Fetzer Vineyards, a leader in regenerative winegrowing, is taking a forward-looking step to conserve water with the installation of advanced water metering technology from Bellingham, Washington-based APANA, as outlined in a recent announcement.
The smart water meters, currently being installed throughout the winery’s Hopland, California campus, are designed to allow Fetzer Vineyards to identify leaks and water waste incidents in real time. Powered by big data insights from analyzing the winery’s water use profile, Fetzer Vineyards is setting up to avoid unnecessary waste episodes and meet its 2020 water efficiency goal two years early, in 2018.
“Integrating APANA's data analytics and cloud computing technologies with our winery operations allows us to leverage crucial environmental data to achieve our sustainability goals,” said Cindy DeVries, COO, Fetzer Vineyards. “It also allows us to update and improve our corporate water stewardship efforts at a time when conserving water is more important than ever.”
Uniting Data Flow and Water Flow
Fetzer’s new smart water meters are part of APANA’s Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solution, a set of tools allowing businesses to manage water as carefully as they monitor other business assets, such as inventory. The solution’s proprietary hardware and software work by building up a perpetually developing database of water use patterns in order to quickly spot variances and implement savings activities. Because energy use is closely tied to water use, Fetzer Vineyards expects the water meters could contribute to reductions of more than 10,000 kilowatt hours of energy in addition to savings of up to four million gallons of water annually.
Leveraging Tech for Solutions to Water Challenges
The World Economic Forum identified water as the top global risk for the first time in 2015, and more than two-thirds of the world’s businesses report exposure to water risk, often at the expense of growth. Solutions like APANA’s that leverage cloud computing and data-driven technologies can help businesses address both the economic and ecological realities of tomorrow, allowing water-intensive businesses such as wineries to remain competitive while continuing to minimize environmental impacts.
“Fetzer Vineyards is thrilled to pioneer use of this technology in the wine industry,” said Josh Prigge, Director, Regenerative Development, Fetzer Vineyards. “We know that implementing digital solutions can significantly reduce impacts in areas like water use, and we see technologies like APANA's working hand-in-hand with comprehensive, efficiency-focused efforts to improve our overall water footprint.”
Edited by
Alicia Young
