HALL Wines Earns Distinctive Gold LEED^® Certification

NAPA VALLEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HALL Wines, the premier 21^st century vineyard and winery, announces today that it has received the prestigious Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED^®) Gold Certification for its Napa Valley St. Helena winery, becoming the first winery in California to be distinguished as a Gold certified facility by the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED^® Green Building Rating System™.

The HALL St. Helena LEED^® certified winery is one of most advanced wineries in California, with state-of-the-art facilities designed for ultra-premium wine production. LEED^® is an internationally recognized certification system that measures a building or community’s performance across all environmental metrics including energy savings, water efficiency, CO₂ emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

“The certification of HALL Wines not only marks a momentous occasion for the wine industry of California, but demonstrates how all industries can choose to be solvers of our collective environmental challenges,” said Rick Fedrizzi, CEO & Founding Chair, U.S. Green Building Council. “The HALL Wines project efficiently uses natural resources, makes an immediate positive impact on our planet and as a business leader, can expect to reap financial benefits over the lifecycle of the building.”

Owner and Vintner of HALL Wines, Kathryn Hall, and President Mike Reynolds, made it their long-term mission to become the leader in earth-friendly California winegrowing, resulting in the design of their new St. Helena facility in accordance with the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED^® rating system.

“Visitors come to HALL to experience hand-crafted Cabernet Sauvignon and are excited to learn about our vineyards, buildings, and operations, which result in a minimal carbon footprint.” Kathryn says, “At HALL Wines, we grow our own grapes and craft our wines, and so we are obligated to ensure the health of the land, as well as that of the greater Napa Valley ecosystem.”

To meet the precise requirements to become Gold LEED^® certified, HALL has included many sustainable design elements and practices including:

• Radiant Floors Allowing for Precision Winemaking and Maximum Energy Efficiency – Radiant flooring allows HALL to control the facility’s temperature while conserving energy. This technology, accomplished by running cold or warm water through the floor slab, provides an energy efficient and stable storage and production environment.
• Solar Energy – The sun provides more than 35 percent of the energy needed to power HALL St. Helena. Solar photovoltaic cells (solar panels) on the roof tops of the barrel cellar and fermentation building convert sunlight directly into electricity. Approximately 42,000 square feet of solar panels span the St. Helena winery roofs.
• Local Building Materials – More than 10 percent of materials used to build the facility were extracted, harvested or recovered, as well as manufactured, within 500 miles of the project site.
• Recycled Building Materials – More than 10 percent of the materials used were made with recycled content.
• Water Conservation – Drought tolerant plants were selected for the winery landscaping which will reduce the demand for irrigation by more than 50 percent. In conjunction with this, all of the landscaping and vineyards are irrigated with recycled water. A 40 percent reduction of building water has also been achieved through the use of low-flow water outlets without compromising performance.

HALL extends their environmental responsibilities to their general operations by recycling and using recycled materials whenever possible in their offices as well as shipping direct-to-consumer wine in recyclable packaging. Additionally the Hall’s own nearly 500 planted acres in Napa and Sonoma counties which are organically farmed and scheduled to be certified organic within the next year.

HALL wines are distributed in major markets throughout the U.S. The Halls have a second winemaking facility in Napa Valley, HALL Rutherford, which was completed in 2005. Additional information is available at www.hallwines.com.

U.S. Green Building Council

The Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council is committed to a prosperous and sustainable future for our nation through cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings.

With a community comprising 78 local affiliates, more than 20,000 member companies and organizations, and more than 100,000 LEED Accredited Professionals, USGBC is the driving force of an industry that is projected to soar to $60 billion by 2010. The USGBC leads an unlikely diverse constituency of builders and environmentalists, corporations and nonprofit organizations, elected officials and concerned citizens, and teachers and students.

Buildings in the United States are responsible for 39% of CO2 emissions, 40% of energy consumption, 13% water consumption and 15% of GDP per year, making green building a source of significant economic and environmental opportunity. Greater building efficiency can meet 85% of future U.S. demand for energy, and a national commitment to green building has the potential to generate 2.5 million American jobs.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=5989465&lang=en