Monte Creek Winery Sustainability Efforts
In case you missed it, our team is obsessed with sustainability.
The main cornerstone that binds our organization is sustainability, and our overarching goals unite one another on a journey to constantly lessen the footprint of our operation.
We farm our vineyards organically with permaculture in mind. Our wines are expected to be fully certified organic by Spring 2023. Our winemaking philosophy is to produce wines with minimal intervention and our team works hard on regenerative agriculture, a practice that includes the conservation and rehabilitation of the ecosystem.
We look at our farming and production methods holistically and even produce by-products from waste. Our operation looks at not only lessening the carbon footprint on-site but challenges the status quo in our supply chain as well.
Watch the latest video of what our winery is all about!
In 2022 we were included in the Planet Future Documentary that features sustainability in the Okanagan. Learn more about this documentary by reading this blog post.
Sustainability Trained
Our team completed the Fast Track to Sustainability training, a program run by GreenStep that walked us through establishing baselines through various audits on the winery’s waste and energy use.
Learn more about Fast Track to Sustainability here.
Salmon-Safe Certified
Monte Creek Winery is a Salmon-Safe Certified winery. Salmon-Safe works with West Coast farmers, developers, and other environmentally innovative landowners to reduce watershed impacts through rigorous third-party verified certification. Salmon-Safe for wine growing focuses on reducing vineyard runoff, water quality protection, and enhancement of native biodiversity on vineyard sites. At Monte Creek Winery, we continue to learn and grow within this certification to ensure that we only use best practices maintainable for the environment to do our part to help restore West Coast rivers and native salmon.
OceanWise Partner
We are a partner with OceanWise to ensure that ocean life will be abundant for generations to come. Monte Creek Winery promises to only sell OceanWise products in our tasting room and in our Terrace Restaurant, we also promise to support the OceanWise cause with fundraising efforts.
Certified and Recognized as a Biosphere Committed Entity
Monte Creek Winery is a Biosphere committed entity. Biosphere is a Sustainable Tourism System certified by the Responsible Tourism Institute, an international certification body that maintains a Memorandum of Understanding with UNESCO, is affiliated to the World Tourism Organization, and is a member of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council. The Biosphere Commitment Program has given us the training and tools to effectively continue to be committed to the well-being of our company, customers, community, and environment.
7 Affirmations Pledge
We have committed to playing our part in preserving the Thompson Okanagan region through the signature of the 7 Affirmations Pledge, which upholds us to conduct our operations with the seven Affirmations at top of our minds. Make your pledge today!
Learn more about 7 Affirmations for 7 Generations here.
Regenerative Agriculture
Our passion for sustainability has led us to believe in and practice regenerative agriculture, a practice that includes the rehabilitation and conservation of the ecosystem. Examples of these techniques include a compost program and using cover crop blends with Indigenous species.
The vineyards are farmed organically with permaculture in mind. Permaculture is an approach that looks at all the functions of plants and animals together, rather than treating them as a single product system.
With ethos as our core value, our team has created a low-input farm. Every aspect of the farm, including the soil, water, climate, crop, people, and even buildings, is carefully scrutinized as to how it relates to the other aspects to improve sustainability. We strive to lessen our impact on nature while maximizing working with it. The below permaculture practices are just a fraction of the sustainable actions put in place at Monte Creek Winery.
Cover Crops
Monte Creek Winery has been utilizing plant species native to the valleys found in BC’s Interior. What grows between the rows of a vineyard may not be something that wine drinkers consider, but wineries like Monte Creek Winery have shown that to achieve the high-quality wine consumers expect while enhancing the environments the winery farms, the cover crop is a critical component in determining success.
Cover crops are the plants grown in between the vines for protection and enrichment of the soil. Utilizing these indigenous plants results in a multitude of natural advantages, but most importantly, it ensures that when consumers try our wines, they taste the most accurate representation of our terroir.