Through a series of unlikely-but-fortuitous connections stem-ming from a desire to increase operating permits to meet business demand, SWC President Carroll, GM Ed Silva and I recognized an opportunity to approach the infrastructure upgrades and ex-pansion in a sustainable manner. This led to a meeting with an environmental watchdog group called GASP (Graton Association to Stop Pollution) which had an intimate relationship with past operators of the Graton facility.
The building had a long record of poor wastewater manage-ment—so bad, at times, that GASP was formed by a group of local citizens in an effort to work with owners and operators to improve waste treatment operations and practices. GASP had enlisted the help of an enlightened group of engineers and environmen-tal consultants who gave SWC invaluable guidance. One of the consulting wastewater engineers, John Rosenblum (Sebastopol’s Rosenblum Environmental Engineering) was also a consultant to PG&E’s Savings by Design rebate program for remodel and new construction, which became the foundation for SWC’s expansion plans. Another environmental consultant to GASP, John Garn (co-founder of Graton’s Viewcraft), introduced SWC to the Wine In-stitute’s Sustainable Winegrowing Program’s self-assessment and the nonprofit Climate Protection Campaign, which encouraged us to join the Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Leaders to inventory our greenhouse gas emissions in 2005.
As SWC moved forward with facility improvement and expan-sion plans, its PG&E representative, Bob Floyd , met with facilities manager Jim Neely to map out a strategy to upgrade equipment and lighting, insulate the 120 onsite tanks and add storage tanks for compressed air and hot water (which reduce spikes in energy demand). SWC also audited its energy rates with PG&E to make sure the company was taking advantage of commercial rate struc-tures for manufacturing and agricultural facilities.
Meantime, the energy modeling analysis for the Savings by Design facility expansion began to identify the process areas of highest energy use and develop a strategy to implement energy conservation and reduction. SWC was also introduced to the ener-gy-water connection: For every gallon of water pumped out of the ground, moved around a facility, heated, treated and sent to the wastewater pond, there’s a corresponding unit of energy. Once SWC began auditing its energy use and witnessed the immedi-ate drop due to tank insulation, the management team caught the energy efficiency bug and began to delve further.
SWC first looked at the “low-hanging fruit,” those areas eas-ily addressed in-house at relatively little upfront cost and a quick return on investment. Employee education was critical, and the quickest and most effective way for SWC to engage employees has been to include them in auditing and energy reduction results and, ultimately, to ask for their input.
A water team evolved to monitor water use and discharge, and it encouraged reduction targets below our permitted levels. As the bar was raised, so was awareness of small conservation measures such as turning off lights and computers, installing motion sensor lighting, not letting water run, sweeping instead of cleaning with a hose, making sure all hose ends have shut-off nozzles and track-ing energy and water use by process area. The Wine Institute’s Sustainable Wine Growing program and its self-assessment tool introduced the concept of the triple bottom line and provided an additional road map for progress.
Between 2003 and 2010, SWC has doubled tank storage from 1 million to 2 million gallons, barrels from 25,000 to 45,000, and bot-tling from 1 million to 2.5 million cases annually, and has reduced energy and water use per case by 50 to 100 percent.
For the mid-range capital outlay such as tank insulation, stor-age tanks, pipe insulation, water heaters, centralized plumbing runs and return hot water loops, the energy savings, process ef-ficiencies and rebate programs meant an ROI within three to five years. Big capital investment items—a 24,000-square-foot canopy to divert 1 million gallons of stormwater from SWC’s wastewa-ter pond, a new refrigeration system and a 20-station automated barrel washing line—allowed increased production and increased revenue almost immediately.
Looking forward
Drummed into SWC’s planning process was the mantra: “Maxi-mize energy efficiency before considering a renewable energy sys-tem.” By not subsidizing inefficiency, the size of the renewable energy system needed is reduced (as is the cost), and the more re-newable energy options and hybrid systems there are to consider.
Last year, Cogenra, a Silicon Valley startup company with a new spin on solar thermal, presented the idea of a hybrid cogene-ration system. It combined off-the-shelf components in a patented design to combine and cogenerate solar thermal heating and solar electricity. The system was commissioned in November 2010, and SWC looks forward to the estimated annual offset of 45 percent natural gas and 10 percent electrical—and the corresponding 120 tons annual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
The path toward sustainability is never “done.” Sustainability is a process of continual improvement and the concepts and prac-tices a continual challenge to fully integrate into the business. It’s easy to lose focus with the distractions of day-to-day work and the broader domestic and international economy. The good news is there are a host of local resources to help a company audit, de-sign and implement a sustainable business plan.
