SustainabilityWinery Sustainable Practices Grant
As we get ready to head into harvest, we got some good news this month when the Washington Wine Industry Foundation was awarded $128,250 from the Washington State Department of Agriculture's Specialty Crop Block Grant program to build a Guide to Sustainable Winery Practices.
Dubbed "Winery Wise", the guide will provide an educational resource to Washington wineries seeking to improve their sustainability.
Winery Wise will be a free and web-based tool with information to help promote sustainability through environmentally sound, economically feasible, and socially equitable practices.
As chair of the Winery Wise steering committee, I am pleased to know our grassroots efforts were the driving force behind obtaining this grant and I am very excited about the opportunity this grant affords us in bringing the Winery Wise guide to full fruition and in further propelling Washington State wineries to improved sustainability.
Snoqualmie has long been a leader in sustainable practices, and we look forward to being one of several volunteer wineries who will measure and analyze our improvements in energy and water consumption over the next year in order to provide “real life” examples of Winery Wise education and implementation.
Using the information gained from the data from Snoqualmie and other wineries, an outreach plan will be launched to provide sustainable practices training opportunities for all Washington wineries. This is truly an exciting development for the Washington wine industry!
