Oregon winery carbon reduction program grows up

View photo gallery (2 photos)

Oregon wineries are poised for an even bigger spotlight in the national fight against global warming.

Beginning in 2011, when a voluntary carbon reduction program becomes a full-fledged certification process, these winemakers will leapfrog ahead to become the first in the world to develop an industry-specific program.

It isn't just cute labels and talking points.

A new $92,000 grant expected from the United States Department of Agriculture will evolve the Oregon Environmental Council’s Carbon Neutral Challenge by funding the development of long-term certifications for wineries that remain carbon neutral, and others that follow their lead.

The new certification, called Climate Pioneers, will build on the success of the 14 wineries that completed the Carbon Neutral Challenge in April — a list that included three of the state’s largest wineries: Willamette Valley Vineyards of Turner, King Estate Winery of Eugene, and A to Z Wineworks of Dundee.

Through the challenge, the wineries reduced their carbon emissions by retooling practices in their vineyards and wineries, an effort that called for solar panels, retrofitted lighting, tank insulations and even using goats and raptors instead of lawnmowers and pesticides. The wineries also purchased carbon offsets to neutralize their remaining emissions, which built a methane digester for a dairy farm in Boardman.

Looking ahead, as many as a dozen new wineries are predicted to jump into the program following the USDA funding for its development.

Salem-based LIVE, Low Input Viticulture Enology Inc., is tasked with crafting the program will oversee Climate Pioneers. The 11-year-old agency also runs a sustainability certification for wineries with third-party backing from Europe.

While the Climate Pioneers program will likely lend a marketing advantage to participating wineries, Hannelore Schmidt Buckenmeyer, project director of the Oregon Wine Board, said that hasn’t been the program’s biggest lure. Most people at the helm of the effort simply want to be good stewards and set an example for other industries, she said, particularly because grapes are highly susceptible to climate change.

Tony Soter, co-wner of Soter Vineyards, echoed that sentiment.

"I’ve been doing organic farming since the mid 80s and frankly it’s more of a conviction that it’s the right thing to do than anything else," he said.

Soter Vineyards is among those wineries that will pursue a Climate Pioneers certification next year. Soter said he hopes the effort will inspire other industries to launch similar carbon-neutralization efforts. He is also hopeful that consumers will notice and support responsible provenience of grapes and wine in the future.

"It will be their pocketbook, their taste and their sense of responsibility," he said, that pushes the concept forward.

For now, LIVE is proposing two tiers of certification for Climate Pioneers, one for wineries that track and gradually reduce carbon emissions and another, higher standard for wineries that purchase offsets as well.

Wineries that certify as carbon neutral will track different scopes of carbon emissions, ranging from direct emissions from fuel used by tractors or in bottle sterilization, to emissions from electricity use and from things out of a winery's control but related to business, like emissions associated with transporting wine, making glass and or employee travel for sales.

A panel of experts — including industry professionals, researchers and environmental groups — is still fine-tuning requirements for both tiers of certification and is expected to add new components as science advances.

Certification will be costly at first, and Buckenmeyer said the ability of wineries to participate would depend largely on economics.

According to Soter, certification requires a $6,000 audit and another $2,000 inspection by a third party, in this case the Oregon Department of Agriculture. It also costs $600 to register with the Climate Registry.

Carbon reduction can be affordable, Soter said. In some cases it’s as simple as changing light bulbs and training employees to reduce waste streams. Other efforts at reduction, such as buying carbon offsets or installing solar power, can require big financial investments. Those investments will continue to present challenges over the life of the certification, particularly as science aimed at carbon reduction changes.

Of the 387 wineries in Oregon, 16 of the 30 that participated in the Oregon Environmental Council’s Carbon Neutral Challenge were unable to purchase offsets because of the cost, though many made reductions in their own emissions. A few small wineries also found it difficult to track carbon use because of the effort’s demand on staff time.

Lee van der Voo, lvdvoo*at*gmail.com, is a freelance writer for Sustainable Business Oregon.