental Revolution by going green. Contact your local county coordinator for more information about becoming “green” in your county.

~winehiker

Related posts:

• “Wine not” a few Wednesday links?
• Wild Crush 2009 honors 37 years of environmental education
• Green is the universal language

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007 at 3:01 pm and is filed under grape squeezins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.