Creating a Culture of Conservation at the NVV

When it comes to being #napagreen, the Napa Valley Vintners (NVV) is as committed as our members to reducing our impacts. Here are some of the steps we’re taking to walk the walk.

Our Facility

The NVV headquarters across from the St. Helena library opened in 2010. What the casual observer may not realize is the level of conservation and commitment to efficiency the building represents. These efforts were recognized when we achieved LEED certification for our building. Many of our conservation measures just look like creative design, but they also contribute to our commitment to being green:

Almost all of the building’s original structure was repurposed. Exterior siding and the tin roof were used on the interior as finishes to maintain the building’s authentic feel, with the additional benefit of a huge reduction of waste that would have ended up in the landfill.
The insulation is recycled denim which was shredded and placed in the walls.
Our flooring is made from recycled cork.
Our solar panels help us produce 80% of our own electricity needs.
Additionally, we use geothermal energy for the majority of our heating and cooling needs.

Solar panels provide 80% of the energy used at the NVV.

Drought tolerant plants were selected to reduce landscaping water use.

Both the insulation and flooring at the NVV make use of recycled materials, including denim and cork.

A bioswale of rocks and plants prevents flooding during heavy rain events and reduces the silt in any runoff that may occur.

A bioswale of rocks and plants prevents flooding during heavy rain and reduces the silt in any runoff that may occur.

A Culture of Resource Conservation

In addition to the conservation practices employed during the remodel of our offices, we promote and maintain a culture of resource conservation each and every day. We were one of the first ten companies in the Napa Valley to be certified a “Green Business” by the California Green Business Program. We have to renew this certification every three years which requires verifying that we are committed to a higher standard of preserving our environment each year, including:

We use motion detectors for most of the lighting in interior common areas and light-sensing detectors for exterior lighting. All of our light bulbs are high efficiency.
We do not use any aerosol products.
Our cleaning products are all environmentally friendly.
We have low-flow aerators on the sinks and multi-stage flushing toilets.
We use recycled paper whenever possible.

Tracking our Efforts

Going beyond the Green Business requirements, we have identified four indicators to track our resource conservation efforts: water, paper and electricity usage as well as the percentage of waste we divert from the landfill to go instead to recycling, composting or yard waste.

We chose water, electricity and landfill diversion for the obvious reasons that they are finite commodities, and we chose paper usage because it is coupled with the hidden expenditures of other resources, like toner, gasoline/CO2 output for delivery trucks and chemicals used in the production of paper.

We’ve been tracking these indicators since 2011 and we have improved every year. In 2014, all of our indicators for resource usage came down significantly from 2013.

Resource	2011	2012	2013	2014
Paper in cases	118	43	39	30
% change		-63.6%	-9.3%	-23.1%
Electricity in kWh	40,800	35,040	36,085	31,877
% change		-14.1%	3.0%	-11.7%
Water units (1 unit = 784 gallons)	494	622	739	534
% change		25.9%	18.8%	-27.7%
% of our garbage that goes into the landfill	60	40	11	10
% change		-33.3%	-72.5%	-9.1%

Alternative Transportation

Half of our staff live in Napa and commute daily to St. Helena. Recently, the Napa County Transportation and Planning Agency released the findings related to transportation behavior in Napa County. All this traffic? It’s not the tourists... it’s people like us who live and work here!

While we’ve always encouraged our staff to carpool or use alternative transportation, we knew that we needed to do more to help our team reduce the number of cars on our roads. Employees are asked to find an alternate way to come to work other than a single individual in a car as often as possible. One day a month is mandatory, but many on our staff make this change weekly. To support our staff, we subsidize public transportation and carpooling costs and recognize the effort internally, which has led to a bigger shift in travel behavior.

Three Ways You Can Green Your Operation – from Aram Chakerian, NVV operations manager:

Measure, measure, measure! We’ve made significant reductions in our resource use by tracking our water, energy and resource usage and sharing the data with staff. Data fuels behavior shifts, so if you’re collecting data, be sure to share it companywide.

Create a culture of conservation: Once you’ve shared your metrics, hold a meeting explaining how staff can improve conservation efforts. When everyone understands that conservation is a priority, employees will be more invested in the outcome.

Make it fun: Using fewer resources doesn’t have to be a chore. Create employee challenges that reward the team for meeting conservation goals. If your office is anything like ours, a little healthy competition goes a long way.

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Down to Earth

Down to Earth Month
Learn about Napa Valley’s commitment to best environmental practices.

A History of Waste Reduction
Trinchero Family Estates has made waste reduction part of their company-wide DNA.

Saving Energy With Solar
A PG&E energy audit launched a decade of energy conservation practices at Honig Vineyard & Winery.

Green Parking Lot
Cakebread Cellars is championing water conservation with their new green parking lot.

Green News

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