KELOWNA - House of Rose Winery received the Champion of the Environment for Business Civic Award from the City of Kelowna last night.

“Honoured, humbled, excited, that’s how I would describe it,” says Aura Rose, co-owner and winemaker.  “Being aware of, and actively reducing our impact on the environment, is so very important to us.  It’s an honour to have that commitment recognized.”

“We’ve looked at all areas of our operation, from the farm through the production,” added Wouter van der Hall, co-owner of the winery. “As soon as we purchased the winery we took our vineyard organic.  Next we worked on reducing our energy use, partly driven by the shocking hydro bills for the winery building that we received that first winter! You have to take on one thing at a time, otherwise you can get overwhelmed.”

“I think one of the things I am most proud of is the fact that while we can have up to hundreds of visitors each week, we use only our family allocated garbage bin for regular waste disposal,” adds Rose.  Through composting, recycling, donations (of our used corks for school projects for example), we’ve found a number of ways to limit and reduce our waste.”

House of Rose would like to thank GreenStep Solutions for the nomination and the City of Kelowna for creating and hosting these civic awards.

Award Write Up
An eco friendly visitor experience and a sustainable wine product, those are the goals set and maintained by House of Rose Winery.  While not certified organic, they began following organic principles in 2009 and last year earned the bronze standard by Green Tourism Canada for sustainable practices.

A big difference at House of Rose is their wine packaging.  By switching to eco-glass for their bottles, up to 29% of CO2 emissions are eliminated during transportation thanks to its lighter weight.  They also us the renewable resource of cork for stopping their bottles.

At the winery, they purchased compostable plates and cutlery for use in their picnic area and introduced a low flow pressure washer for cleaning.  Grape skins and prunings are composted and diversity row vegetation is planted for integrated pest management.  Their garbage has been reduced to the same size bin as an average family home.  And by investing in hear pumps, upgrading insulation and lighting, they’ve reduced energy consumption by more that 50%.

In June they became founding members of the Fresh Outlook Foundation that raises funds for sustainability education.  They also spoke at the Women in Sustainability meeting about how small businesses can reduce their environmental impact.

News from © iNFOnews, 2014