Everyday is Earth Day

Everyday is Earth Day

By Andrea Guzman, Promotions and Partnership Manager

There are a lot of things businesses can do to give back to Mother Earth and advocate for environmental responsibility. We can all participate in leading our community towards a sustainable future by being economically, environmentally, and socially accountable.

The Napa Valley Wine Train is passionate about being leaders in sustainability. Fifteen years ago, Executive Chef Kelly Macdonald started an aggressive recycling campaign. Kelly was so adamant about recycling that he was willing to purchase one hundred garbage cans with his own money to kick-start the Wine Train’s recycling program. Now, we have the largest recycling bin that a business can attain and it is picked up once a week. The kitchen staff discards eighteen cubic yards of waste each week, and, most notably, they recycle twenty-four cubic yards of cardboard, glass, and paper products every week.

In 2001, we converted one of our Alco engines from diesel to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). No other train in the United States runs on CNG. We see savings of between 700-1200 gallons of diesel per week by using the CNG engines daily. The CNG engines burn clean and, essentially, odorless gasses.

In the past year, our CEO, Greg McManus, an advocate for alternative energy systems, came aboard and replaced the lighting system in the station with a system that uses 50 percent less power.

When I joined the company, we furthered our mission in sustainability by introducing the cork recycling program, a car-free way of getting from San Francisco to Napa, and participating in the planning of sustainable tourism at the California Travel and Tourism Commission.

In the celebration of Mother Earth, join us in helping your company and community embrace activities that will offer a sustainable world.