TWS: How can people identify these wineries easily when in a market or buying wine online?
AB: This is an area with plenty of room for improvement. On our website, NapaGreen.org, you can see all of our Participating Members, and that is true for the handful of other sustainable wine-growing certifications in the U.S. as well. The easiest cue would be a logo on the bottle, but only a small subset of producers have added the certification logos to their labels. If you are a member of a wine club or have a particular favorite wine you know is committed to sustainability please encourage them to add this information on the bottle! Some certified members mention their sustainability commitments in their wine description and/or have sections on their website.
TWS: Is this program available to other AVAs around the country, around the world?
AB: We want to expand our umbrella beyond Napa County. We have our members ask us about this regularly because they also own wineries in other counties or even states. We’ve also had a few international requests. I’m hoping we can build this larger identity and impact in the next 1-2 years. In the meantime, there are five other sustainable wine-growing programs in the U.S. (only three that cover vineyard AND winery), two programs in Canada, and another 10 or so globally. So, this is a movement in the wine industry, and we want to do our part to keep pushing the industry to elevate its standards and leadership.
TWS: What kinds of questions can consumers ask of their favorite producers to determine how sustainable a winery is?
AB: Our goal is to set the leading industry standard for sustainable wine-growing. On that note, I’ve developed a set of Six Pillars that can serve as a filter to evaluate the true sustainability of an operation or certification – to be leading they should have standards around these six pillars: I. Saving energy & energy efficiency; II. Saving water & water efficiency; III. Preventing waste and environmentally preferable purchasing; IV. Phasing out harmful pesticides; V. Social equity & justice; VI. All of which folds into systematic Climate Action.