CHALLENGE
Fetzer Vineyards uses Apana’s Water Efficiency as a Service™ to help reduce water use and improve corporate water stewardship efforts. The solution’s implementation contributed to a decrease in winery water intensity by almost 25% from 2017-2018, and helped the winery achieve its objective of continuous improvement in resource impact reductions.
Fetzer Vineyards, a Certified B Corporation, is committed to achieving Net Positive status — synonymous with a positive corporate footprint — by 2030, and has adopted a regenerative approach to minimize environmental impacts, including water consumption and energy use.2
With a goal to reduce winery water use 15%, Fetzer Vineyards pursued a comprehensive approach to water stewardship, including regenerative farming practices, precision irrigation, natural wastewater treatment, and infrastructure upgrades to bottling lines and facilities to reduce water consumption. Apana was part of the solution.
Solution
Fetzer Vineyard’s bold approach involved analyzing a host of interrelated systems. Virtually every water-using application and process across the winery’s campus required monitoring to achieve targeted reductions.
Utilizing a combination of precision meters and Apana Internet of Things (IoT) devices, water at the winery campus is monitored and measured from 27 endpoints. Seven “virtual” sensors collect data from other key functional areas.4
Data is collected in real time from wells, cooling towers, red and white barrel rooms, crossflow, bottling, refrigeration and maintenance operations. With visibility into specific functional areas, staff can immediately respond to waste events, compare current use against historical benchmarks and strategically plan for future production cycles.
Measuring Water
Water data is collected in real time from 27 endpoints across the winery’s entire operation, including:
Results
By the end of 2018, Fetzer Vineyards exceeded its winery water efficiency goal of a 15% reduction, ultimately reducing the amount of water used to produce one gallon of wine from 3.65 to 2.75 gallons.
This 25% reduction in winery water intensity was driven by operational improvements that Apana helped inform.
Crucially, monitoring the hot water loops and tank wash circuits allowed for closer management of clean-in-place processes. Increased visibility enabled operations staff to change the production sequence of regular and organic wine production, which saved downtime, labor, water and energy costs.
Additionally, iterative improvements to operations helped reduce water use. For example, with technology making processes like cleaning with hoses visible in the data, Fetzer Vineyards adopted the practice of hose, then squeegee and rinse. Before and after comparison became possible with real-time visibility.
Water Used Per Gallon of Wine
Gallons of water required to produce one gallon of wine in 2015 compared to 2018.
Conclusion
The results demonstrate the Fetzer Vineyards commitment to pursuing a comprehensive approach to winery water stewardship. By monitoring and measuring water use in real time and having visibility into key water-consuming applications, aggressive conservation targets are not only possible — such targets are achievable.
Apana is proud to have played a critical role helping Fetzer Vineyards reduce water intensity 25%, exceeding its original goal.
