From left to right: Jason Smith, President/CEO, Smith Family Wines (Community Award); Kurt Gollnick, Chief Operating Officer, Scheid Family Wines (Environment Award); Kellie Hoppe, Lab Technician, Domaine Carneros (Business Award); Nate Weis, Director of Winemaking, Silver Oak Cellars (Leader Award).
SAN FRANCISCO, The California Green Medal recipients have been announced for the fifth annual Sustainable Winegrowing Leadership Awards. The California Green Medal recognizes the leadership of wineries and vineyards committed to sustainability and is presented by the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance, California Association of Winegrape Growers, Wine Institute, Lodi Winegrape Commission, Napa Valley Vintners, Sonoma County Winegrowers and the Vineyard Team. Four Green Medals are presented in the following categories: Leader, Environment, Community and Business. The recipients of the Green Medal Awards will be honored at a ceremony at the California Department of Food and Agriculture in Sacramento on May 1, 2019. The event will be held in conjunction with a Legislative Reception, celebrating California Wines Down to Earth Month in April recognizing the California wine community’s commitment to sustainable winegrowing.
Recipients of the 2019 Green Medals are:
LEADER AWARD, given to the vineyard or winery that excels in the three “E’s” of sustainability—Environmentally Sound, Socially Equitable and Economically Viable practices.
Recipient: Silver Oak Cellars, located in Healdsburg and Oakville, California, understands that sustainability is a long-term strategy to achieve a healthy and thriving business, without compromising future generations’ ability to use and enjoy natural resources. Some innovative ways they achieve their sustainability goals include the design of the wineries for maximum efficiency through LEED certification. Their Oakville Winery was the first production winery to achieve LEED Platinum certification in 2016 and their Alexander Valley winery earned LEED Platinum certification in 2018. Most of their energy needs are met through onsite solar and 100% of their process water at the Alexander Valley winery is treated onsite and reused. Silver Oak Cellars provides rich benefits and fosters a family-focused work atmosphere. Silver Oak’s sustainability leadership is further evidenced by their integration of Living Building Challenge (LBC) standards in the design of their new Alexander Valley winery, with the goal to become the first LBC certified winery in 2019, on top of comprehensive vineyard and winery certification to Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing (CERTIFIED SUSTAINABLE) and the Napa Green Land and Winery programs.
ENVIRONMENT AWARD, given to the vineyard or winery that best demonstrates Environmental Stewardship through maximized environmental benefits from implementing sustainable practices.
Recipient: Scheid Family Wines, based in Salinas, California, holds sustainability as a core value. Scheid Family Wines strives for sustainability in the broadest sense of the word every day in all that they do. They installed a wind turbine that provides power to run the entire winery operation plus an additional 125 homes. Skylights were placed in the winery to provide a more pleasant work environment and reduce electricity usage. All the vineyards and the winery are Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing (CERTIFIED SUSTAINABLE). They recycle and reuse 100% of the grape pomace and wastewater generated in their winery. In the vineyard, they invest in human assisted technology to ease the physical demands of pruning, increase safety, enhance the well-being of their employees and extend their careers. Scheid Family Wines believes that being a leader in the wine industry requires a deep commitment to environmental stewardship and the well-being of their employees and local community.
COMMUNITY AWARD, given to the vineyard or winery that is a Good Neighbor & Employer using the most innovative practices that enhance relations with employees, neighbors and/or communities.
Recipient: Smith Family Wines, based in Monterey County, California, is a strong supporter of their local community and fosters a quality environment for their employees. A full spectrum of benefits is offered to all employees and they run a companywide wellness program with weekly outreach to employees and their families, including exercise, nutrition, biometric analysis, and lifestyle education. The wellness program alone reflects a $200,000 commitment to their employees. Employees are also paid to participate in education and professional associations, and there is comprehensive safety training. The company participates in both SIP Certified and Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing (CERTIFIED SUSTAINABLE), with a full-time employee dedicated to sustainability. Smith Family Wines is a leader in providing their employees a safe, socially equitable, and economically just place to work.
BUSINESS AWARD, given to the vineyard or winery that best demonstrates Smart Business through efficiencies, cost savings and innovation from implementing sustainable practices.
Recipient: Domaine Carneros, located in Napa, California, understands how sustainability leads to efficiency and cost effectiveness. The company was built on a pillar of sustainability and as part of their open book management plan, they set measurable goals every three years in the category of sustainability and visit these goals annually to ensure goals are being met. This type of management plan allows for all employees to be involved. One of the ways they realized significant cost savings is through their packaging reuse program. Since starting the program, the company has saved about $75,000 per year in packaging costs. This program also has helped divert solid was from landfills, while recognizing that reuse uses less energy and resources than recycling. Domaine Carneros’ smart business sense and commitment to sustainably is apparent in every facet of their operation, with both vineyards and the winery comprehensively certified to Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing (CERTIFIED SUSTAINABLE) and the Napa Green Land and Winery programs.
“The Green Medal recognizes the commitment and dedication to sustainability by California growers and vintners,” said Allison Jordan, CSWA Executive Director. “The hardest part is selecting only four recipients from the many amazing applications received from vineyards and wineries of all sizes from throughout California. The judging panel was impressed by the breadth and depth of sustainable practices being used to conserve water and energy, maintain healthy soil, protect air and water quality, preserve wildlife habitat, and enhance relations with employees and communities, all while improving the economic vitality of vineyards and wineries.”
A panel of wine and sustainability experts judged the applications for the fifth annual California Green Medal. They include: Karen Block, Ph.D., Directory of Industry Relations, UC Davis Viticulture & Enology; Stephanie Bolton, Ph.D., Sustainable Winegrowing Director, Lodi Winegrape Commission; Renata Brillinger, Executive Director, California Climate Action Network; Anna Brittain, Sustainability Consultant, Napa Valley Vintners; David Glancy, Master Sommelier, San Francisco Wine School; Allison Jordan, Executive Director, California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance; Cyril Penn, Editor in Chief, Wine Business Monthly; Kate Piontek, Vice President of Operations, Sonoma County; Mike Taylor, Director of Adult Beverages, Nugget Market Inc.; Ann Thrupp, Executive Director, Berkeley Food Institute at UC Berkeley; and Beth Vukmanic Lopez, SIP Certification Manager, The Vineyard Team.
Award sponsors are — Exclusive Media Sponsor: Wine Business Monthly; Gold Sponsor: Rivercap; Silver Sponsors: Farm Credit Alliance, G3, Marin Clean Energy and Protected Harvest; and, Bronze Sponsors: AG Unlimited and ETS Laboratories.
Visit: www.greenmedal.org for more information.
Making the commitment to third party certification takes time and effort, but it is worth it to demonstrate our commitment to the community and to protect our watershed, our land and the air we breathe.
- Susan Boswell, Chateau Boswell Winery
🌿 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!