Saving Beauty: the high way or no way

A high way to beauty:   Costco solar array at Kona, Hawaii.. By the end of calendar year 2008 Costco had installed in California and Hawaii a total of 19 photovoltaic solar systems as part of a commitment to renewable energy., along with skylights  wherever possible . Read  Costco's 2009 corporate sustainability report.

New 3-part Series: Shopping for Food in the most Ecologically Sustainable Food Markets

This new three-post series assesses stewardship practices of local (Santa Barbara & and Goleta) food markets using online reporting of environmental practices as a proxy for stewardship. As for all posts on Reward in the Cognitive Niche (RCN), the object of this series is to promote the best quality of life for all living creatures and a vibrant future for us all. The best of the best over evolutionary time usually comes to be appreciated as beauty.For this site quality aka beauty is both invitation and gatekeeper for further exploration. Without quality, other attributes may be instructive but rarely determine final choices. The high way is, then, for RCN, the way to beauty.

The means is informed decision-making by the individuals who make up the species occupying (arguably) top spot in the cognitive niche: Homo sapiens. The path is education: enhancing global awareness and encouraging best ecological practices, according to science-based expert knowledge and opinion (interpretation of data). The theaters of action are simultaneously local and global. In 2012 cognitive flexibility allows individuals to act in their communities while realizing the global short and long-term effects of local actions. My assumption is that given a choice among several products of more or less equal quality, most consumers will try not only to please themselves but also to do right by the environment, which is rewarded by Evolution with feelings of pleasure. The win-win choice.

Because we live in a time of overwhelming data, RCN uses indicators as guides for thinking and action. Global ecosystem vibrancy is signaled throughout these posts by the indicator of biodiversity and environmental stewardship in signaled by the indicator of online reporting of environmental practices. That said, indicators should not be confused for the thing itself. A red light in itself is not dangerous; it just indicates actions that have a high probability of danger or safety.

 The rationales for using online-reporting as a proxy for stewardship are the following:

• Online reporting is the most widely and easily accessed comprehensive source of data on which consumers can base decisions to buy food at the most ecologically friendly markets. 
• Everyone is a consumer.
• The rate of the global spend-down of the resources forming the basis for all beauty is unprecedented and requires action by every single person as well as all communities and agencies. Producers and consumers need to collaborate on solutions. No one can be a closet environmentalist; the time for just doing one's thing, regardless of excellence, is over. If, for example, a winemaker makes a great wine but destroys the soil, tinkers with chemicals, refrigerates with fossil-fuel-sourced electricity, the consumer deserves to know and select that wine out. The climate change denialists will be shown to have been in error. The choices are digital: ether commit to stewardship or to irreversibly spending-down beauty, i.e., to global ugliness and the end of physical resource wealth.

Until quite recently most of the social pressure for sustainability has been directed towards producers, and many larger corporations now publish excellent annual sustainability reports open to the public. Recently, important environmental groups such as Greenpeace, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Blue Ocean Institute, and Fishwise (to mention outstanding US groups) have begun to focus on the consumer side of  sustainability. With the crisis in the marine world--69% of the oceans' commercially targeted marine fish stocks now fished beyond ecologically safe limits and one-quarter of the planet's biological diversity in danger of extinction within the next 30 years--fisheries have received the greatest attention. Previous posts have highlighted the implications for us all of fishing down the food chain as we deplete premier marine food species such as wild salmon, abalone, and tuna (farmed salmon cannot be considered the same food as wild salmon) and settle for second best as well as foods once relegated at most to fertilizer, such as Hagfish, and now considered one of the two top emerging fisheries in California (the other is whelks).

The Santa Barbara and Goleta markets assessed for quality of environmental stewardship are the following, in alphabetical order:


Albertsons (Supervalu)

Chapala Market

Costco

European Deli

Gelsons

Indo-China Market

Lazy Acres

Oriental Market

Nikka

Ralphs

Santa Cruz Market

Smart and Final

Trader Joes

Vons (Safeway)

Whole Foods

  

Criteria for Online Reporting

 

1. Quality of the data50/100: usable for decision-making by consumers as well as producers; comprehensive, relevant, updated regularly, easily understood, comparable to other data, reliable, conceivably verifiable by a disinterested third party, clearly explains mission, plan of action, future areas of engagement, reflects engagement in community, locally sourced products. Freely accessible by any average onliner. Good data no more than 5 clicks away.Informative; educational; stewardship-building

3. Transparency and valid indicator: Report can be reliably used as a proxy for environmental stewardship, which entails all  of the following: energy use; environmental education; waste processes; supply chain control; distribution chain control; greenhouse gas emissions (proxy for climate changer); community-specific programs and  practices, such as sourcing local produce and labor; sustainability of products sold; conservation and restoration of water and soil  and inhabitants of habitats, both terrestrial and marine; recycling, re-use practices; ecological sustainability innovation;practices  framed for both local and Global: data reflects how local communities are major resources while interaction with the global ecosystem is understood and appreciated.

The next post assesses each of the above markets according to listed criteria and rates them.

Trolling for a Vibrant Future

Ecological Innovators  in the Wine Industry

“We started out with a goal, and every hurdle was an opportunity to find a creative solution." Greg Allen, winemaker, President of Dolce late-harvest wines.  Far Niente solar pontoon & land displays can output  477 KW at peak hours

In 2012 each of us and all of us together face an energy crisis: not enough fossil fuels, too much CO2 and other pollutants, territoriality of resources, disputes or pipelines crossing national boundaries, and relegation of ecosystem vibrancy and expectation of future top quality life conditions to back burners, while profit and development run away with our treasures.

 A persistent theme for all posts for this site is that in a crisis such as the one we confront now, no one can claim to be an innocent bystander, or in a closet creating insights, or helpless or in search of a narrow domain-defined excellence while the world runs downhill. Each of us needs to carefully consider ecological responsibilities and capabilities and opportunities.  In 2010, according to  the California Wine Institute, there were 3,364 wineries in California and 7,826 wineries in the US.

Reports differ regarding the global impact of the wine industry on the environment, but if we take one example and multiply, we can see that each winery impacts the total significantly. Rodney Strong Vineyards calculated that six years after installing their solar system  they reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 2904 tons. If we multiply this by 3364, which will exaggerate in some cases and under-report in others, but just for an idea, we get almost 10 million tons of CO2.

While almost all previous posts use the quality of wine produced (rated 95 or above) as the gatekeeper for further discusion, in this post that gate is down, as any of us can learn from models. This post highlights pioneers and innovators in California's wine industry with a focus on energy.The difference between being a pioneer and becoming an innovator is a matter of time, timing, and more. Innovators change their cultures; pioneers are the first of a kind; they carve the way for innovators to change the rest. Steve Jobs was a pioneer as well as an innovator, as these are not mutually exclusive categories.

In this post I celebrate ecological sustainability innovators and pioneers in the wine industry who are setting benchmarks, showing the rest of us what needs to be done, providing models, and in so many ways, shining light on the way to sustaining, restoring, and creating a vibrant future. Some are local, some not, but in an age of globalization, the lines blur. Perhaps the only one to hold fast is Buy Local. Local  is not well defined: It may mean buying US produced products, or products grown or manufactured in a radius of less than 25 miles, or whatever, but for sure, local  for Santa Barbara residents excludes Champagne and Triple Creme cheese from France.

California Pioneers

Far Niente (photo above) is a pioneer for creating solutions to a classic California challenges: lack of land.
Their $4.2 million dollar solar power array exemplifies the innovative profile of California’s wine industry. The irrigation pond pontoon solution freed up 1.5 acres of Cabernet vineyard while reducing evaporation. Read more about how Far Niente financed this project

Rodney Strong Vineyards is a pioneer in the area of comprehensive ecological winery practices. This winery became the first carbon-neutral winery in Sonoma County. Reported data indicate that six years after installation of their solar system, which generates power close to twice that of Far Niente (766 kW, 80,000 sq ft.), they reduced carbon dioxide emissions of 2904 tons over what would have been generated using fossil fuels to power their operations. In 2010, Rodney Strong vineyard practices were officially certified by the California Sustainable Winegrower’s Alliance.

Wildlife Protection: corridors, habitat restoration, green open spaces	Continuous monitoring of ecosystem health and adaptation to emerging needs
Soil Restoration, Conservation, Preservation: cover crops, minimum tillage, composting	Fish-friendly Farming
Energy Conservation	Certified Sustainable Vineyards and Winery

Local Innovators/Pioneers

Alma Rosa is indisputably a pioneer for our region. Richard Sanford has been committed to quality and sustainabillty since he arrived here more than 40 years ago. He and his wife Thekla have devoted their lives to creating top quality wines that are produced ecologically.

Foxen is one of the first wineries in our area to develop a solar array capable of powering the winery (completed in 2009).

   

 Foxen has ecological credentials and also produces top quality wines, rated 95 or above by the top-tier raters. (e.g., 95 Points- 2009 FOXEN Syrah, Tinaquaic Vineyard)  

Corking Uglification

the genie in the wine bottle

Which genie in which bottle will cork uglification?


Assuming the truth of the ongoing rapid loss in quality of life, then we can expect that some of us will  not take this loss of quality lying down. This is programmed biologically. We resist loss of quality and strive for better and better. The emergent counter to this drive is that of shifting baselines.  As  our world degrades, we forget and identify new and lesser points of reference for what is good and beautiful. Over time, Beauty becomes a tad uglier as the result. A prime example might be the shift from wild salmon to farmed salmon and all the losses in quality, taste,salmon- life-style, nutrition, more fat, etc. When wild pink salmon is offered locally at $2.00 plus change at Albertson's, every shipment is sold out in a few hours. (July 14, 2012)


In general, most stakeholders in the quality of the earth's various environments assume that some combination of technology, change in consumer habits, and luck will be the main factors affecting a turn in the tide of degradation of local and global ecosystems. To these factors I add change in consumer values and beliefs, more audacious regulations, new environmental policies, an abandonment of models of behavior such as supply and demand, profit as bottom line, and other changes.

Avoiding a catastrophic effect on climate from the burning of fossil fuels would require political will, international cooperation and huge resources, said the team from a group of American universities. But "no amount of regulation" could solve the problem, they said.

Instead it would need dramatic leaps in technology, such as working fusion reactors, solar panels the size of Manhattan floating in space, and a "global grid" of superconducting power transmission lines to distribute electricity without loss around the world.

This post claims that the genie in the bottle is not technology, as many propose to save the vibrancy of earth's threatened ecosystems. The evolution of the genie, whose shadow alone has as yet only spottily appeared, is described below.

Local or global: the boundaries have blurred.

While most of my posts are contextualized in the  general area of Santa Barbara, both seaward and for our five wine appellations, the implications of what happens locally are frequently reflected globally. That is, investigating what happens in and around Santa Barbara is a proxy for the world that allows residents up-close and personal insights into global ecological change. We know that we are eating more squid and less salmon and abalone. This is the result of the process of eating down the food chain. We observe that the average size of the fish we catch is smaller than twenty years ago. Big game fish like barracuda are hard to find.  The most important commercial fishery is squid.

We are not only fishing down the food web, we are all, including sea animals, living down the food web.  The quality of life to which we are becoming accustomed is not as high as it once was, if quality is determined by pure air, pure water, healthy food. Our baseline is shifting downward.

The next few posts broaden the context to the global to explore innovation in wine and seafood industries that affect us locally as well as globally.

Our Ecological Crisis 

Few deny that we are full tilt boogie into meteorically changing, almost overwhelmingly challenging environments consisting of climate change, unprecedented quantities and kinds of ominous climate change/greenhouse gases affects such as  the Arctic ice disappearing, desertification in many areas, aquifers depleted, loss of species and apex predators worldwide, ocean acidification, climate change, rising sea levels, pollution, runaway consumption and population over seven billion,and overwhelming complexity, habitat degradation and losses, and economic, political, and social crises worldwide. Most of these rapid changes appear to reduce quality of life as we know it. If we accept the changes inherent in this crisis,  we accept the uglification of the planet earth.

"An ecological crisis occurs when the environment of a species or a population changes in a way that destabilizes its continued survival. There are many possible causes of such crises:

• It may be that the environment quality degrades compared to the species' needs, after a change of abiotic ecological factor (for example, an increase of temperature, less significant rainfalls).

• It may be that the environment becomes unfavourable for the survival of a species (or a population) due to an increased pressure of predation.

• Lastly, it may be that the situation becomes unfavourable to the quality of life of the species (or the population) due to raise in the number of individuals (overpopulation).

The evolutionary theory of punctuated equilibrium sees infrequent ecological crises as a potential driver of rapid evolution. "                         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_crisis 

Previous posts have focused on creative adaptations to these changes: Spicing up the descent down the food web is one example of a series in this blog devoted to creative adaptation to these changes.

Responses to Loss of Quality of Life: Denial, Anger; Bargaining; Depression; Acceptance; and/or: Adaptation, Revolution, or Transformation.

The genie in this bottle is creativity that is becoming innovation. Creativity is insightful blending of elements and links. But innovation changes radically some aspect of a culture. To abort uglification of the world as we know it, we need to change how we think, what we value, what we do, our metrics for success.

Notoriously, monkey see monkey do. We are descendants of apes, and as such, biologically programmed to learn by seeing what others do. The next few posts will help make visible models of creative transformation in the hope that we will do what we see is valuable. Leaders lead the way with ideas and embodiments.

Creativity is generative

Transformational responses to our global crisis by the wine industry fall into two major categories: 

1. Transformation within the wine industry based on life cycle actions affecting supply, production and distribution of wine; and 
2. Transformations in global stewardship engaging consumers as stewardship collaborators based on online reporting of  best ecological practices. through online reporting.

This post identifies world-class innovators in the wine industry in the first  category. The next post deals with innovators in online reporting, which I think is the category of innovators that will most rapidly and effectively change the world.Online reporting can go viral, meaning affecting a huge number of potential stewards.


.Innovations can be usefully classified as 

• innovations in supply chain; 
• innovations in production; and 
• innovations in distribution. 

The list below is a departure from our usual gatekeeper of quality: that is, the wineries below may or may not have produced world-class wines. What they did do, however, was produce world-class innovations. Since we learn from the models that others develop, those who produce wold-class wines can learn from extant models to become the stewards of the best.


In the table below some wineries fall into both  of the two types of innovation. The list below excludes considerations of quality of wines and focuses only on innovations that are useful for the wine industry.


Some producers are actively engaged in becoming ecological producers and they are also actively engaged in becoming world stewards through online reporting. For the purposes of Reward in the Cognitive Niche, Innovators in Online reporting at the least have a sustainability link on their home page.As a reminder, online reporting allows consumers to choose products based on the best possible information about the ecological practices of the producer.

 

Rodney Strong Vineyards solar array of 766 KW

All Wineries should be net solar-energy suppliers, fish and habitat-friendly, in control of supply and distribution sustainability aspects as well as production. Below are pioneering models of ecological sustainability for California Wineries:

• Shafer is a pioneer in solar-powered vineyards; since 2004 this winery has produced more energy than used on site and sends the rest back to the grid. Over the lifetime of Shafer's solar system, reduction in emissions is the equivalent of planting 17,000 trees.
• The semi-regulatory agency in the champagne district of France  the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC), launched a new standard Champagne bottle that is 2 ounces lighter. After an environmental audit in 2002 the entire region of champagne producers set a regional target of cutting carbon emissions by 25 percent by 2020. As a major means to realize this reduced emissions goal, the new bottle standard is lighter but able to withstand pressures place by the CO2 . The new bottle will reduce emissions from the region by 8,000 metric tons annually. Since about 300 million bottles of Champagne were produced last year and at least 20 million drunk in the US,( meaning high food miles) this is a significant distribution chain innovation.
• Classified as on of the top thirty wineries in the US by volume of production, Rodney Strong Vineyards has installed one of the wold's largest solar arrays, producing 766 KW, the energy required to power 457 homes for an entire year.That said as an interesting comparison, this enterprise supplies most if not all the energy required for Rodney Strong operations.

• Gundlach Bundschu Winery, Sonoma, sources all of the power for its water reclamation system from a 30kW Floatovoltaic system installed by SPG Solar, Novato. The solar array's 162 Sharp panels are mounted on pontoons in one of the ponds that recycle 70% of wastewater for vineyard use. A second ground-mounted photovoltaic array provides 80kW, 60% of the winery's energy needs. This winery is certified as aBay Area Green Business from Sonoma County. In 2012. It also received a Fish Friendly Farming certification.
• Far Niente, a winery in California’s Napa Valley region, has installed a first-of-its-kind solar power array and the latest example of how Northern California’s wine industry is using solar power, SFGate.com reports.  1,000 photovoltaic panels mounted on 130 pontoons floating in an irrigation pond, and another 306 panels mounted on a nearby acre of land. It can produce up to 477 kilowatts per hour at peak output and can provide more than 100 percent of the winery’s electrical needs: 100% Solar Powered Facility. SIP certified, all waste is recycled, composted, or otherwise recovered.

Domaine Carneros solar array

Foxen: local Winery partly solar powered, committed to sustainability

Rodney Strong: Committed online to using sustainable practices. Their solar energy system is one of the largest of any winery in the world, and RSV is the first carbon neutral winery in Sonoma County.
Carbon Neutral Winery & Vineyards
Solar Power-Producing Winery
Fish Friendly Farming
Sustainably Farmed Vineyards

• Increasingly, all wineries need to adopt environmentally protective practices as outlined by organizations such as the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance with metrics to evaluate performance in assessment areas such as the following:

performance. The 14 assessment areas are:
1. Viticulture.
2. Soil management.
3. Vineyard water management.
4. Pest management.
5. Wine quality.
6. Ecosystem management.
7. Energy efficiency.
8. Winery water conservation and quality.
9. Material handling.
10. Solid waste reduction and management.
11. Environmentally preferred purchasing.
12. Human resources.
13. Neighbors and community.
14. Air quality




As indicated in previous posts, winemakers/producers in 2012 need to do more than produce world-class wines. They also have the stewardship responsibility of communicating to the concerned consumer sufficient data to enable that consumer to make informed choices among these world-class wines (as rated by quality) as to which is doing the best job of supporting a vibrant global ecosystem. Previous posts dealt with the alpha reporters for sustainable seafood, such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium. As yet there is no equivalent in the wine industry, so each winery has that socio-ecological responsibility along with the drive to produce the best quality.


The above are offered as models for countering uglification. While none is perfect, each offers some plan specifics for the reversal of uglification. This post has featured solar powered wineries since energy is a key factor in climate change over which we each have significant control.That said, energy use is only one aspect of ecological sustainability.

How can we save the sweet life?

Canaries in a coal mine? Read about the threat to honeybees' sweet life.

Saving the Sweet Life.

The last few posts and in fact this entire blog is about saving the sweet life. This concept can be deconstructed  into a  questions and answers framework  following the usual set of what  why & where (who cares)  who is affected; who should fix it, and how should this problem be fixed, as follows:

1. What is the sweet life?

2. Is it really at risk? If so, what is the evidence?

3. Given the risk, Why should this entity (the sweet life) be saved? and Why should we care if it is at risk?

4. If the sweet life is actually threatened what are the major threats?

5. Are these threats relentless or can they be successfully countered?

6. If so, how?

7. Who should lead the way?

8. How should they lead?

This post addresses all of these questions


1. What is the Sweet Life?

The sweet life is a metaphor for the best that life can offer: infinite resources, great food and drink, health, safety, family and community, companionship, a beautiful living environment with clean air and water and healthy resources, respect, the possibility of satisfying and evolving aesthetics, meaningful work, the opportunities to self-realize as well as self-transcend; in short, a life-style we all strive for. The sweet life, aka the good life, is what we all want. The species Homo sapiens is biologically programmed to strive for the best imaginable. This is a no-brainer.

2. Is it at risk?

Clearly!  Previous posts have provided science-based evidence that we are already adapting to degraded resources and environments.

For the argumentative, here is evidence:
1. loss of biodiversity and extinctions. Biodiversity is used in this blog as an indicator of quality of life.
2. loss of apex predators and species
3. eating down the food chain
4. Desertification & Loss of habitat 
5. Pollution
6. The honey bee crisis

4. The major threats to the sweet life are the way we produce and consume.

First, we have produced too many people for the earth to support us all in all they ways to which we all wish to become accustomed. Insatiably, we want more and/or different and better. We shop till we drop, because we are insatiable. Remember, we are the dopamine species par excellence. Dopamine marks whatever is important to our survival however that may be conceptualized. It stimulates, motivate, and makes us feel the inimitable pleasure of being very much alive. Nothing compares to a dopamine high.


The point in runaway consumption is change:  anything new or different or better. Our production models incite new production willynilly, Our consumption models engender in us the desire for something other than what we have. 


Our hope is in the word anything: anything new or different or better. A good change may become as good a choice as one that leads to bad.

3. Why should the Sweet Life be saved?

The sweet life benchmarks the best of the best. Evolution has designed us to be driven by the desire for pleasure, which historically has been embodied in sweet fruits, meats, fish, and creatures.Homo sapiens is biologically driven to strive to achieve/acquire the best. What is in 2012 considered the sweet life or the good life is both a standard and a goal. From an evolutionary perspective, this standard iconizes the best that all cultures till now can imagine. Icons of the sweet life belong in the Smithsonian: the best wine, the best food, the best housing, the best environments, the best jobs, the best lifestyles, all belong in museums, along with  Da Vincis and Picassos.

4. What are the Major Threats to the Sweet Life?

The greatest threats are the way we consume/produce, with the results listed above and elsewhere. We want more and other, without discrimination. More and more and more and something different. Whatever are we thinking?!!!!

Not least, we keep on producing more. The population of the world at 7 billion is way beyond the capacity of the earth to sustain us given our present consumption and production trends.

Our old Industrial Revolution business models of supply and demand with triple bottom lines of profit, society and environment leave out two huge factors, the two that make life worth-while: aesthetics and ethics. The sense of what is right and the sense of what is good and beautiful.

5. Can we save the sweet life?

Perhaps. if every one of us who has an interest in the sweet life does everything he or she can to save the sweet life, maybe we can save it. Technology has been seen as the savior, but the loss of apex predators, mass extinctions, loss of habitat, ocean acidification & warming, and climate change present Technology with unprecedented challenges.

6. How should we do it?

Since the problem is in the way and rate we consume and produce, the solutions are most likely to lie in consumption and production.

7. Who should lead the way?

Those who know what is at stake should lead the way, using the best available knowledge of the way and the ways.

In the last post I suggested that here in Santa Barbara, which is iconic of the sweet life, wine producers of the wines rated the best in the world of their kind should lead the way. I also claimed that just doing one's own thing superbly, such as producing world-class wines, is no longer enough. The stewardship mantle has been placed on the shoulders of those who appreciate the best and will fight for that best and will lead the way for others.I have identified winemakers of the highest quality wines as aestheticians who know and understand the best and who will do almost anything to achieve it, and have actually already done it at least once. They know what is at stake.

Producers should not only increasingly adopt those wine-making practices considered most ecologically sustainable; simultaneously, they should fully involve consumers in their production processes. They should report with the highest transparency what they are doing in the most easily accessed channel, which is in 2012, the Internet. In 2012 the leading-edge model of ecological production is life cycle whole-systems thinking , manifested in a  life cycle analysis (LCA).

 Pioneers

Pioneers are the first to settle a territory, whether physical or virtual. They venture forth into uncharted lands and chart and provide the data for charting. Facebook is charting virtual territory, while Columbus charted geographical domains. Their motivations may be conceptualized variously, as a drive towards profit, a drive towards conquering the unknown, and now, a drive towards saving the vibrancy of our global ecosystem.

Pioneers today include wineries such as the pioneering solar enterprises of Rodney Strong Winery, arguably with the largest solar array in the wine industry. Sonoma County's Rodney Strong Vineyards  owners installed a 766-kilowatt, 4,032-panel solar-electric system. This array can power  800 homes, reduces emissions of carbon dioxide by 89,700 tons, which is equal to planting 2,500 acres of trees or not driving 22 million miles on California's roadways. Metrics are important! This winery is also certified by Fish Friendly Farming. 

Foxen's pioneering (for the Central Coast) solar-powered vineyard

Other pioneering efforts designed to support a vibrant global ecosystem are wineries such as Yalumba that have adapted the LCA model as part of their commitment to ecological sustainability and provide comprehensive online- reports with sufficient data to create partners with engaged consumers. Metrics have proved to be useful indicators of ecologically sustainable activity.

"What pioneers do today often becomes mainstream tomorrow"

http://www.unprme.org/resource-docs/LeadershipinaRapidlyChangingWorld.pdf

The conclusion of this post is that the local producers and consumers of premier wines need to select not only the right wine but the right winery, the right consumers and the right process. Both producer and consumer need to do the right thing by their environments, which are qualitatively irreplaceable.

One relatively uncharted territory for innovative pioneers is that of actively engaging consumers in the role of stewardship of earth's vibrant but threatened ecosystems. Producers need to proactively recruit their consumers as collaborative stewards.They need to regard their consumers as co-creators of an ecologically top quality future. Both producers and consumers need to hold each other responsible for the highest quality future imaginable.

As far as I can see, the best means of doing this is to publish online reports of current ecological practices. The ideal model in 2012 seems to be an LCA analysis. Short of that, an informal report directed to consumers of how ecologocially produced  a product is points the way towards assuming stewardship and sharing the privileges of stewardship with global consumers.

The following if a partial list of producers of premier wines who could lead the way should they decide that is what needs to be done.

A.P. Vin

Boekenoogen

Cargasacchi

Fess Parker

Foxen

Jonata

Melville

Qupé

Sanguis

Sea Smoke Cellars

Siduri

"...As a business leader, the future of the world has become your business."
http://www.unprme.org/resource-docs/LeadershipinaRapidlyChangingWorld.pdf

Appellations for Santa Barbara County Wines

So lift your Glass and Raise it High: Wine Saves the Day

the Beauty of the Days to Come: an environmental homage to Van Morrison's appreciation of beauty

The last month's posts looked at rating systems, specifically, the apex raters of sustainable seafood. In 2012 we are all influenced, either directly or indirectly, by rating systems. Rating schemes, whether of fine wines or the raters themselves, are  designed to drive change by either persuading consumers to buy a particular product or persuading producers to engage in a specific process, in this case, ecologically advisable practices. Raters embody cultural values,  but sometimes, raters can be pioneers who lead and change cultural directions. Raters of ecological practices tend to be pioneers of change.

All rating systems have emerged from complex systems as ways of dealing with complexity. Expertise in a specialization is highly valued and well rewarded. Raters are also experts in their domains; they save all others huge amounts of time and energy by first, allowing consumers to choose a rater with persuasive credentials and values compliant with his or her own's,  then allowing consumers to rely, over future time, on their judgments (saving time and energy). Raters simplify decision-making/life.  Raters are rewarded.

Rewardinthecognitveniche (RCN)  strives to make ecological decision-making for top-quality products in complex systems as pleasurable and rewarding as conceivably possible for all individuals of all species. Key concepts are decision-making, quality, pleasure, ecology, and complexity. RCN is a rater of diverse continuous practices, from choosing seafood for dinner to throwing away an empty wine bottle.

In 2012, no one is rating consumers  for their environmental choices, yet these choices will radically affect quality of both wines and consumer life in the days to come. We rate producers.  But whatever is not consumed sooner or later will fail to be produced. This is the premier law of free markets. Over time, if only briefly, demand will equal supply.

Free markets only indirectly, if at all,  reflect quality of life. Markets tend to reflect economics, typically efficiency in production and distribution, sometimes ethics, sometimes environmental issues, and rarely and only in a narrow demographics, quality of life.That said, quality of life will be judged by standards established, now and in the days gone by, by the best of the best.

"The beauty of the days gone by
The music that we used to play
So lift your glass and raise it high
To the beauty of the days gone by

I'll sing it from the mountain top
Down to the valley down below
Because my cup doth overflow
With the beauty of the days gone by." 

Van Morrison

Who decides what is best?

Best imaginable quality of life, aka the sweet life, can be reconceptualized as beauty experienced. While each person might conceptualize, define, and experience beauty differently, for each, beauty is what emerges from a  network of "the best elements linked in the best ways for the best outcomes according to the best judgments." (Netoff, 2001). In 2012, best is highly influenced by the judgments of experts in an almost infinite variety of domains. 


Sometimes new judgments of what is best pioneer preferences for good better and best worldwide for a long long time.  More is better has been a top value for hundreds of years, but not always. Stronger, faster, and smarter, also have dominated cultures as top values for many if not most generations.

Experts are the go-to judges of our times. In simple systems, we are best off by thinking for ourselves and acting on considerations made--given simple systems, inputs, outputs, and values. Generally, nothing is now simple. We are required to depend on experts, for brain surgery, seafood choices for dinner, and wine to drink.

Standards for quality are created by experiences of the best of the best in days gone by. We are biologically programmed to re-evaluate best as something that happened both during the lifetimes of our parents, meaning the best of the past is considered but not precisely remembered and is a phenomenon best re-interpreted as the best experience of quality in our lifetimes, everything considered.

The last post suggested that a model of how the highest conceivable-but-attainable quality of life might be preserved could be effectively embodied in the experience of making and drinking wine rated the best in the world of its kind. Local high-end winemakers were identified as the 2012 noblesse obligated to lead the way to highest possible quality of life for all.

Wine producers of wines rated 90 or above can lead the way

Wine production is not considered a top environmental polluter. For that reason, as well as a lingering value established by specialization during early free-market days justifying "doing one's own thing", wine-producers tends to focus on quality, terroir and economics more than environment. Terroir is not environment. Terroir is creative explication, while environment is commitment to aesthetically ecolving ecosystems.


What is unique here is that I am suggesting that winemakers of top quality products have an obligation-that- mirrors-their-privileges to lead the way to a top quality future by doing the right thing by the global ecosystem. In 2012 Central Coast winemakers aka producers can establish precedents for how producerss can share stewardship with consumers: reporting ecological practices online. The winemakers listed below have a noblesse obligation to report online their ecological performances in a way that both allows consumers to decide who is ecologically sound but also, who is a leader.

Les Tres Riches Heures du duc de Berry avril detail.jpg

http://swthika.blogspot.com/2011/06/beauty-is-truths-smile-when-you-behold.html#.T9kQ0RfIbOo

Noblesse Oblige

In the past, the nobility was classified as a social class distinguished by high hereditary or honorary rank that possesses privileges, or eminence, and certain rights not granted to members of other classes in a society. Membership in this elite group has been, over historical times, an open order. Who is and who is not noble changes. What does not change is the idea that the noble/elite have not only privileges and power but also responsibilities.


 In the case of local Santa Barbara winemakers, those who produce wines rated by world-class experts as 95 or above (or the equivalent rating) are considered prestigious and probably powerful, wealth aside. These winemakers are influential in our local wine community and beyond. Conceivably, these winemakers can be conceptualized as the modern-day equivalent of middle-age nobility, who had privileges but also responsibilities. Designated contemporary nobility include:

A.P. Vin

Boekenoogen

Cargasacchi

Fess Parker

Foxen

Jonata

Melville

Qupé

Sanguis

Sea Smoke Cellars

Siduri

A brand-new responsibility for noblesse is that of the global environment and its populations. Winemaking is for me among the most rewarding activities imaginable.  Agriculture can be seen as the defining activity of civilized Homo sapiens, and wine making as the pinnacle of agricultural activity. Those that produce the best of the best can be seen as the best, aka, the noblesse. Although this may be arguable, I feel strongly that producers of the highest possible quality of wine have both that privilege but also the responsibilities that I enumerate as follows:

• the responsibility to produce the best wine possible, given climate, terroir, wine-making skills, etc.
• the responsibility to be not only communicatively transparent but further,to report to the global consumer sufficient information to make informed decisions, once quality has been determined, regarding which product has been produced according to the most ecological process, given the state of science.

In 2012, any attempt to report best ecological process must undertake some kind of life cycle analysis (LCA).The next post explains what this is and indicates the gold standards for 2012. The main purpose of this post was to present the argument that Central Coast Wine producers of top quality wines have a responsibility to share stewardship responsibilities by reporting online  their ecological activities using 
comprehensive data that are comparable worldwide and/or reliableindicators of ecological excellence such as ISO certifications.

Saving Santa Barbara's Sweet Life

saving the sweet life, as the crow flies

This is the second post in a short four-part series on saving the sweet life, aka the good life, or the life each person is biologically programmed to strive for. In a best case scenario, those living the good life right now  will improve the world and secure a high quality future by accepting the privilege of global stewardship with all actions incumbent. Santa Barbara is known world-wide for the good life most of its residents live. While souring a tad, the sweet life can still be saved. Transformative collaboration to the rescue!

The 1947 vintage of Chateau Cheval Blanc is widely regarded as the finest wine in the world

The list below comprises  local  (Santa Barbara  & Central Coast) producers  of top quality wines who  could, as leaders/noblesse-2012, help save the sweet life.  

A.P. Vin

Boekenoogen

Cargasacchi

Fess Parker

Foxen

Jonata

Melville

Qupé

Sanguis

Sea Smoke Cellars

Siduri

Planning to Save the Sweet Life

First and foremost: top quality producers need to keep on producing superb wines, which of course, is what evolving wine consumers will strive for. Otherwise, life doesn't make sense and the economy that depends on consumers and producers calculating cost and benefit fails to work. Everyone tries to optimize the outcome of decisions, most of which involve calculating costs and predicted benefits in the present. An outcome can be conceptualized at its most fundamental as pleasure in achieving/acquiring the best. So producing the best is the sine qua non.

Simultaneously: top quality producers need to begin to collaborate more closely with their consumers for ecological preservation and restoration. Producing the best requires a vibrant ecosystem: specific weather, air, water, soil, subsoils, organisms, and insightful, adaptive wine-making. In 2012 each vibrant local ecosystem forming part of the global ecosystem is in imminent danger, requiring immediate, well-orchestrated comprehensive and universally inclusive action to avoid irreversible degradation. In short, everyone must act.

Reflecting this realization, some of the wineries producing the best wine have adopted increasingly responsible environmental practices. Shafer Wineries, for example, has been powered solely by solar energy since 2004. The source of most greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change, ocean acidification and  other ecological degradations, is the generation of electricity through the burning of fossil fuels. Coal is the fossil fuel most responsible for emitting both toxins and greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is one aspect of a good environmental practice and can be used as an indicator of an effort to preserve the good life. 

A local example of a winery producing top quality wines while tending towards best environmental practices and some online reporting is  Foxen, which is dry-farmed, solar powered  (since 2009) and reports anecdotally about its ecological practices. Anecdotal reporting is a term used here by Reward in the Cognitive Niche (RCN) to indicate without metrics or system of third-party assessment that is easily compared to another winery for overall environmental performance. Another local producing top quality wines is Qupé, a winery that farms organically, but like most of the other top-quality wine producers who report their practices in this ecologically charmed region, Qupé reports environmental performance anecdotally. Anecdotal reporting may be true but is typically not amenable to useful comparisons of ecological credentials for determining which wine most favors the environment. Anecdotal reporting includes statements such as these:  farms organically, is "green", is biodynamic,  is solar-powered, recycles, etc. However, the benefits of a wine farmed "biodynamically" is unclear and incalculable.

The free market calculation of costs and benefits 1 ) requires metrics and 2) notoriously fails to include the future, and when it does, both benefits and costs in the future are predictably discounted. Using money as the medium of valuing. discounting indicates that a dollar received today is worth more than a dollar received in the future. Immediate pleasure is greater than future pleasure. When the quality of the environment was not at all threatened, this free-market system worked fairly well. But with a population of over seven billion most of whom have consumption habits that the earth cannot support (see ecological footprint) the quality of the future is continually degraded. Eating down the food chain, discussed in previous posts, is one example of what happens in a degraded future.

The Critical Importance of Online Reporting

To save the sweet life, Best Practices need not only to be implemented but to be reported online (see these benchmark examples: city and winery), so that conscientious consumers who would like to share stewardship privileges with producers have the best information possible on which to make choices among wines. A long-term goal would be for specific practices to be part of the labeling of every wine and for every winery to regularly report online what their practices are as well as how the environment is affected.

What is different in the ecological advocacy of Reward in the Cognitive Niche is our emphasis on collaboration of producer and consumer through online reporting of environmental practices using  the best reporting methods available. For now the best method for wineries appears to be a Life Cycle Analysis:

"A life-cycle assessment (LCA, also known as life-cycle analysis, ecobalance, and cradle-to-grave analysis) is a technique to assess environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product's life from-cradle-to-grave (i.e., from raw material extraction through materials processing, manufacture, distribution, use, repair and maintenance, and disposal or recycling). LCA’s can help avoid a narrow outlook on environmental concerns by:
Compiling an inventory of relevant energy and material inputs and environmental releases;
Evaluating the potential impacts associated with identified inputs and releases;
Interpreting the results to help you make a more informed decision. "Wikepedia

A life cycle assessment/analysis depends on  good information.  Collaboration in stewardship of a vibrant ecosystem thus inevitably requires deep flowing communication:in a two-way process in which the best possible information is openly exchanged and decisions by all involved are generated on the basis of that information. Online reporting is the ideal channel: easily acessible by all. Transparent, comprehensive, timely, useful, comparable information would be the ideal.

Winery Online Reporting using Life Cycle Analysis

In an ideal case of shared stewardhip, the winery would report using an ecologically based life cycle assessment of wine production such as Eco-LCA of its practices and impacts on the environment, and the consumer would make choices between wines of similar quality produced by different methods with different effects for the ecosystem. While none of the LCA methodologies account for all ecosystem goods and services, several pioneering models stand out: Taylor' Winery's eighty acre enterprise is 100 % carbon neutral based on an LCA model compliant to ISO 14044. 

ISO 14044:2006 specifies requirements and provides guidelines for life cycle assessment (LCA) including: definition of the goal and scope of the LCA, the life cycle inventory analysis (LCI) phase, the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) phase, the life cycle interpretation phase, reporting and critical review of the LCA, limitations of the LCA, relationship between the LCA phases, and conditions for use of value choices and optional elements. 

LCA involves four main steps: Goal Definition and Scoping, Inventory, Impact Assessment, Evaluation, and Improvement Analysis. Various software and resources are available online for initiating a life cycle assessment using diverse metrics such as greenhouse gas emissions as an indicator of good practices.

As a reminder, Reward in the Cognitive Niche uses best quality as a gatekeeper for all subsequent evaluations and discussions. What is assumed is that all individuals try to optimize the pleasure generated by each decision. Consumers will choose the best possible wine quality, given their aesthetics and resources for assessing and obtaining quality. In most cases, there will be numerous wines from distinct wineries that satisfy a particular aesthetic and budget. RCN makes the further assumption that given equal qualities from which to choose, consumers will prefer to do right by the environment so they will select the one that not only appears to be better for the environment, as befits a top-quality producer according to the honor code of noblesse oblige, but also, one that re-conceptualizes the demands of 21st century stewardship to necessarily include the consumer.

The complexity of the environmental issues connected with the production and consumption of goods and services requires that a systematic and holistic approach for impact analysis and evaluation be developed. There is now a general consensus that it is not enough for a company to minimise environmental impacts at its own facilities, e.g. by the use of cleaner production technologies; it is necessary to broaden the analysis to an overalll picture of the interrelations between a company' s product and the environment in a life cycle perspective. 

This is the concept of Industrial Ecology, that essentially calls for an integrated approach towards the environmental effect of industrial processes, rather than aiming at the reduction of the effects of separate processes. It promotes renewable energy, non-toxic materials, sustainable product design in a closed loop, crossing company boundaries. It is rooted within circular concepts of the product life cycle and based on the Precautionary Principle
Agricultural practices can create significant negative environmental, social and economic impacts. These impacts are becoming increasingly significant for companies such as wineries that rely upon agricultural inputs for their products, since it has become more and more important to obtain agro-industrial products such as wine safeguarding the environment and health of the entire community. LIFE CYCLE APPROACH IN AN ORGANIC WINEMAKING FIRM: AN ITALIAN CASE-STUDY

The next post discusses  more in depth key models and pioneers who have transformed their enterprise to produce best quality products using environmental best practices including maximum consumer engagement.