Posts Tagged: green

Green winery begins making wine

Grape crush has begun at a new UC Davis winery that is intended to become self-sustaining in terms of energy and water, according to a UC Davis news release that ran in the Daily Democrat.

The facility's environmentally friendly features include onsite solar power generation and a system for capturing rainwater and conserving processing water. The stored rainwater will be used for landscaping and toilets.

"We want to demonstrate a self-sufficiency model that is applicable to any business with limited water," the article quoted Roger Boulton, a UC Davis winery-engineering expert. Plans call for eventually operating the facility independent of the main campus water line.

The winery was also designed to capture carbon dioxide, a byproduct of fermentation, from a port in each of the new fermentors.

"The goal is for the facility to be not just carbon neutral, but carbon zero, in terms of its carbon emissions," Boulton said.

The 34,000-square-foot teaching-and-research complex is expected to be the first winery, brewery or food-processing facility to earn LEED Platinum certification, the highest environmental rating awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council. (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.) The facility will be only the third in the UC system to receive the LEED Platinum certification.

The $20 million complex was funded entirely by private donations; no state or federal funds were used in its design or construction, the news release said.

Students work on the fall crush in the new winery.

UC Davis and UC Berkeley called *green*

UC Davis and UC Berkeley were listed among the nation's 286 greenest colleges in a recent report by the Princeton Review. In fact, eight UC colleges made the list.

The Sacramento Bee last Saturday ran a story about Sacramento area colleges that the Review called green, including UC Davis, Chico State and University of the Pacific.

"We're not doing it to be trendy," UC Davis chemical engineering professor Roger Boulton told reporter Laurel Rosenhall about the green practices to be employed in a UC Davis winery under construction.

In fact, the article noted that a key driver of college campus greening is the students themselves.

"For a lot of students, the environmental issues are a way they feel they can be heard and make a difference," the article quoted a Sacramento college education consultant.

UC Davis was also lauded in the Princeton Review for sourcing campus food from local farms. "Twenty-one percent of the university’s food expenditures are from local or organic sources," the publication reported. The Sac Bee said the dining hall's locally grown fruits and veggies cut down the pollution from trucking food long distances.

In addition to being named in the top 286, UC Berkeley appeared on the Princeton Review's 11-campus "Green Honor Roll" in recognition of its ambitious greening efforts. Berkeley is aiming to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2014. To meet the target, the campus will complete over 200 energy efficiency projects, the Review said. And the university’s primary food service operator was the first in the country to receive organic certification. Organic salad bars are a staple at campus dining facilities.

UC Davis' Dutton Hall.

More green news to close out Earth Week

Changing the way people look at food was one of the goals of this month's Symposium On Sustainable Agriculture at UC Davis, an event covered by Sacramento ABC affiliate News 10. The report included an interview with conference participant Lia Huber of the Nourish Network. Huber pointed out that people interact with food at least three times a day.

"People in our rushed society try to get through meals as quickly as possible. When we garden, or go to a farmers market, we have these personal interactions with the land and people who are producing our food. There are ways to connect with food to make the experience much richer," Huber said.

The television report also included an interview with Margaret Llyod, a UC Davis graduate student who was named one of three "White House Farmers" by whitehousefarmer.com. Llyod maintains a garden at UC Davis that provides free greens to anyone who brings a salad bowl. In order to eat fresher food, she said, it must be grown where we work and live.

"There is a great sense of pride when you've grown something yourself. It begins to have a domino effect in your life...how we make our food choices and how we nourish ourselves," Lloyd told the reporter.

Lloyd was among 111 "nominees" to be "White House Farmer." The Web site tallied 56,000 votes during February polling.

The White House farmer project was one of several movements launched by grass roots groups to encourage the new administration to make changes in how food is grown and distributed in the U.S.

In March, a 1,100-square-foot vegetable garden was established on the White House south lawn.

"People were so excited about our First Family growing a White House farm," Lloyd said in the News 10 story. "Within a day (of my nomination), the media was interested. It spoke loudly to people and they were very interested in a White House farm."

The senior public information representative for UC's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, Lyra Halprin, said she isn't sure that the people's-choice honor means anything specific, "but I'm sure it contributed to the excitement and buildup and pressure to really do this."

Margaret Lloyd waters the Salad Bowl Garden at UC Davis.

Green laws creating jobs in California

California efforts to reduce the state's carbon footprint is creating jobs, according to a study by Next 10, a nonprofit organization that promotes environmental innovation in California. The report, featured in a story by the Los Angeles Times, was written by UC Berkeley agriculture and resource economics adjunct professor David Roland-Holst.

The Next 10 report said California laws requiring businesses and residents to cut their carbon output and use local energy sources will create more than 400,000 jobs, help consumers save on their lighting bills and boost the state's economy by $76 billion by 2020, according to the story.

"This is the breakout growth sector of the next generation," the article quoted Roland-Holst. "We cannot afford to miss this market opportunity."

LA Times staff writer Marla Dickerson reported that California's per-capita electricity use is about 40 percent less than the national average mainly because of government-mandated energy efficiency standards for utilities, buildings and appliances put into effect over the last 40 years.

Lower energy use has saved Californians $56 billion since 1972, according to Roland-Holst. That money was spent in the local economy instead of on imported oil, out-of-state electricity or building new power plants.

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