AWARDING SUSTAINABLE WINE

AWARDING SUSTAINABLE WINE Sustainability efforts in the industry continue to evolve over time

GLEN KORSTROM

B.C. winery owners could soon achieve a new certification to prove to themselves, and consumers, that their operations are “sustainable” – a fuzzy term that has meant many things through the decades.

Some longtime winery owners, however, believe themselves to be ahead on the sustainability curve, and are unsure that they will even apply to take part in the BC Wine Grape Council’s Sustainable Winegrowing British Columbia (SWBC) program, which is set to start a certification process for B.C. wineries this fall.

Exactly what it means to be sustainable has long been a matter of dispute, and the new program is unlikely to change that.

What makes SWBC’s program distinct is that it links paying attention to social, environmental and financial factors to a made-in-B.C. points system that its creators have devised specifically for the wine sector.

SWBC’s program itself has been around for several years, and nearly 40 winery owners have taken self-assessments, Karen Gillis, chair of the SWBC project, tells BIV Magazine.

Gillis had intended certification to start this spring, but the COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench into those plans.

Winery owners who want to be certified under the new program must first go through a process of assessing their own operations in areas such as energy consumption, water management and human resources.

Gillis’ organization intends to hire auditors to start inspecting wineries’ paperwork and physical operations this fall, and then grant points for success.

She hesitates to give a timeline for when the first winery will be certified, but Gillis hopes that it will be in 2021. By then, the organization will likely have created a logo that certified wineries’ owners could put on their wine bottle labels, or on decals that are placed on doors to tasting rooms.

The points system will be complicated, with requirements varying for different wineries. Water consumption limits, for example, will be different depending on soil types, Gillis says. “We’re not looking to be proscriptive, but looking for people to monitor their water use year over year, and understand how their plants are being affected,” she explains. “If you are using overhead irrigation now, and you convert to drip irrigation next year just to cut out your overheads, your plants are going to die. So it’s a step-by-step process.”

The crowning achievement of SWBC’s certification program may be that as more winery owners go through the self-assessment process, they will learn to create documentation on how they operate. “That’s why we’re talking about certification,” Gillis says. “If you don’t have documentation in place, there’s nothing to audit and check on. That is the first step.”

SWBC’s new program is the latest to join a continuum of programs aimed at encouraging more sustainable winemaking.

Decades ago, sustainability tended to primarily convey that winery principals had a heightened concern for the environment, and were skipping synthetic pesticides in favour of using organic fertilizers on grapes.

In November 1994, B.C. was the first province to legislate an organic food certification program, and wineries were finally able to certify that their grapes were organic. To do that, they had to prove that they had gone three years without using chemical fertilizers, pesticides, hormones or antibiotics.

Before 1994, B.C. winery owners who wanted to claim that their grapes were organic were free to do so, and there was no legal liability if they made false claims.

The flip side of the situation was that winery principals, such as Summerhill Pyramid Winery co-founders Stephen and Wendy Cipes, had no designation to prove that their grapes were indeed organic.

The program that the Cipeses navigated in the mid-1990s, and is still in place today, is one where local organic associations work under the Certified Organic Associations of BC umbrella. Local associations are empowered to inspect paperwork and vineyards to certify that a winery does in fact grow organic grapes.

Summerhill was one of the first wineries to be certified as having organic grapes, says the Cipeses’ son – and the winery’s

CEO – Ezra Cipes. “Federal regulations and the federal organic standard wasn’t released until 2007,” he tells BIV Magazine.

That new standard, administered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, certifies that a winery’s entire winemaking process is organic. For the first time, it enabled owners to genuinely call their wineries organic. “I will be interested to see how the SWBC program develops, and hope that there’s value in it,” Cipes says. “I would be open to joining it perhaps, although my read is that it was not developed with organic vineyards in mind, but as an alternative to organics that allows participants to use synthetic fungicides, pesticides and fertilizers in a more conscientious way, integrating them with biological practices rather than just totally relying on them.”

Kalala Organic Estate Winery owner Karnail Singh Sidhu agrees. “It’s a nice start for the wine industry, but I don’t know [about applying to join the SWBC program,]” he says. “Being an organic winery, I think I’m a little ahead of that.”

Sidhu’s vineyards have been what he considers to be organic since he acquired the winery in 2001, and his grapes have been certified organic since 2010, he says.

Both Summerhill and Kalala are also already Certified B Corporation members, according to Cipes and Sidhu.

That global program, which launched in 2007, is not specifically for the wine industry, but, like the SWBC program, it has a points system and aims to convey that its members are acting sustainably. It also includes social elements in its definition of sustainability.

Cipes tells BIV Magazine that being part of the B Corp. program reminded him of the importance of reaching out to underrepresented groups when hiring. He then contacted the Okanagan Indian Band as part of his summer recruitment drive in an effort to ensure his staff reflects the diversity of the population. É

TOP: Summerhill Pyramid Winery has not used synthetic pesticides on its

vineyards since it was founded in the late 1980s, according to CEO Ezra Cipes

• EZRA CIPES

ABOVE: Karnail Singh Sidhu says his Kalala Organic Estate Winery has had

certified organic grapes since 2010 • SUBMITTED

5 QUESTIONS ON SUSTAINABILITY

WITH MELISSA MILLS, CEO, SPREAD’EM KITCHEN CO. Melissa Mills has gone from stocking shelves at Whole Foods to producing products that get placed on them. She is the founder and CEO of Spread’Em Kitchen Co. – a local company in the $57 billion global plant-based food and beverage industry. Here she shares how she keeps her company sustainable.

1. HOW DOES SPREAD’EM KITCHEN INCORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY INTO ITS BUSINESS PRACTICES?

Sustainability has always been my passion, but starting my business gave me the power to make a change. Sustainability is at the core of Spread’Em Kitchen: all ingredients used in our plant-based products are ethical and traceable. Cashews serve as our base ingredient as they only require rainwater to grow. We offset any paper used by donating a portion of profits to Tree Canada, and we have partnerships with our suppliers to ensure ingredients are delivered in minimal packaging. We’re a certified member of Climate Smart, which regularly audits our carbon footprint. And we’re always looking to improve: we recently found the perfect plant plastic that safely composts and keeps our products fresh, which will be implemented within the next few months.

2. WHY IS IT IMPORTANT FOR SMALL BUSINESSES TO HAVE A SUSTAINABILITY PLAN IN PLACE?

We see a lot of promises from big businesses that are changing their stance on sustainability, but businesses of all sizes can commit to making a difference. Your small business’s practices are just as important as those of the big corporations: change starts at the grassroots level. That’s why I’m proud that our team is leading by example and showing businesses of all sizes the importance of having a plan in place, and ensuring accountability as you execute.