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Napa Green participants have a sustainability story to share with consumers, trade and the media.

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Napa Green logos are helping wineries start conversations with consumers about their committment to sustainability.

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Vintners can leverage their participation across all communication channels, including their membership with the Napa Valley Vintners.

Are You Leveraging Your Sustainability Certification?

Most wineries don’t pursue sustainability certification for marketing purposes. But, an increasing number of studies shows both consumers and trade value environmental stewardship and use this information in their wine purchasing and sales decisions.

Today, we find the end consumer has a greater degree of interest in knowing that the wine they buy is both grown and produced in a sustainable manner. For our 2016 vintage, we have added the Napa Green logo to our back label to help convey that message.

Sustainability can help differentiate your wine and serve as a tiebreaker on the shelf. In one of their key Canadian markets, Jackson Family Wines recently tested the correlation between advertising their environmental commitment and sales. The result? A 19 percent sales increase simply by using bottleneckers with sustainability information. A 2017 study from Cone Communications offers additional support: of 1,000 U.S. consumers surveyed, 89 percent said they would switch to a brand associated with a good cause given similar price and quality.

When a company supports a social or environmental issue, 92 percent of consumers say they have a more positive image of the company; 87 percent are more likely to trust the company; and 88 percent say they would be more loyal to the company.

In 2016, Wine Opinions surveyed 457 retailers, wholesalers, distributors and importers. More than 70 percent said that sustainable practices often or sometimes served as a factor in choosing a wine to market or sell to customers. When asked why, 72 percent said there is increased demand for sustainably produced wines; 71 percent said they personally care about sustainable or environmental attributes of wines; and 67 percent said sustainable production is a useful selling feature or attribute of the wine.

One of the main benefits of Napa Green certification is the opportunity to have a new conversation with consumers. Many wineries have similar stories about unique soils, vineyard microclimates, terroir. Napa Green certification provides new positioning, new engagement, new stories for visitors that can help a winery standout and serve as an added incentive to join the wine club.

There is also growing evidence that wine consumers are willing to pay a premium for sustainable products. A 2015 Nielsen Global CSR study found that more than 70 percent of millennials and 50 percent of baby boomers were willing to pay more for a socially or environmentally responsible product. In 2017, Sonoma State University surveyed 300 wine consumers and the majority indicated they would pay $1-3 more for a bottle of certified sustainable, organic or Biodynamic wine. Notably, economists at Washington State University recently analyzed 45,000 red wine ratings by Wine Spectator from 1989 to 2014 and found that Napa Green certified wines demanded a price premium of $4.40 a bottle.

Underselling Sustainability

Consumers can’t respond to information they don’t have. The 2017 Cone Communications study notes, “Although consumers unequivocally stand ready to reward companies for their responsibility efforts, they need to hear about it first.” The 2016 Wine Opinions trade survey found that the top obstacles to selling more sustainably produced wines were lack of understanding and familiarity by consumers and wines are hard to identify or not clearly labeled. Meanwhile, respondents said the most effective way to promote certification was through clear and highly visible labeling or identification on the wine. Certified members of the Napa Green program can use the Napa Green Winery logo on the labels of wines made in certified wineries and can use the Napa Green Land logo if 95 percent of the grapes in the bottle were grown in Napa Green certified vineyards.

St. Supéry is very proud to be both Napa Green Certified Land and Winery. It’s definitely a marketing point. We display the logos on the back of all our bottles and talk about the certification in every presentation. At every tasting, people notice the logos and ask, ‘What does Napa Green mean?’ They want to know about the third-party certification. It is important to the consumer.

I've been at this for 30 years and this is the best, most well-thought-out program I've ever seen.​

A live check in with @abrittain & @reyeswine.mw!
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🌿 Did you know that less than 3% of philanthropic donations go to environmental work? 

Please consider donating to Napa Green this giving season with one of several ways at any level! 

Head to the link in our bio for details!
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With gratitude and joy, we wish you a beautiful day & start to the holiday season from all of us at Team Green! 

- Ben, Meghan, Anna, Marissa, Sierra & Megan
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‘If not here, where? If not now, when?’ 

“The onus is on us as a world class wine growing region to be leaders in sustainability & climate action.” 

- Executive Director of Napa Green, Anna Brittain
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It’s been a big week at Napa Green and we want to take a moment to raise a glass to salute you all. 

We are overjoyed to see so much support and invigorated interest in our mission towards sustainable practices and regenerative agriculture in the wine industry. 

We have many more details, paired with educational & financial resources that are already up and rolling on our website. We will continue to share them all, one by one and in great detail here on socials as well. 

For now please plan on joining us at our upcoming Town Hall meeting on Dec 7th at @stsupery. You can find more details at napagreen.org. 

Cheers and Happy Friday Napa Valley. We are so proud to be a part of this amazing community!
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⚠️ Important Announcement 

Napa Green becomes the first sustainable wine growing certification to require the phaseout of Round Up. 

Please find the link in our bio for the full press release and full suite of info & grower resources. 

Join us on December 7th for our Napa Green Town Hall at @stsupery.
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Don’t miss the awe-inspiring @nikki_silvestri at @dominusestatewinery on Nov 30th!
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You’re invited to join us for a very special day at @dominusestatewinery on November 30th. 

We’ll be briefly interviewing our speaker @nikki_silvestri right here on Instagram today at 2:00pm PST to hear more about what to expect at this event. See you then.
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Curious to learn more? Join us at @dominusestatewinery on November 30th for a rare event and luncheon. Link in bio for details.
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GREEN is the new black this season!! 

Head to the link in our bio now and get your shirts, help a good cause and be an honorary part of Team Green this season! 💚
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Let’s hear it for our Executive Director of Napa Green, the incomparable Anna Brittain for being named a 2023 Wine Industry Leader by @winebusinessmonthly!! 

In their Sustainability Stewards section (which we love to see) we find Anna named in good company with inspired fellow leaders! 

Head to our stories or the link in our bio for free access to the full November issue. 

Cheers to the great work of our visionary Director Anna Brittain!!
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Drink Green this Halloween! 💚
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Sierra is our Soil & Climate Specialist at Napa Green and her ask this year is that everyone consider donating to our small but mighty Team Green for Giving Season! 

Here is more from @regenwithsierra: 

“🎃 Happy Halloween Eve everyone! Today is my birthday, and I would be beyond thrilled if you would consider a donation to @napagreen to support a nonprofit focused on climate action in the wine industry 🍷🍾

@napagreen has the leading set of standards for sustainable practices, from soil to bottle. I am most proud of the work we do with winegrape growers to adopt regenerative agricultural practices in their vineyards. 

Please consider supporting us in our mission!  Click the link in bio for more! “
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Thank you for having us @visitnapavalley! We had a great time talking to visitors about the many sustainability practices our Napa Green wineries and vineyards employ! 

Stop into the Visit Napa Valley Visitor Center in Napa to learn more!
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