2023 Green Medal Award Winner

NIN­ER WINE ESTATES IS AWARD­ED THE 2023 GREEN MEDAL AWARD FOR BUSINESS

We are proud to be the recip­i­ent of the 2023 Cal­i­for­nia Green Medal Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Lead­er­ship Award for Busi­ness! Only four winer­ies are award­ed this pres­ti­gious medal each year, and we’re hon­ored to be in the com­pa­ny of our Paso Rob­les neigh­bors Tablas Creek Vine­yard along with Cake­bread Cel­lars and Trea­sury Amer­i­c­as.

With these awards, the Cal­i­for­nia Sus­tain­able Wine­grow­ing Alliance aims to rec­og­nize winer­ies ​“for their advanced sus­tain­abil­i­ty prac­tices and inno­va­tion based on a com­pre­hen­sive judg­ing process focused on both sus­tain­able viti­cul­ture and winemaking.”

This is recog­ni­tion of the ded­i­ca­tion and hard work all of us have put in over the years to mea­sure and mon­i­tor our inputs and out­puts. We actu­al­ly have a posi­tion ded­i­cat­ed to doing just that! And we’re not stop­ping here: we’ll con­tin­ue to chal­lenge our­selves and improve our prac­tices. Thank you for sup­port­ing us along that journey.

Below are the dif­fer­ent cat­e­gories that the selec­tion com­mit­tee looks at along with some of our real-world exam­ples. Sus­tain­abil­i­ty is a mov­ing tar­get for us, and we will con­tin­ue to improve our prac­tices each year!

ENER­GY EFFICIENCY

• Solar pow­ered
• Elec­tric car charg­ing for staff and guests
• Ener­gy effi­cient build­ing design (LEED Certified)
• Grav­i­ty-flow wine­mak­ing, insu­lat­ed build­ings, scal­able sys­tems and use of nat­ur­al light

WATER EFFI­CIEN­CY & RECAPTURE

• Indus­try-lead­ing rain­wa­ter recap­ture infrastructure
• Recy­cling all of our win­ery water runoff to use for irrigation
• Reduce use by deficit irri­gat­ing, using water effi­cient equip­ment and inten­sive­ly mon­i­tor­ing vine­yard irrigation

SUS­TAIN­ABLE FARMING

• We are ded­i­cat­ed to improv­ing soil health by graz­ing sheep in the Spring, apply­ing organ­ic fer­til­iz­er and run­ning soil health trials
• We have a robust on-site com­post pro­gram that turns left­over grape pomace into high-qual­i­ty com­post and com­post teas
• We do not use her­bi­cides, poi­son baits or syn­thet­ic fungicides
• We main­tain wildlife cor­ri­dors, a diverse gar­den and an on-site apiary

COM­MU­NI­TY & EMPLOY­EE DEVELOPMENT

• We donate over $200k annu­al­ly through a linked foun­da­tion to orga­ni­za­tions that address equal­i­ty, envi­ron­men­tal and edu­ca­tion access issues.
• We cook and serve a month­ly meal at ECHO Home­less Shel­ter, sup­port local radio and work close­ly with Must! Char­i­ties and the Juan Nevarez Memo­r­i­al Scholarship
• We offer com­pre­hen­sive health insur­ance, a match­ing 401(k) pro­gram and com­pet­i­tive salaries
• We have an Employ­ee ​“Giv­ing Pro­gram” where staff can choose a char­i­ty that we donate $2,000 to in their name

THIRD-PAR­TY CERTIFICATIONS

• LEED Cer­ti­fied Tast­ing Room, Restau­rant & Win­ery (Lead­er­ship in Ener­gy and Envi­ron­men­tal Design)
• SIP Cer­ti­fied Vine­yards (Sus­tain­abil­i­ty in Practice)
• SIP Cer­ti­fied Win­ery (Sus­tain­abil­i­ty in Practice)

About the Award: The Cal­i­for­nia Green Medal Sus­tain­able Wine­grow­ing Lead­er­ship Awards pro­vide recog­ni­tion to vine­yards and winer­ies who are lead­ers in imple­ment­ing the Three E’s of sus­tain­abil­i­ty: Envi­ron­ment, Eco­nom­ic and Social Equi­ty). The Green Medal awards inspire oth­ers in the indus­try and high­light the ben­e­fits of par­tic­i­pat­ing in a sus­tain­abil­i­ty pro­gram. It’s a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to show­case the amaz­ing com­mit­ment many Cal­i­for­nia grow­ers and vint­ners have made to pro­tect­ing the envi­ron­ment and enhanc­ing the com­mu­ni­ties in which they live and work.