SAN FRANCISCO — CSWA is the winner of the 2016 Green Award, the Amorim Sustainability Award for a Generic Organization, given by The Drinks Business, an industry trade publication based in London. The publication judges lauded CSWA for building on nearly 15 years of accomplishments in promoting sustainable winegrowing and winemaking practices throughout California.
Among CSWA’s achievements in 2015 and 2016 are the release of the 2015 California Wine Community Sustainability Report, a dramatic increase in participation in Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing, and the launch of the California Green Medal: Sustainable Winegrowing Leadership Awards.
The Drinks Business Green Awards are in their seventh year, a testament to how the green agenda has increasingly gained importance in the global wine industry.
CSWA’s Sustainability Report documents broad participation in the Sustainable Winegrowing Program and wide adoption of the practices by California wineries and vineyards representing 170,000 hectares (69% of the state’s winegrape acreage) and over 212 million cases (79% of cases produced in the state). Since the program’s inception in 2002, nearly 14,000 vintners and growers have attended CSWA workshops. CSWA’s third-party audit program, Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing, also shows increased participation. To date, certified wineries and vineyards account for 64% of the total cases produced in California and 18% of California’s total winegrape hectares/acreage. Additionally, CSWA, along with other California wine industry partners, also introduced a new annual awards program to showcase some of the leading California vintners and growers committed to sustainability.
“We are so honored to receive international recognition of our program by The Drinks Business,” said Allison Jordan, executive director of CSWA. “With California as the fourth largest wine region in the world, we hope the scale of this accomplishment will help us realize our vision of vibrant businesses, stronger communities and a healthy environment.”
The California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance (CSWA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization incorporated in 2003 by Wine Institute and the California Association of Winegrape Growers. CSWA’s mission is to ensure that the California wine community is recognized globally as the leader in sustainable winegrowing in the marketplace and public policy arena through the development and promotion of sustainable practices, tools for education and outreach, partnerships with key stakeholders, and prioritizing research.
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