How Low Can They Go? Oregon Wineries Tackle Carbon Reduction

A group of 14 wineries completes a challenge to measure, minimize and offset their greenhouse gases

Dana Nigro
Posted: April 27, 2010

What would happen if Oregon became too warm to consistently produce high-quality Pinot Noir, the notoriously sensitive grape behind its signature wine? A group of wineries and growers concerned about the effects of climate change have banded together to try to reduce their environmental impact. Now, nearly three years after they started, 14 of them—representing about 20 percent of the state's wine production—have completed the Carbon Neutral Challenge, a project to measure and cut greenhouse gases emitted by farming vineyards, producing wines and selling them globally.
More than a dozen other wineries around the world, including Parducci and Rodney Strong in California, already claim to have achieved carbon neutrality, reducing the amount of greenhouse gases they produce and then balancing out the remainder with offsets. But this is the largest group of U.S. wineries to go through a voluntary program together to reduce their carbon footprint.
"A lot of Oregon's wineries were motivated to look at what they can do to be part of the solution," said Andrea Durbin, executive director of the Oregon Environmental Council, which has partnered with the Oregon Wine Board on the Carbon Neutral Challenge program since 2007. "The wine industry sees themselves as the canary in the coal mine."
"As a whole, the wine industry may not be the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, but we're really impacted by climate change," said Alison Sokol Blosser of Sokol Blosser, one of the 14 who completed the program. "As the heat units rise, we're going to start seeing more concentration in the wines, we're going to see higher alcohol wines, and then we may also start to see other varietals being planted that are going to grow in warmer climates."
The 14 that have completed the challenge are Abacela, Adelsheim, A to Z Wineworks/Rex Hill, Chehalem Winery, Cooper Mountain Wine, King Estate, Left Coast Cellars, Lemelson Vineyards, Mahonia Vineyards and Nursery, Sokol Blosser Winery, Soter Vineyards, Stoller Vineyards, Willamette Valley Vineyards and Winderlea Wine Company.
Another dozen or so are still working their way through the program, continuing to figure out how to measure and reduce their emissions. Durbin explained that some smaller wineries ran into hurdles because they did not have the organization or staff to collect all the data. And in the current economy, the cost of the program was also a factor; some could not make needed investments to reduce emissions or support the offsets.
In the challenge's first step, participating wineries and vineyards assess their greenhouse gas emissions, both direct emissions, such as those produced by company vehicles, and indirect, such as those made while generating electricity the wineries purchase. They did so using a carbon inventory tool developed for the wine business by Ecos Consulting, based on international standards supported by the Climate Registry, a national system for public reporting of emissions. All of the participating wineries and vineyards became members of the Climate Registry, and six of them had their emissions verified by an auditor, at a cost of $2,500 per winery.
"When doing this type of greenhouse-gas reporting, it takes two to three years to get an accurate picture of the emissions," says Mat Elmore, program associate for the Carbon Neutral Challenge. He noted that the wineries had a steep learning curve, but as they went through the process, it became quicker and more accurate.
In the second step, wineries and growers work on reducing their emissions and saving on purchased energy. Among the changes they've made are using goats or sheep to mow the grass in the vineyards, installing renewable energy sources such as solar power, and introducing more energy-efficient lighting and cooling systems that can also help save them money.

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