Rex Hill vineyards have participated in Oregon’s sustainability movement from its outset and our ties to the LIVE organization are deep and strong. We are committed to helping our independent growers to farm more sustainably, we encourage and assist moving to organic practices and we are moving toward certification by the international biodynamic certifier, Demeter, for the acres we farm biodynamically. Biodynamic farming is the most stringent of organic farming practices and takes into count not only the physical aspects of farming, but the energetic and spiritual aspects as well.
Though sustainable farming is an important component of our path, we are making some interesting and challenging efforts to broaden the meaning of sustainability to cover the rest of the company as well. In January 2007, as part of our overall assessment and development of a master plan, we examined our energy use and discovered obsolete, wasteful systems. We rebuilt all of our power, water and waste systems and found our water usage immediately reduced by up to 33 times in the first couple of months! We improved the employee benefit program and, unusually for a small company, hired a Humans Relations specialist. We want to model sustainable practices with our employees, our suppliers, and our community.
