Ever since Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth , businesses have wrapped themselves in the green flag. But last April, when the recession had hit hard, the environment wasn't the first thing on Sandra Oldfield's mind. As head of operations and winemaker of Tinhorn Creek Vineyards near Oliver, B.C., Ms. Oldfield's priority was cutting costs without laying off any of the 22 full-time staff.
A few months earlier, Ms. Oldfield had signed up for Vancouver-based Climate Smart's seminars on eco-friendly strategies for businesses. The program, which costs $1,500, helps businesses measure their carbon footprint and find strategies for reducing emissions.
As the start date for the program approached, Ms. Oldfield, worried about the costs of going green, became skeptical about attending.
“It was at a time when we were really belt-tightening,” she says of the winery she owns with her husband Kenn Oldfield, who is chairman of the winery. But she decided to go, partly out of curiosity. “We opted not to opt out,” she says.
Fast forward a year. Thanks to boosting energy efficiency and buying carbon offsets, Tinhorn Creek is carbon neutral. Greening the winery didn't hike spending. It brought savings.
“It was the exact opposite of how I thought it would be,” Ms. Oldfield says.
With 130 acres of vineyards, it takes a lot of water to feed Tinhorn Creek's vines. That's why the winery turned its attention to water efficiency. Beginning this spring, Tinhorn Creek is switching from overhead sprinklers to a water-efficient drip irrigation system that puts 'water right on the vines that need it,' Ms. Oldfield says. — Chris Mason Stearns
Calculating the winery's footprint “showed us all of our inefficiencies,” Ms. Oldfield says. Climate Smart, and an energy audit, helped the winery identify a series of ways for fixing those inefficiencies. As a result, Tinhorn Creek instituted many changes from revamping the vineyards' watering system to implementing some simple green policies. The changes not only made the winery more eco-friendly, they helped its bottom line.
By far, the biggest savings came from switching the glass bottles that store wine. The new storage bottles are about 15 per cent lighter. Produced using less raw materials, the lighter bottles are more eco-friendly and less expensive.
The switch will save the winery a whopping $30,000 a year. “In better times, you could take that money and spend it on putting in some sustainable things like solar panels, but given the [economic] climate we're in right now, that money keeps us solvent,” Ms. Oldfield says.
Other eco-friendly changes were less dramatic but also delivered savings. For example, programmable thermostats, which turn the heat down at night in Tinhorn Creek's main building, will shrink the winery's energy bills by $4,500 a year. “I'm sure most new places when they are built get programmable thermostats. You've got to remember we were built 15 years ago so a lot of the things we had to do involved retrofitting,” Ms. Oldfield says.
And changing old-school attitudes. Staff embraced a new policy, which requires them to turn off lights in empty rooms. (The policy will save $500 a year.) But they were less enthusiastic about setting the photocopier on its double-sided option, even though that will save about $100 a year.
“It just seemed like it would have been so easy but there was a lot of resistance for that,” Ms. Oldfield says.
Tinhorn Creek composts grape seeds, skins and stems, but requires garbage pickup for other items. Until October, the pickup happened weekly regardless of whether the garbage container was full. Now pickups only happen when the dumpster is full. The truck comes by less frequently, especially during the off-season. Decreasing the number of pickups by 10 per cent reduces travel-related emissions and will slash the winery's bills for garbage pickup and depositing garbage by $400 a year.
