The Cakebread vegetable garden uses recycled water from their reclamation pond.
Permeable pavers reflect heat and allow water to filter into the drainage system below.
Walking paths through the parking area create an enjoyable walk into the winery for employees and guests.
Bio-swales collect surface water runoff and help filter and return the water back into the groundwater table.
Bruce Cakebread and Cakebread Cellars are championing water conservation with their new green parking lot – native trees, drought tolerant grasses and flowers, permeable pavement and bio-swales that capture and filter water and recharge groundwater.
We wanted to do something besides black paving and white stripes. We asked ourselves, 'where is all of the water going that hits the pavement?' We decided to go with the model of a green parking lot.
- Bruce Cakebread, Cakebread Cellars
Employees and guests used to make a beeline to the facility. We built a path from the back parking area through the swales and trees to encourage guests and employees to enjoy the walk. If we're going to take care of our winery footprint we also want to help our employees educate themselves about being healthy.
Projects like this not only allow for reduced runoff, purified storm water and flood prevention, but they also allow us to plant new crops and expand biodiversity on the property. This project wasn't driven by Napa County or permits, just our own desire to be good stewards.
The most important aspect of water conservation is tracking your water use. Put flow meters in strategic locations. Cakebread has a flow meter on each building, all landscaping and each of the property’s houses. Once the metering is in place, a dedicated staff person should track water use monthly. This will identify leaks and areas to improve efficiency. Without water metering you can’t answer the question, “Can we do this with less water?”
Understand where your biggest water uses are and focus on low-hanging fruit – e.g., use a squeegee rather than a hose to clean the cellar floor.
Educate your employees. Cakebread has a staff Green Committee that meets quarterly to discuss specific topics and communicate to individual departments. Sustainability priorities are incorporated in employee hiring. They don’t just want employees to make changes at work but also at home. Cakebread has been Napa Green since 2008 and now it’s a part of their culture.
Take your employees on visits to other innovative facilities and get inspired. Cakebread recently took its Green Committee on a tour of sustainability practices at Sierra Nevada Brewery in Chico. They saw highly efficient natural gas-powered micro-turbines and are now in the process of installing them – and they got to drink some great beer, too!
Napa Green Land encompasses the whole property including the vineyard to the benefit of the Napa River Watershed... This is a really strong program.
- Bruce Cakebread, Cakebread Cellars
🌿 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!
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
‘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
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!
⚠️ 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.
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.
Curious to learn more? Join us at @dominusestatewinery on November 30th for a rare event and luncheon. Link in bio for details.
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! 💚
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!!
Join us for the Soil & Shadow Implicit Bias Training on Thursday, November 30th at Dominus Estate with @nikki_silvestri.
‘Exploring what Regenerative Farming Systems can teach us about Regenerative Social Systems.’
This is a rarely-available, full-day leadership opportunity. For anyone who joined us for our 2022 & 2023 THRIVES/RISE Climate & Wine Symposiums and heard Nikki Silvestri speak our guess is that for you, like us, 60-minutes wasn’t enough.
Soil and Shadow works with C-Suite executives, leaders and teams to build the relational and professional development skills for high performance, diversity, equity and inclusion.
One of the elements that makes the Soil and Shadow expertise so relevant and valuable for Napa Green leaders is that their frameworks use living systems to model healthy social systems.
Napa Green will be covering half the cost of the tickets to this event. Register asap at the link in our bio.
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📸: Laine Kuehn
Congratulations to Napa Green Certified @boeschenvineyards on being featured in @pressdemo as a first to offer hazard pay and disaster insurance to seasonal agricultural workers! Read on for more and find the link in our bio to the full story..
“To Boeschen, committing to this small safety net in times of emergency isn’t just the right thing to do. It’s the way labor relations are headed in the wine business.
When vineyard crews showed up for this year’s harvest at Boeschen Vineyards, a small winery that operates largely out of a cave dug into a pretty hillside off Silverado Trail just north of St. Helena, they were asked to listen to a three-minute presentation.
Doug Boeschen, the business’ owner, informed these seasonal agricultural workers, among the most economically vulnerable in the North Bay, that the winery was now offering them a combination of hazard pay and disaster insurance.
Boeschen will provide an option to its workers — including the seasonal labor that pours into the region’s renowned vineyards for just a few days or weeks at a time. If the Air Quality Index climbs above 150, Boeschen’s workers will be able to choose between receiving time-and-a-half to remain on the job, or to take paid time off.
Boeschen will also pay its laborers if they are forced to leave a worksite under an evacuation order.”
This article also features other notable efforts on behalf of larger companies and regions working towards the same end. We highly recommend you read the full article!
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! “
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!