KELOWNA, B.C. — Summerland’s Okanagan Crush Pad Winery, parent company to Haywire and Garnet Valley Ranch Winery, has joined forces with the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association (TOTA) and FortisBC to transition to 100 per cent Renewable Natural Gas (RNG). This partnership underlines an ongoing and unwavering commitment to sustainability, adding another chapter to its legacy of responsible winemaking.
Owned by Christine Coletta and Steve Lornie, Okanagan Crush Pad’s group of wineries have long been a beacon of sustainability and land stewardship. Okanagan Crush Pad has been an organic winemaking facility since 2011 and was the first Canadian winery to join International Wineries for Climate Action (IWCA) in 2022. In this move alone, they are drastically reducing their CO2 emissions from 30,000 kilograms to 100 kilograms.
Signing up for RNG is a straightforward process that doesn’t require any new equipment, upgrades or installations.
“TOTA’s RNG initiative takes meaningful and measurable steps to reduce the region’s carbon footprint. It enables stakeholders like Okanagan Crush Pad to make an immediate change to a more sustainable fuel source, and is a practical step towards a cleaner future for British Columbia,” says Ellen Walker-Matthews, CEO of TOTA. “In the face of escalating climate crises, RNG is a vital tool that businesses and individuals can adopt today to lessen their current carbon footprints.”
“We’re proud to make the switch to RNG and are especially excited to see an immediate positive impact that is very much in line with our commitment to reduce our greenhouse gas footprint,” says Craig Pingle, general manager, Okanagan Crush Pad Winery. “This simple action supports our commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Making the move to RNG required no new infrastructure and yields an enormous drop in our annual emissions.”
