De Bortoli Green Farm Initiative When Green Means Money

Green Farm Initiatives  Biological farming  Water management  Waste management

Biological Farming  Biological farming  Compost tea  Create approx cu meters of compost, more than enough to cover vineyards  Increased worm number in the soil  Increased suppression and control of disease outbreaks  Reduced vineyard chemical costs by 45%  Maintain soil fungi and nutrients at desired level without adding fertilizer

Biological Farming  Have recorded soil readings of 8% organic matter in some vineyards (almost double desired level)  Improved soil structure: assisted in reducing the need to irrigate in 2011  Investment in the only ground probe aerator  Increased ability to get organic matter and carbon into the soil  Insect monitoring programs  Averaging 7.41 million worms which produce over 18.5 tons of worm casts per hectare annually  Water and air filtration and better soil environment

Water Management  Water management  Water availability and salinity were two major issues  Moved from sodium-based chemistry to potassium-based chemistry  Sodium-free wastewater can be used for irrigation  Change wastewater pH control from lime to ammonia  Recovery of nitrogen usage by over 80%  Potassium recovery from waste was available for second and third uses

Water Management  Able to move from large aerators to smaller aerators  Reduced energy use resulting in reduction of carbon footprint by 1,400 tons per year  Increased composting resulted in 50% reduction of water use (annual water usage of 680 households)  Usage of film technology on dams resulted in 30% reduction of evaporation of farm water storage  Tree planting along waterways stabilized and improved creek beds

Waste Management  Waste management  To reduce material waste that was going to landfill  Reduced material to landfill by about tons resulting in a small profit by reducing landfill costs  Minor redesign now saves $200,000/year in power use

Waste Management  Recycling programs to capture:  Grape marc left after pressing for compost and mulch  Seeds  Stems  Skins  Reduced use of fertilizers and water  Packaging materials  Cardboard  Paper  Tank cleaning now driven by solar cell technology  Recovery of approx. 40 tons of potassium nearly offsets potassium used for cleaning purposes

Waste Management  Odor control reduced odor complaints to zero through  Low-energy aeration  pH control  Bottling  Average bottle weighs about grams, Lean & Green TM bottles weigh in at about 360 grams resulting in savings in:  Transport  Shipment  Carbon savings from glass production

Waste Management  Color coded bins to recycle bottles by segregating them resulting in  40% reduction of waste to landfill  Reduction of approx. 270 tons of CO 2

Lean & Green TM  Introduction of Lean & Green TM lightweight bottles resulted in  Carbon savings of 1,800 tons in 2011  Reduced freight of 40 B double trucks per year (80 x 40 ft. containers)

R&D Making Sense  kJBQjI kJBQjI

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