While bolstering waste prevention efforts and adopting sustainability actions may seem daunting, Jason Haas, partner and general manager at Tablas Creek Winery, asserts that you don’t have to do it all, but you need to do something—such as moving to lightweight glass or nixing the use of herbicides—and with the growing emergence of the use of kegs, lightweight glass, and the news that Conscious Container is working with a glass manufacturer to design an industry-standard refillable glass bottle, it’s becoming more accessible and getting a bit easier for the industry to do that “one thing.”
Haas’ message and the Conscious Container announcement were part of the “Waste Prevention and Supply Chain” session of the six-part Napa RISE Wine & Climate Symposium April 5-20 in St. Helena.
Attendees gathered at the Charles Krug Winery carriage house on April 12 for the half-day event, which also included the presentation of the RISE Leadership Award to Domaine Carneros for outstanding waste prevention and greening of its supply chain and a living room salon on leveraging culture, data and behavioral science for positive change with Cultique, Clif Family Winery & Farm, and Brooks Winery.
Ways to Cut Down on Waste
While Tablas Creek was the first vineyard operation in the world to achieve Regenerative Organic Certification (ROC) with ROC Gold status—gold representing the highest achievable level in regenerative organic production— in his marquee address, Haas emphasized that wineries shouldn’t “let the perfect be the enemy of good.”
“I think sometimes people look at certification programs and think, ‘I can’t do all of that,’ and I think one of the most important lessons that I convey is that you don’t need to do all of that but you need to do something,” Haas said.
He said you can do good by reducing water usage, reducing tillage, or by implementing solar, though he noted that solar should be a part of everyone’s solution.
“If you are putting in solar panels, that is going to basically take roughly 10% off of your carbon footprint,” Haas said.
In terms of other energy saving solutions, Haas pointed to night cooling-systems, motion sensor lights, and using better insulation. Regarding saving water, he suggested moving to steam for cleaning, reusing wastewater for irrigation, and capturing rain from roofs via a rain catchment system.
Making the switch to lightweight glass was another big topic, and a waste reduction method that Haas advocated (an article in the upcoming May issue of Wine Business Monthly will cover the beneficial domino effects for wineries of switching to lighter bottles).
In 2010, Paso Robles-based Tablas Creek moved to lightweight bottles. The winery worked with Tricor Braun and Ardagh Glass to create a domestic, lightweight mold with the winery’s leaf symbol and with this move, it reduced its case weight by 26% and reduced its packaging CO2 footprint by 12% versus its regular bottle and by 32% versus its heavy bottle.
With this change, Tablas also saw overwhelming positive customer feedback and an estimated $160,000 savings per year on glass and shipping costs. In the 14 years since the winery has made this switch it’s saved an estimated $2.2 million.
Lighter bottles aren’t the only environmentally-friendly bottle solution.
Conscious Container, a growing startup founded by Caren McNamara, washes and sells glass bottles in an effort to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate supply chain issues, and now, it’s working on designing an industry-standard refillable bottle.
“One of the most exciting pieces is—I have been working on this for six years—we have a glass manufacturer that is going to design industry standard refillable glass bottles and that is a huge milestone for the wine industry so that we can really begin to move into a collective industry standard bottle,” McNamara said.
Whether they’d offer the program just in the Napa/Sonoma region or elsewhere, and how they’d want to bring it to market are elements of the new program that still need to be worked out, but she said the goal is that the bottle wouldn’t cost any more than a single-use bottle. Plus, it would have branding on it that would identify it as a reused bottle.
McNamara, who led a morning workshop on refillable bottles and the 2024 CRV requirement, said they’re also working on refillable tasting room programs in which the bottles used to pour wine during tastings are sent to Conscious Container, washed and sent back to the winery for reuse. Though with this program, the bottles need to have wash off labels.
She pointed out that since wine brands will eventually have to redesign its labels to reflect CRV—while many aluminum, glass and plastic containers are subject to a refundable bottle recycling fee, wine and spirit containers are not, however, effective Jan. 1, 2024, they too will be subject to the fee— it may be a good time to look into transitioning to a wash off label.
Haas says kegs are also reusable and efficient. Since 2010, for wholesale, Tablas has kegged an average of 4,000 gallons of wine per year via Free Flow kegs and this year, it’s starting to fill 350 kegs per year in-house for its tasting room. With utilizing kegs, the winery is reducing bottle needs by 30,000 bottles/year and reducing its carbon footprint by 76% versus bottles. It’s also reducing wasted tasting room wine by 25%.
Representatives from Free Flow Wines were on hand earlier that morning to discuss the opportunities in kegging wine during an 8 a.m. workshop. Barclay Webster, vice president of business development and trade for Free Flow Wines, said one of the core benefits of using kegs for operators is profitability, largely from the restaurants who he said don’t have to pour wine down the drain that’s been open too long; with kegs, it’s fresh from the gecko. He added that with kegs, from a tasting room perspective, you don’t have to check that the wine is corked.
Boxes also seem like a promising tool for waste reduction. Last year Tablas released three wines in 3L boxes and the carbon footprint savings was 84% versus glass, plus, consumers loved it; the first release of 324 boxes of Patelin Rose sold out in just four hours.
Lastly, shipping via satellite hubs can also be a good way to reduce emissions.
Since March 2016, Tablas has shipped its club shipments from hubs that truck the wine to its destination. From this, the winery has seen monetary savings of $15 to $35 per shipment and a carbon savings of 85% versus air on those shipments, according to Haas.
Highlighting Other Wineries Who are Leaning into Sustainability
Domaine Carneros has a packaging reuse program that starts with its visitor center team, which is trained to carefully open the packaging to ensure maximum reusability. The materials are then stored in a dry area and the packaging is inspected and inventoried weekly—all returned packaging data is also entered into a separate spreadsheet.
The packaging is then reused and refiled with the next Cuvee.
Domaine Carneros’ enologist and sustainability lead Riley Sanchez, who accepted the RISE award, explained that one of the benefits of this program is that it acts as a buffer to supply chain disruptions, plus the brand saw a 63% increase in savings in the 2022 calendar year. With this program, it’s also diverted 32,000 pounds of cardboard.
Clif Family Winery & Farm in St. Helena has leaned into sustainability starting with organic food and farming, zero waste practices and with conserving and restoring natural resources, just to name a few. Linzi Gay, president of Clif Family Winery & Farm, also announced that it was recently awarded the B Corp certification; it will officially announce the certification in the coming weeks. Brooks Winery in Oregon is also B Corp certified and is a Demeter Certified biodynamic vineyard and winery, donates 1% of its annual revenues to support the environmental group Kiss the Ground, and is partnered with Ecologi to plant trees with every order, club anniversary and during special moments throughout the year.
About Napa Green: The Napa Green 501c3 is a global leader in sustainable winegrowing, setting the highest bar for sustainability and climate action in the wine industry. Napa Green facilitates whole system soil to bottle certification for wineries and vineyards, and provides the expertise, boots-on-the-ground support, and resources to continually improve. Learn more at https://napagreen.org/participating-members/.
Anna Brittain
Napa Green
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Congratulations to these @napagreen Certified Members for winning the @greatwinecapitals Napa Valley Regional Best of Wine Tourism Awards!
🌟@sterlingvineyards for Innovative Wine Tourism Experiences
🌟 @chandonusa for Sustainable Wine Tourism Practices
🌟 @cliffamily for Culinary Experiences
Thank you for your commitment to excellence and sustainability!
#visitnapa #visitnapavalley #winetasting #ecotourism #climatesmartwine #sustainablewine #sustainablewines #winecountry
JOIN US for an inspiring two-day deep dive into regenerative viticulture, designed to equip growers with practical strategies for building soil health, enhancing agroecosystem resilience, and producing exceptional quality grapes.
November 18, 2025 @opusonewinery
November 19, 2025 @bedrockwines
This event is for anyone interested in growing their leadership.
🎟️ Ticket link in bio.
#regenerativefarming #regenerativeag #winebusiness #vineyard #climateaction #climatesmart #soilhealth #regenerativeviticulture
Congratulations @ilsleyvineyards on achieving @napagreen Vineyard Certification!
With four generations farming over six decades and over 100 years of history in the Napa Valley, the Ilsley family is committed to elevating their vineyard and farming practices. The Napa Green Vineyard Certification aligns with this whole property approach to farming, encompassing the full agroecosystem – from what is happening underground in the soil, to what is happening in the atmosphere, to how this impacts the broader community.
Thank you for being regenerative farming leaders!
#regenerativeag #regenerativefarming #wineindustry #sustainablewine #climatesmart #napavalleywine #napavalley #landstewardship #winebusiness
@frankfamilyvineyards is not only both @napagreen Vineyard and Winery Certified, they have also partnered with @4ocean to support ocean and coastline cleanups!
Check out this outstanding winery to learn more about their leading sustainability practices and this amazing initiative! 🌊
#climateaction #winebusiness #winetasting #napavalley #napavalleywine #coastalcleanup #oceancleanup #visitnapavalley #climatesmartwine #regenerativeag
Congratulations to one of our founding members, @stsupery on achieving both @napagreen Vineyard and Winery recertification!
St Supery’s ongoing commitment to sustainability and continuing improvement is evident throughout their business. When visiting the tasting room, guests are greeted by cheerful Bluebirds that live in the strategically placed bird boxes to act as natural pest control. From there, you pass by the culinary gardens that are incorporated into the farm-to-table pairings, to the stunning tasting room where you can see the solar energy generated to power the property in real-time, and learn about all of the incredible sustainability initiatives from soil to bottle.
Thank you St Supery for your commitment to the community, land stewardship, and sustainable leadership!
#sustainablewine #climatesmart #winetasting #napavalleywine #napavalley #regenerativeag #landstewardship #winebusiness
In celebration of their 40th anniversary vintage, the Novak family of @spottswoodewinery has donated a complete 40-vintage vertical collection of their Estate Cabernet Sauvignon (1982-2021), plus an invitation to their exclusive annual vertical tasting, which is available through @christieswine to support the nonprofit, @napagreen, a leader in sustainability and climate action in the wine industry.
@mkshepp of Spottswoode shares, “As we celebrate 40 years of organic farming and work to change paradigms and build resilience through regenerative systems, we see Napa Green as a vital partner in expanding that mission across the wine industry. This auction isn’t just about Spottswoode’s history; it’s an investment in the future of winegrowing that prioritizes the health of our natural environment, our workers, and our community.”
#winetasting #winelover #winecollector #winecollection #finewine #fineandrarewines
LAST CHANCE to bid on this @christieswine Fine and Rare Wines lot, featuring a 19-magnum vertical of @opusonewinery vintages 2001-2019 hand-selected and signed from the private collection of @opus_one_winemaker, Michael Silacci, as well as an Opus One Harvest Experience for four.
#winetasting #winelover #winecollector #winecollection #finewine #fineandrarewines
Michael Silacci, @opus_one_winemaker, has hand-selected an extraordinary vertical of @opusonewinery magnums from his private collection, which are available through @christieswine to support the nonprofit @napagreen, a leader in sustainability and climate action in the wine industry.
“Napa Green plays a vital, fundamental role in grape growing within and beyond the vineyard boundaries in Napa Valley,” said Michael Silacci. “The team, comprised of experts in all essential elements of farming and stewardship, provides education, guidance, and holds us accountable. Year after year they continue to evolve and challenge us to be better citizens. I want to do all I can to help Napa Green rise. Napa Green not only strengthens our community but also inspires a deeper sense of purpose – within ourselves, and in how we care for the land we love so dearly.”
#winetasting #winelover #winecollector #winecollection #finewine #fineandrarewines
Steal this itinerary! 🍷
Join Sommelier and Vintner, Meghan Vergara as she visits three @napagreen certified wineries, @chimneyrockwinery, @bcellars and @boeschenvineyards in this captivating Terroir of Place and People Itinerary.
“Sustainability is a beautiful way of life and business. These whole systems, regenerative practices are as essential and unique as the terroir we pride ourselves on here in Napa Valley… it’s truly inspiring to travel to different wineries and taste the fruits of their labor, to see all the hard work and distinct passion in what these wineries & vineyards do.” - @mvino1
#sustainablewine #wineindustry #winetasting #winecountry #winelover #ecotravel #foodandwine #visitnapa #visitnapavalley #sommelier
The @napagreen Winery program launched in 2008, prompting Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, who spoke at the launch event hosted by @napavintners, to observe, “I’ve been at this for 30 years and this is the best, most well-thought-out program I’ve ever seen.”
#sustainabilty #environmentalleadership #environmentalstewardship #climateaction #climatesmart
Announcing two unprecedented “Fine and Rare Wines” donations to @christieswine will benefit @napagreen, the region’s leading sustainability and climate action nonprofit.
This incredible auction includes:
🍇 A remarkable 40-Bottle Vertical of @spottswoodewinery Cabernet Sauvignon donated by the @spottswoode_ceo family plus an invitation to attend Spottswoode’s Annual Vertical Tasting
🍇 A unique 19-Magnum Vertical of @opusonewinery Vintages 2001-2019 donated and signed by @opus_one_winemaker plus an Opus One Harvest Experience for four
The auction opens September 4 and runs through September 18.
We are so grateful to these two champion members for this incredibly generous donation.
#winetasting #winetastingexperience #winecollection #winecollector #napavalleywine #rarewine #finewines #nonprofit
This harvest, we’re celebrating 21 years of @napagreen, and the community leaders who have pioneered sustainability and climate action with us from the beginning.
The @napavintners (NVV) launched the Napa Green Winery program in 2008, and Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard joined as a keynote speaker, saying, “I’ve been at this for 30 years and this is the best, most well-thought-out program I’ve ever seen.“
Let’s raise a glass to the founding members certified as Climate Smart Napa Green Wineries, continuing to lead the industry.
#wineindustry #winebusiness #environmentalstewardship #climateaction #sustainablewine #winetasting
The regional Napa Valley delegation for the Great Wine Capitals is now accepting nominations for the 2026 Best of Wine Tourism Regional Awards.
Don’t forget to submit your @napagreen certified winery for the Best of Sustainable Wine Tourism Practices!
Submission Deadline: September 1, 2025
#sustainablewine #ecotourism #sustainablewinery #climatesmartwine
Did you know that Napa Green is 21 years old? We want to celebrate and thank the community leaders who joined in from the beginning, and who have continued along the path of sustainability and climate action.
The @napavintners (NVV) stewarded @napagreen for its first fifteen years, and it is thanks to their vision and the leadership of these key founding members that Napa Green is still here to support growers and vintners in being the change in our community and industry.
Timeline: Napa Green Land was established in 2004. Napa Green Winery was established in 2008. The Land program ended in 2021, replaced by the new regenerative Napa Green Vineyard program.
#wineindustry #winebusiness #environmentalstewardship #climateaction #sustainablewine
What is Napa Green? Watch to find out! ⬆️
🎥 @robot_productions
#climateaction #regenerativeviticulture #regenerativeag #climatesmart #sustainablewine
That’s a wrap on Cheers to Climate Smart Wines, but you can continue to visit our amazing participating wineries to taste their delicious climate smart wines!
@spottswoodewinery
@mummsparkling
@phiferpavittwine
@domainecarneros
@etudewines
@chimneyrockwinery
@mvinowines
@pineridgewine
@chandonusa
@rutherfordhillwinery
@cliffamily
@tressabores
@beringervyds
@vsattui
@frankfamilyvineyards
@seaveyvineyard
Want more climate smart wines? Visit our website for a complete list of certified members and follow along for more itineraries.
#visitnapavalley #napavalleywines #climatesmartwines #sustainablewines #sustainablewinemaking #winetasting #ecotourism #climatesmart #wineindustry #sustainablewine