Summerland’s Okanagan Crush Pad Winery is the first Canadian winery to join the International Wineries for Climate Action (IWCA). IWCA is open to any winery, from any country, and employs a three-tiered membership system that allows a diversity of wineries to join.

Applicant members commit to an ISO-14064 audited baseline greenhouse gas inventory. The Okanagan Crush Pad winery team now has one year to meet silver or gold-level IWCA membership requirements. 

"We started our sustainability push in 2011 by converting our vineyards to organic farming and then in 2014 obtaining organic certification for our winemaking facility,” notes OCP founder, Christine Coletta. “We can now push this commitment beyond farming and winemaking to incorporate all aspects of our business."

IWCA was founded by Familia Torres (Penedes, Spain) and Jackson Family Wines (California, U.S.) in 2019. Its goal is to galvanize the global wine community to create climate change mitigation strategies. Members share best practices so that collectively, the industry can decarbonize, applying direct solutions that avoid purchasing carbon offset credits.

“It is important for us to take a deep dive into our practices with a set goal and timeframe in which to achieve the next level of IWCA membership," notes OCP’s CEO, Darryl Brooker. 

"Some of the first steps we will take is to conduct a greenhouse gas emissions inventory, followed by an ISO-14064 audit. We will be working with Josh Prigge of Sustridge, an industry leading sustainability consulting firm, to guide us through the initial process. Once this is complete, we will commit to annual reductions in greenhouse gas emissions achieving a 33 per cent reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2050. We are also pleased that through IWCA membership we are also a participant in the United Nations’ Race to Zero Campaign," says Brooker. 

Source:  Okanagan Crush Pad May 10, 2022 news release