Shafer collected a Green Entrepreneur Award for long-term sustainable practices
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September, 2005 – In a ceremony on September 15 Doug Shafer was awarded a “Green Entrepreneur Award” by
the State Assistance Fund for Enterprise, Business and Industrial Development (SAFE-BIDCO), a state-created nonprofit
lender that supports businesses who implement sustainable practices.
Shafer accepted the award at an event held at Rutherfold Grove Winery. He was nominated for the award by State Assemblywoman
Noreen Evans of the 7th Assembly District.
In addition to the SAFE-BIDCO award, Evans presented Shafer with a California Assembly Resolution which honors Shafer
Vineyards for, “excellence in sustainable business practices,” recognizing the winery’s long-term
commitment to sustainable farming and for it’s recent conversion to 100 percent solar power.
At the ceremony Shafer also received a certificate of Special Congressional Recognition signed by Congressman Mike
Thompson and a letter of congratulations signed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The Schwarzenegger letter reads in part, “Thank you for playing a part in California’s proud tradition
of ecological stewardship.”
The Green Entrepreneur Award was created to support and recognize small businesses that have chosen to implement socially
and environmentally responsible business practices.
Since the late 1980s, Shafer Vineyards has implemented an ever-more intensive approach to sustainable farming.
Thanks to the planting of cover crops, composting, and creating habitats in which natural predators can eliminate vineyard
pests, the winery uses no chemical fertilizers, insecticides or rodent poisons. The winery recycles and re-uses its
own water and relies heavily on mowing and the use of hand sickles to eliminate unwanted weeds. In December 2004 the
winery switched to 100 percent solar power.
