April 27th – Napa, CA – During the month of June, Napa Green and community partners will host Napa THRIVES – a groundbreaking series of six half-day, tightly focused events organized around the six pillars of sustainable winegrowing leadership. Unfolding at the historic Charles Krug Winery, participants will learn about water efficiency, energy efficiency, waste prevention and green purchasing, integrated pest management and pesticide phaseout, social equity and diversity, all of which folds into climate action and regenerative farming.
Marquee Speaker, Eric Asimov, chief wine critic of The New York Times, will kick off the month-long proceedings on June 7th, and event participants will have the opportunity to join Tod Mostero, Director of Viticulture & Winemaking at Dominus Estate, as he begins a grower mentorship to transition a vineyard to dry farming. Additionally, Mostero and five other industry leaders will serve as mentors to Napa THRIVES participants long after the events have concluded, assisting regional wineries and growers in proactively implementing leading sustainability practices. Day two headliner is Bill McKibben, who helped found 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign, which has organized movements on every continent, including Antarctica, for climate action.
Launched under the aegis of Napa Green, one of only four sustainable winegrowing programs nationwide offering the opportunity for comprehensive soil to bottle certification in both the vineyard and winery, the co-founders of Napa THRIVES are Anna Brittain, Executive Director of Napa Green, and Martin Reyes, MW of Reyes Wine Group. Both are deeply passionate about accelerating sustainability and climate action leadership locally, and leveraging Napa Valley’s powerful platform to galvanize industry change globally.
Martin Reyes, MW, shares, “A few years ago, I noticed how so much of the great sustainability work happening in Napa County seemed to be in disconnected siloes. After a few phone calls, several Napa leaders gathered for lunch and asked, ‘How can we bring everyone together?’ We knew the obstacles, including, ‘The world doesn’t need another wine conference!’ We are attempting something bolder, locally-rooted, encouraging commitments to actions, with the support to achieve measurable results. That’s how Napa THRIVES was born. We aim to cultivate action locally and send a message globally.”
Reyes, along with Anna Brittain, founded Napa THRIVES because the climate crisis is happening now – 1200-year drought, increasing high heat days, catastrophic megafires – and taking action is no longer optional. “If not here, where?” Says Brittain. “We have to set the highest bar for sustainability and climate action leadership in the wine industry. Napa growers and vintners must play an increasingly active role in improving resource efficiency, drawing down emissions, and building more resilient vineyards, businesses, and communities. Collectively, we have a powerful leadership platform, with the tools to facilitate critical mass action and show the pace and scale of what is possible.”
Altogether, Napa THRIVES will have 70 speakers, with eight marquee addresses including Birgit Cameron, Co-Founder of Patagonia Provisions, Kimberly Nicholas, author of Under the Sky We Make, Jonathan Foley, Director of Project Drawdown, Kelly Mulville, Vineyard Director at Paicines Ranch, Nikki Sylvestri, CEO of Soil and Shadow, and Kayalin Akens-Irby, Chief of Staff of Planet FWD. Napa THRIVES will deliver inspiration, meaningful context, practical, grounded guidance, and make calls to action. The THRIVES team has aligned leaders and mentors that will follow-up and directly support sustained change.
“The power of Napa THRIVES is its intention to both inspire and harness action-based commitment,” observes Tod Mostero, of Dominus Estate. “Its targeted pillar-based design unites insight from our world’s leading-edge speakers, hands-on training from peers on specific practices, and guidance from the wine industry’s most sustainable suppliers to lighten our environmental footprint. This is the beginning of a growing spiral of transformation and I am honored and excited to be a part of this game-changing movement.”
To learn more about Napa THRIVES, to purchase tickets, or to become a sponsor, please visit www.NapaThrives.org.