Northleaf Winery

Northleaf Winery earned Travel Green Wisconsin Certification in March 2013.

We’re honored to be part of the Travel Green Wisconsin program, taking action towards environmental, social and economic sustainability.

Some of our best practices:

We are located in an 1850 building, on which we did a massive restoration. You could say we recycled the building itself!  Part of the building was beyond repair, so it was removed and all the wooden beams were sorted out and reused in the rest of the building. Even our window and door trim in the tasting room is made from that recycled wood. Now restored, the building is an invaluable asset; in a landfill, it wouldn’t be worth a thing.

We recently began using all natural ZERO CARBON FOOTPRINT corks on our bottles. They are made by NOMACORC out of sugarcane, a completely renewable resource!

In the same spirit we actively recycle everything we can: aluminum, steel, plastic, glass, cardboard. We have art pieces in the tasting room that were made cut out of old appliances by Ray Redmann, a local craftman.

Even the bottles we use in the tasting room are delabeled by our grandchildren, washed and sanitized by us,  and then reused – a pretty labor intensive process.

We give our regular customer discounts and incentives to keep their own glasses in the tasting room.

Because we’ve done Citizen Water Monitoring on a local lake we are very conscious of invasive species. That’s why we used all native plants in our landscaping, mulch our plants to reduce water usage, collect rainwater in a rain garden to prevent unfiltered runoff, only water when the sun is down, and use our own organic pesticide recipe on our vines and plants.

We buy paper, soap and cleaning supplies in bulk and use reusable dispensers. We use low-flow toilets. We have changed 30% of our incandescent light bulbs to compact flourescent lamps or LED lighting. Our outside lights are timed to be off when the building is unoccupied. We have programmable thermostats which are automatically lowered when the buildings are unoccupied. We use Energy Star qualified dehumidifiers and hot water heaters.

We power off our printers and computers every night. Instead of washing them down, we sweep our driveways and sidewalks. Exhaust fans are vented outside. Hepa filters are used in our furnaces. We properly dispose of hazardous materials and test for carbon monoxide and radon. Our building was checked for lead paint and asbestos  prior to restoration.

We promote local! We provide the community with a product and service that helps strengthen the local economy. We make our products on-site, and promote local crafters, artists and food producers. We promote other local businesses: restaurants, shopping, recreation. We contribute to the community’s well-being by supporting community activities such as Goodrich Square, The Splash Park, The Milton House, Milton College, the Milton Public Library and donate to hundreds of local organizations, events and projects every year. We belong to our local Chamber of Commerce and the Wisconsin Winery Association.

There’s so much you can do – you just have to be aware. Every little thing can do a world of good!
If you would like more information on this program, please call Gail at 608-580-0575 or go to the TravelGreenWisconsin website:
http://industry.travelwisconsin.com/Travel+Green+Wisconsin.aspx