We’re thrilled to share that Kendall-Jackson today received a 2011 Green Power Leadership Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for voluntary efforts to address climate change through renewable energy purchases, leadership, overall strategy, and impact on the green power market.

Why’d we win? In 2011 Kendall-Jackson purchased 30,000,0000 kilowatt hours of renewable energy certificates (RECs). That amount is equal to 130 percent of our annual usage for all our operations, including vineyards, wineries, offices and warehouses.

But we didn’t want to stop there. So in addition to buying RECs for our operations we purchased RECs on behalf of our over 1,000 employees for their annual home electricity consumption. That doesn’t mean they get to stop paying their electric bills, but at least they can feel good that renewable energy has been pumped into the grid to cover their home usage.

It’s also exciting because we’re the first major organization to make that sort of employee purchase to encourage awareness of the importance of renewable energy. All told, the green power purchases we made over the course of the year placed us 32nd on the EPA list of 100% sustainable energy purchasers.
Purchasing RECs for our company’s usage and our employees is part of our larger view of sustainability at Kendall-Jackson. We believe that these types of projects should drive shared environmental, social and economic value.

By educating our employees about renewable energy we’re advancing the social pillar; purchasing RECs for our business has serious environmental benefits equal to the energy use of 4,800 homes’ usage; and on the economic front we’re helping to build the “economy of scale” model for renewables so everyone can use clean energy in the future.

As a family-owned business, we take seriously our responsibility to create a healthy future for the next generation. While our investments and accomplishments put us on the leading edge, we believe sustainability is an ongoing journey. That being said – this is a very cool award and we sure are proud to receive it.