SAN DIEGO — Becoming a more sustainable business is a series of small steps for Eric Van Drunen.
Van Drunen is the owner and winemaker of Charlie & Echo, an urban winery in San Diego producing natural craft wine from local vineyards.
Van Drunen said they're the first winery tasting room in Southern California to be certified as a California Green Business, and the first tasting room of any kind to be certified in San Diego County. The California Green Business certification focuses on improving energy and water efficiency, reducing waste and improving air quality.
“It’s great that there is a certification because after all that, it is nice to have some recognition," he said. "I actually went through all the process and did this thing.”
Van Drunen said the certification checklist has lots of little changes, from switching to toilet paper made from 100% recycled paper to installing a water filtration system to provide customers with water instead of buying jugs of water.
Robert Carr is part of the California Green Business Network. He helped guide Charlie & Echo through the changes, and said small businesses are achieving a big impact.
“You can’t really fix anything you don’t measure so I think going in there and getting the audit and understanding what you’re doing so far and things you can do, it gives them kind of a benchmark on what they can do,” Carr said.
Carr said in 2023, Green Businesses have diverted a thousand garbage-trucks-worth of waste from the landfill, saved 2 million bathtubs of fresh drinking water, and conserved enough energy to power 4,500 houses for an entire year.
Carr said meeting all the requirements can be daunting, but they are here to help and hope to get even more businesses to join their cause.
“It’s a journey, really. And so to start the process of just understanding where you are, and find things you can do, and do those," Carr said. "And the things you can’t, maybe take some times and figure out ways you can do that but don’t let the sustainability discourage you because you can’t do all of it.”
Van Drunen said he also switched out all his cleaning supplies to the nontoxic variety. While he might be one of the first to achieve the California Green Business certification in Southern California, he hopes his effort will inspire other business owners to follow his example.
“I guess those are bragging rights. I don’t want to be able to brag too much. It’d be nice just to have more people do it,” Van Drunen said.
According to the California Green Business Network, there were more than 4,700 certified Green Businesses in California last year; and more than 22,000 businesses have received technical assistance.