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Buddy, Can You Spare Some Change?

Effecting Change When It’s Hard to Afford,
Avoiding Hard Realities We Can't Afford

By Harry Peterson-Nedry

Change happens with or without us. We all inherently resist change, especially when we have little sense of what it will be and have no control over it. The unknown and unfamiliar scare us. Most often we'd rather take our chances with the status quo.


	Our new lighter-weight, high-quality Burgundy-shaped wine bottles save 10 pounds of glass per case — a savings in both glass manufacturing and shipping carbon impacts.

During an economic tailspin like we find ourselves in today, it's even more painful to accept change, much less to intentionally seek it. We hunker down, withdraw to familiar comforts, and extend ourselves only infrequently to address concerns for the common good. Today's challenges almost seem to be a perverse test of resolve, integrity, and priority—a short-term versus longer-term battle, a personal interest versus common-goals competition.

There is no more challenging backdrop in which to find the necessary financial reserves and collective resolve than in this economy, and there is no tougher paradigm shift in modern history than the concurrent needs to address climate change and to find alternative sources of energy. I appreciate the argument that contends monumental shifts in priority require sacrifice and never happen without disruption to some or all of the people involved. It's the "no pain, no gain" maxim we tell our children and ourselves when the going gets tough.

There is plenty of partisan bickering, finger-pointing, and shirking of responsibility to go around these days. Collective will and teamwork to attack obvious challenges is what is needed, and it needs to start with you and me. So, as my father would have sternly demanded at a certain point: "Hush up and get to work!"

We’re trying. In our albeit insular wine world, we are working hard to strike a balance between sensible, traditional paths and innovative, new approaches to making great wines, while protecting or improving our resources in the process. This, in my mind, is "sustainability," the oft-used, illunderstood modern word for a balanced life. Long-time friends know I always bring issues ranging from wine quality, ageability, arts, work life, and—ohmigod—even politics and religion, back to a question of balance—seeking equilibrium, ultimate integration, and moderation.

RESTATING CHALLENGES

OK, I won't belabor climate change, since I've covered it on and off since 2000. I also don't need to point out the imperative to control our energy supplies locally and to have renewable energy resources replace fossil fuels, with obvious political, environmental, and climate benefits.

We have also detailed our sustainable viticultural practices in many ways over the years, continuing to explain how important environmentally sensitive farming practices are to us. It is natural to extend Oregon's LIVE (Low Impact Viticulture and Enology) approach in the vineyard to the winery and all other CHEHALEM practices. You'll see below how we've moved in that direction by volunteering to join Oregon Governor Kulongoski's Carbon Neutral Challenge and by certifying our wines in the inaugural year of the Oregon Certified Sustainable Wine® (OCSW) program.

OREGON CERTIFIED SUSTAINABLE WINES

Sustainability is the province of not just the vineyard, but of the entire breadth of the winemaking process. The Oregon Wine Board has taken this view to heart by instituting a certification movement that verifies wines that have been made sustainably, using criteria involving both the vineyard and winery, with verification provided by third-party inspectors from the state department of agriculture. Administered through the LIVE certification board, an OCSW-certified wine must be made from grapes grown only in LIVE-certified vineyards and at wineries whose practices meet stringent standards ranging from environmental and safety, to facilities and recordkeeping, to energy and wastewater, to…you get the picture. It accepts other equivalent vineyard and winery programs such as USDA Organic and Biodynamics, making it easier for consumers to understand as an umbrella certification.

Oregon Certified Sustainable Wine Chehalem's 2008 Pinot Noirs (beginning with the newly released 2008 3 Vineyard, Corral Creek, and Wind Ridge), 2008 Reserve Chardonnay, and all our 2009 wines will carry the OCSW logo on their labels. This is the Oregon wine industry’s challenge to wine producers across the country to prove progress toward sustainable and eventually self-sustainable practices through objective certification—to eliminate "greenwashing" in unsubstantiated PR and braggadocio. (Details about the OCSW movement were presented to the media and trade in San Francisco and New York City in April, so you may have heard more on this effort already.)

CARBON NEUTRAL CHALLENGE AND THE CLIMATE REGISTRY

Acknowledging the significance of climate change and our need to immediately arrest sources of atmospheric damage such as CO2, methane, and other blanketing gases, Chehalem and twelve or more other Oregon wineries have accepted our Governor’s challenge to become carbon neutral. This commitment requires introspection, investment,
and measurement using carbon calculators to determine a baseline of where we stand today using greenhouse gas emission inventories. We then address sources of CO2 contribution, as well as periodically reassess to see the how we’ve progressed. Not exactly overflowing with cash in this economy, we scraped the bowl to join The Climate Registry, a nonprofit collaboration that rolls other North American industries into the effort with the Oregon wine industry. (Look for snapshots of baseline and progress reports in e-mails, at on our website, and in future newsletters.)

OTHER VISIBLE INDICATORS OF CHANGE

Besides the OCSW "bug" showing up on our labels, other visible signs of our efforts to be more responsible to our environment, climate, employees, and consumers are notable:


A shift to lighter weight bottles translates to a reduction of 504 pounds from each pallet (56 cases) of wine we make.

Lighter Weight Bottles — Beginning with the last of the 2008 Pinot Noirs we bottled this winter (Statement and RR), Chehalem has begun using the lightest, high-quality Burgundy-shaped wine bottles available. The CO2 and economic cost penalties for manufacturing and shipping heavy bottles (I call them "hernia" bottles based on the risks you take hauling them around!) just to make a questionable quality statement is ridiculously high.

Wine bottles account for far and away the biggest CO2 contribution in the wine industry. When manufacture and shipping are included, they generate 80–85% of the total 1.5–2.0 kg of CO2 it takes to put an average bottle of wine on your table. By contrast, fermentation of sugar to alcohol in that average bottle costs only 80g of CO2, or 3% of that total (source: American Association of Wine Economists, Working Paper No. 9, Oct 2007; other sources estimate 65% CO2 ballpark for the mfg + shipping bottle component).

In sum, the two wines above saw the following changes:

• Empty bottle weight reduction from 845g to 545g (1693g to 1294g when full).
• Bottle-manufacturing CO2 generation cost reduction per bottle of 36% (from 608g to 392g CO2).
• Case weight reduction of 9 pounds (from 44 pounds to 35 pounds).
• Pallet (56 cases) weight reduction of 504 pounds.
• Number of pallets carried on a standard 48-foot truck trailer increased to 22, from 18, or transportation savings of 22% by weight in dollars and CO2 generation.

Other bottle shapes are becoming available that will enable more wine bottle weights to be reduced similarly. Do you think a change like this negatively or positively affects consumer perception of wine and brand quality?

Screwcap Closures — We have improved wine quality and decreased waste due to TCA-tainted bottles with our recent completion of a 100% transition from natural cork to screwcap closures. (See 2008 Vintage Marks Milestone: Total Conversion to Screwcap.)

Direct Shipping — We regularly announce our new releases in two offerings per year by newsletter, once in May and once in October, both accompanied by free shipping on case purchases. We’ve done this for years to concentrate shipments during months when wines can be sent via ground methods without hot or cold temperatures compromising their quality, and with less expense and CO2 impact in the process. All our shipping cases are 100% recyclable, including the innovative and award-winning octagonal case used for Burgundy-shaped bottles. We encourage you to buy during these times to help both your pocketbook and the environment.

Improved Technologies — Although not as readily noticeable as our screwcap- closure transition, changes from improved technology are also evident in our wines, from lower alcohols to brilliant clarity. At one time, filtration was rough enough to strip wines of positive aroma and flavor characters, so we didn't use it much at all on reds and used it with a grimace on whites. Today, cross-flow filtration is so gentle that NO negative effect is seen. It also eliminates a medium called DE (diatomaceous earth), which was effective but noxious to handle and dispose of safely.

New Newberg Tasting Room — "Reuse and recycle," a motto encouraging us to avoid buying everything new, was our mantra when looking to expand tasting facilities for tourists and locals. Rather than build a new facility at the winery, we chose to refurbish a classic, historic building on Center Street in Newberg. Great brick, a large space, massive fir beams, and art from local artists integrate well, plus our effort works toward accumulating a critical mass of tasting rooms located downtown, allowing tourists to focus with less wandering on country roads.

Natural Vineyard Materials — Over the years, our In The Vineyard column has detailed our approach to viticulture, embracing the sensible steps of sustainable farming (LIVE, organic or biodynamic, and Salmon Safe). On visits to any of our four estate vineyards during various times of the year, you will notice modern (and strikingly similar to ancient) farming methods, with organic sprays, mechanical hoeing, straw mulch, compost, and the like.

Eventually, Energy Augmentation — Some estimations put winery CO2 contribution by energy usage next in line after transportation and bottle manufacture, accounting for up to 23% of the total contribution. Because it requires considerable capital expenditure, we are less advanced in this area, but hope to bring investigations we've made into alternative energy approaches such as on-site solar and wind capabilities to fruition. Less visible but important are internal savings details, such as adding insulation to our tanks and tasting room, as well as the ongoing small steps of using compact fluorescents and motion-sensor switches. Read our Sustainability Statement online; it summarizes our efforts more succinctly than I can. In order to positively change things during a time of negative change, we must all consider the changes within our control and take small "sustainable" steps.

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To read Harry's sidebar: The Goal — A Vision of the Winery of the Future

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31190 NE Veritas Lane • Newberg, OR 97132
Tasting Room (503) 538-4700 • Winery (503) 537-5553 • Fax (503) 537-0850