At Kendall-Jackson we believe that sustainability is a journey, not a destination and any program is only as good as the people who practice it. That’s why we are invested in more than just business processes; for a true groundswell we need good sustainable practices that our employees are excited to take home.

For the first couple of years of the program we dug deep and focused on making large scale improvements to our operations and optimizing energy and water usage across the company.  We quickly saw the great reward these actions had for both our planet and our business. It wasn’t long before we wanted to share our learnings with our colleagues.

This year we focused on the development of our staff and established a formal sustainability workshop program. And how else would we do except through social media? In April we partnered with Practically Green to build an engaging program that got our employees excited about living sustainably.

Starting a green lifestyle can seem daunting.  Finding resources to start the process can be even more difficult; that’s where Practically Green comes into play.  It is a website that allows an individual to measure personal environmental performance by completing various Actions related to Health, Water, Energy, and Stuff.

But what does that mean? An Action is a small pledge you can make to help live more sustainably and range from simple behavioral changes like turning off the faucet while brushing your teeth, to carpooling to work, or buying a high efficiency appliance.  The more actions that you complete the higher score you receive.

The real fun begins with you start sharing these results on the Practically Green platform. It’s an easy way to engage friends or coworkers in some friendly competition.  Kendall-Jackson has been using the tool for about eight weeks with great success.  It has been an excellent tool for our employees to use at home and at work to pick up a few tips and help live more sustainable lives.

The employee engagement and response has been incredible; we are excited to see just how sustainable our employees really are.  So far, we have 170 people signed up on Practically Green who have collectively taken 5,359 sustainable actions.  Those simple actions, like switching out a showerhead, have combined to save 400,000 gallons of water.  These actions have also resulted in conserving 110,000 kWh — that’s 10 homes worth of annual energy usage.

Last week we completed our first internal contest. We pitted one department against another to see who could get the most people to sign up and participate. The two winning teams would receive Klean Kanteens.  It was a close competition, with one of our winery teams and the communications department winning in the end. But it was really gratifying to see such good showings across our company, with the Napa County Distribution Center, Purchasing department, and IT all in the race as well.

The friendly competition and refreshing prizes have certainly generated some excitement in the office and people are excited about our next contest.  Check back here and we’ll be sure to share our results.