Happy Earth Day! 🌎

The earth and its health are important to us at St. James Winery and Public House Brewing Company. Our team makes conscious efforts daily to reduce our negative impact on the earth and to increase our positive impact. Sustainability is so important, in fact, that each webpage has a tab uniquely to highlight our practices.

At St. James Winery, we love the land we work, and we appreciate the yield it provides. To continue the work of preserving the cultural and environmental sustainability in our community, we formed the Friendship School Foundation. Through the Foundation and its partners, we are able to invest in sustaining the cultural heritage of our vineyards, our craft, and our community.

Here are a few ways we make a difference:

• Recycle cardboard, plastic, glass, aluminum company-wide
• Solid waste from both businesses used as compost in the vineyards
• LED lighting used in winery and brewery retail, production, and office spaces
• Electricity 208V 3 phase minimum through production facilities for energy efficiency
• Aluminum cans for all brewery products and winery sparkling products
• Spent grain is picked up by a local farmer for cattle
• Insulated tanks in the brewery reduce the energy needed to cool and maintain temperature
• Reclaim water from heat exchanger for brewing
• Low-pressure boiler in the brewery that is sized appropriately for energy efficiency
• To-go materials for food from the brewery are recyclable
• Insulated piping for glycol refrigeration system in the winery for energy efficiency
• Vinwizard adjusts pump speeds depending on demand (Artificial Intelligence for energy efficiency)
• Fine-tuned irrigation and soil monitoring system so we use less water in our vineyards
• Beehive addition to our vineyard perimeter and adding three to four more this year. Bees help pollinate our cover crops
• Wildflowers and other native plants (cover crops) encourage diversity of insect populations in the vineyard, help with compaction, reduce pests, and are a natural aid to healthy nitrogen levels in the soil
• Wine tank bottoms filtered/reclaimed and solid waste composted to avoid stressing water treatment facilities
• Vineyard pruning and hedging equipment redesigned to do two rows at once, lowering diesel usage
• UTVs instead of trucks in order to reduce carbon footprint (less gas) to transport crew and equipment
• New tractors run that run economically, using half the diesel as the older models
• High-efficiency boiler in the winery cellar and bottling room
  
• Nitrogen generation reduces our use of CO2 gas in the brewing process
• Local farmers source much of our protein and vegetables in the brewery’s restaurants
• Pak Tech can applicators used on all canned products, with recycling containers placed at both brewery locations

More from St. James Winery on sustainability, click here.

More from Public House Brewing Company on sustainability, click here.