Napa Green, a nonprofit organization, has launched a next-level Napa Green Vineyard certification, the first sustainable winegrowing certification to focus specifically on climate action, regenerative farming and social equity and justice.
Napa Green, a nonprofit organization, has launched a next-level Napa Green Vineyard certification, the first sustainable winegrowing certification to focus specifically on climate action, regenerative farming and social equity and justice.
More and more consumers are turning towards sustainable and local options. In the wine industry, younger consumers are significantly engaged with sustainable wine, viewing it as increasingly important to protect the future. Taking a look at Gen Z and Millennials, they say that they are willing to trade convenience for environmental credentials.
As many are beginning to understand the terms “sustainability” and “eco-friendly,” these buzz words have been incorporated into our daily language generating a greater sense of understanding and knowledge of the importance in taking the initiative in protecting our planet. However, while consumers are now getting used to seeing labels and signage perpetuating sustainability, green, eco-friendly and organic, wineries are transitioning to become certified and sustainable which is a huge task.
Napa Green, a nonprofit organization, has launched a next-level Napa Green Vineyard certification, the first sustainable winegrowing certification to focus specifically on climate action, regenerative farming and social equity and justice. They have set the ambitious goal to work with certified growers to become carbon neutral within six years, and carbon negative, or climate positive, within nine years. The need for climate action is urgent and the cutting-edge Napa Green Vineyard standards provide growers with the guidance, tools, and support to take bold action and continue to be sustainability leaders.
Anna Brittain, Executive Director of Napa Green, says, “The growers in this world-renowned winegrowing region have a powerful collective platform. Our commitment to sustainability and climate action sets a standard that is recognized by the global wine industry, beverage sector, and marketplace. I grew up here, and I am incredibly proud to be working with our members to continue to push the envelope on sustainability.”
Brittain has been with Napa Green since 2015 when the organization wanted to do a big push among their members to have them all participating in the Napa Green Land and Napa Green Winery programs. She first was hired as a consultant then became executive director in 2019, when Napa Green became a nonprofit. She has been actively growing the program for almost seven years, but has been at the helm for the last two years.
Brittain has a master’s degree in environmental science and management, and her career as a consultant in sustainable winegrowing is very specialized. “I have worked with a statewide California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance, helped Dom Perignon to develop their own wine standards and worked with a lot of individual wineries. Since 2015 my main work has been around Napa Green,” she said.
The new Napa Green Vineyard program is the first sustainable winegrowing certification to focus specifically on climate action, regenerative farming and social equity, justice and inclusion. Napa Green Vineyard certification provides a pathway for growers to improve soil health, become carbon neutral to negative within six to nine years, and increase the resilience of vineyards, businesses and our community.
Napa Green Certified Wineries focus on sustainability leadership & engagement, energy and water efficiency, waste reduction, pollution prevention, equity & community and storm & wastewater management. Making an exceptional wine requires stewardship and attention to detail. The same is true of achieving a Napa Green Winery certification.
The Napa Valley wine industry is already recognized as a global leader in both wine quality and sustainable winegrowing. Napa Green takes this to the next level and establishes rigorous standards for climate action and social equity. Sustainability rests on three pillars – Planet, People and Prosperity.
While this program has been going on for quite some time, there still are many challenges. “The good news is that I really feel like there is a renewed interest in sustainability right now and I think COVID helped. It got more people thinking ‘beyond my little world and my business, I have to think bigger’, so we didn’t have any lull in interest in certification during the pandemic,” Brittain said. “The biggest challenge is that we have 90 certified wineries and that’s quite a bit of sustainable wineries in California – about 40% of them are in Napa County.
Many of those who work at wineries wear multiple hats, which can, at times, be overwhelming and may need a lot of handholding. “We really are here to provide that [handholding] but it’s mostly getting people over that hurdle of feeling like, ‘I don’t know if I have the time or I don’t know if I have what it takes to move this across the line in terms of getting certified.’ So we really do try to provide as much help as we can as long as someone is committed to putting in that time,” Brittain said.
Brittain reiterates that the certification is not easy. There are over 100 stewardship standards to save energy and water, prevent waste through recycling and composting, reduce GHG emissions and the winery’s carbon footprint, and commit to social equity. “I think what is turning the tide more is that there is a huge market demand for this right now – in particular, a lot of wineries are exporting wines and there is a demand for this. Ontario, Japan, Scandinavian countries are asking if they have a sustainability certification and it affects their ability to get into that marketplace and there are domestic stores where that is true too,” Brittain said. “People are being asked if this is something that they have to do in order to remain competitive in the marketplace, and that is where we are getting more people coming to us.”
As part of the program, wineries, who are certified, are given huge metal signs to display at their entrance, which says they are Napa Green certified. “I had a few people call or email and say, I need to have one of those signs because everyone else has them, what do I have to do to get one of those?” Brittain said. “You can’t just order it.”
Among the growers already enrolled and committed to Napa Green Vineyard certification are Opus One Winery, Dominus Estate, Spottswoode Winery, Larkmead Vineyards, Cakebread Cellars, Raymond Vineyards, Burgess Cellars, Sequoia Grove, Antica Napa Valley, Trefethen Family Vineyards, Chimney Rock, Rutherford Hill and Tres Sabores.
Michael Silacci, winemaker for Opus One Winery, says, “Napa Green has been a blessing in disguise for the Napa Valley. The challenge made to us and to other participants was such that we called the bet for sustainability and raised it to stewardship. We’re on a roll, and together we are making this planet a better place, starting in the Napa Valley.
Earlier this year, a new Vineyard certification replaced the Napa Green Land program, which was established in 2004. The Land program drove the adoption of best practices to prevent erosion and sediment runoff, and improve the health of the Napa River and watershed. What were leading land stewardship practices have become general best practices that are now required for environmental regulatory compliance. The new Vineyard program embodies Napa Green’s commitment to evolve and grow regional sustainability and resilience to help solve the critical issues that face us now and in the future. Napa Green will be working with growers through this transition, with enrollment beginning this year and taking a year to fully adopt the new requirements.
“Sustainability is a journey of continuous improvement. As a community we want to be forward thinking and this certification is an exciting opportunity for Napa to drive the conversation around sustainability,” said Hailey Trefethen, executive vice president of Trefethen Family Vineyards and interim president of Napa Green board of directors.
The Napa Green website features “Champion Stories” to share in the success of those participating in the program. In one of the stories about ZD Wines, winemaker Chris Pisani says that being environmentally conscientious is part of the culture at ZD. “I remember a decade ago during bottling we had three large waste containers being hauled away every week. Almost everything was going to landfills,” Pisani said. Robert deLeuze, CEO of ZD Wines adds, “Today the only things that get collected are glass and pallets for recycling. Everyone on staff is trained to recycle.”
For more information on Napa Green visit, www.napagreen.org.
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!