Building a Web Site to Tell the Environmental Story

Opportunity: A web site can reach a vast audience, including consumers, opinion leaders, policy-makers and the news media.

Environmental Success Story: An excellent web site example is www.fetzer.com, which portrays Fetzer Vineyards as "an environmentally conscious grower, producer and marketer of wines of the highest quality and value." It describes the company’s quest to continually improve the winery’s energy efficiency, vineyard practices, and sustainability of general business operations. The site says, "From the time this initiative began in the late 1980s, Fetzer Vineyards has:

• Become the industry leader in farming grapes organically. Fetzer Vineyards has 360 acres of certified organic grapes. The Fetzer family farms 1,100 acres of certified grapes. Together we are the largest grower of grapes grown organically on the North Coast and are certified by the California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF).
  
  
• Established company-wide recycling. All bottles, cardboard, plastic, aluminum, FAX paper, computer paper, antifreeze, waste oil, fluorescent tubes and glass are now recycled.
  
  
• Saved thousands of dollars in dump fees by reducing the amount of material hauled to landfills by 93 percent since 1991, through company recycling and waste diversion programs. These efforts have been recognized by the State of California, with Waste Reduction Awards Program (WRAP) awards for the past seven years. In 1997, Fetzer Vineyards was recognized as one of the top ten recycling companies in the state."