14 Oregon wineries complete first-in-nation carbon reduction program

Fourteen pioneering Oregon wineries announced the completion of the “Carbon Neutral Challenge” today, part of a rigorous process to measure and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from operations, with the goal of eventually becoming carbon neutral. The wineries are the first and largest group of U.S. winemakers to go through a systematic GHG reduction process as a bloc, a program led by the Oregon Environmental Council in partnership with the Oregon Wine Board.

The fourteen wineries represent approximately 20 percent of Oregon’s overall wine production, meaning that one in five bottles of wine produced in 2009 was produced in a facility that completed the Carbon Neutral Challenge. The wineries instituted a number of improvements to reduce GHG emissions, including installing solar panels, lighting retrofits, tank insulation and using goats, sheep and raptors instead of lawn-mowers and pesticides.

“Oregon wineries and vineyards recognize that they are a canary in a coal mine when it comes to climate change,” said Oregon Environmental Council Executive Director Andrea Durbin. “Unchecked climate change will have a significant impact on their ability to grow grapes and produce quality wines.”

Many Oregon wineries and vineyards have long incorporated sustainable agricultural and winemaking practices, said Durbin, so completing the Carbon Neutral Challenge was a natural extension of their efforts.

“Completing this challenge and reducing our emissions shows that it is possible to produce high quality wine while reducing your carbon footprint” said winemaker Tony Soter of Soter Vineyards. “We are thrilled to be part of a group of Oregon wineries that are showing how you can tackle climate change head-on in the agriculture sector while also saving money for our businesses by investing in energy saving practices.”

“Grape-growing and wine production are largely weather- and climate-driven enterprises,” said Greg Jones, a professor and research climatologist at Southern Oregon University who specializes in the study of climate change and viticulture. “Climate change influences are already evident in wine growing regions worldwide and future projections have the potential to seriously impact the industry.”

How the program works

Each participating winery accounted for their greenhouse gas emissions and incorporated this information into a carbon inventory tool developed by Ecos Consulting and based on the International Wine Protocol. Participants made investments and changes in operations and business practices to reduce their carbon footprint.

Participating wineries became members of The Climate Registry, a national system that sets consistent and transparent standards nationally to calculate, verify and publicly report greenhouse gas emissions.

Six of the participants also had their carbon emissions verified by one of the nation’s leading third party verifier for carbon emissions at a cost of $2,500 for each winery.  For any emissions that remain after all their reduction efforts, the wineries have invested in regionally located and verifiable offset projects in the agricultural sector: methane digesters in Oregon, Washington and Idaho through the Bonneville Environmental Foundation.

Over one year, these offset projects prevent 211 metric tons of methane from being released into the atmosphere. This is the CO2 equivalent of 9,370 barrels of oil consumed, the annual emissions of 770 cars and the electricity used by 489 homes in one year.

The Carbon Neutral Challenge is led by Oregon Environmental Council in partnership with the Oregon Wine Board and with technical support from Ecos Consulting.

The fourteen wineries completing the Carbon Neutral Challenge are:

• A to Z Wineworks/REX HILL
• Abacela
• Adelsheim Vineyard
• Chehalem Winery
• Cooper Mountain Vineyards
• King Estate Winery
• Left Coast Cellars
• Lemelson Vineyards
• Mahonia Vineyards and Nursery
• Sokol Blosser Winery
• Soter Vineyards
• Stoller Vineyards
• Willamette Valley Vineyards
• Winderlea Wine Co.

Note to editors
B-roll footage and images are available upon request. More information is available online at: www.cncwine.org

About the Oregon Environmental Council

The Oregon Environmental Council safeguards what Oregonians love about Oregon – clean air and water, an unpolluted landscape and healthy food produced by local farmers. For more than 40 years we've been a champion for solutions to protect the health of every Oregonian and the health of the place we call home. Our vision for Oregon includes solving global warming, protecting kids from toxics, cleaning up our rivers, building sustainable economies, and ensuring healthy food and local farms. Find out more at www.oeconline.org.

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