We have arranged a tasting of Baileyana wines aboard Xingolati. The tasting will serve as a forum for discussion around the sustainability efforts aboard Xingolati. We will have our partners at Carnival Cruise lines, Green Mountain Energy, The Global Cooling Collective, and Grupo Ecologistas Antares with us to share their work onboard Xingolati and beyond. Tickets to the tasting can be purchase by calling (415) 256-TIXX. We hope you will join us in discussing the following topics.
Learn what you can do to help promote sustainable cruising in both the near and long term
The Edna Valley, in San Luis Obispo is home to Baileyana. In 1982, in recognition of its distinctive topography and climate, the eight-mile-long Edna Valley, which runs east and west, was designated an American Viticultural Area. These climatic conditions are ideal for growing concentrated Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, and cooler climate Syrah.
More About Xingolati Sustainability
Our approach to sustainability is to understand the complexity and reality of every day business practices and how they impact our global environment. Our strategy is to engage business leaders to understand their business objectives and work with them and our environmental partners to build solutions that foster sustainable growth.
We strongly support efforts that create or assign value to the earth’s natural resources. Creating value for our natural resources is the best way to preserve them.
For example, assigning value to energy produced by the wind; assigning value to the clean air produced by our rainforests or recognizing the architectural value of a coral reef. If those values exceed the value of their demise then we have created a future that preserves our natural resources and sustains economic growth.
Our efforts
The cruise industry is one of the fastest growing and most visible sectors of the travel industry. At Who is Guy Grand…we have an opportunity to work internally with policy makers at Carnival Cruise Lines to demonstrate the value of sustainable business practices.
Our goal for 2005 was to identify the major challenges and highlight Carnival cruise lines policies and procedures for addressing environmental impact. Secondly, we wanted to do our part by identifying one issue that we could work on together to help lessen our ecological footprint from this event. For 2005, we have chosen to focus on Air Emissions because the use of fossil fuels is growing fast and increasingly polluting the global atmosphere with “greenhouse gases” that threaten all of us with global warming. A major contributor of these gases is carbon dioxide (CO2), which the ship emits. With the help of Barry Durbrow, we were able to determine the approximate emissions the diesel engines onboard Xingolati produce and then offset these emissions with wind power credits.
Additionally, we have chosen to support two other initiatives. We will plant trees through the Global Cooling Initiative and make a 1% donation to GEA, a non-profit in Baja, Mexico.
About Our Partners
About Green Mountain Energy Company
Purchasing wind power to off set CO2 emissions
The Xingolati Groove Cruise from Los Angeles to Ensenada, Mexico is expected to produce an estimated 500 metric tons of CO2, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. As part of Xingolati’s commitment to sustainability, we are partnering with Green Mountain Energy Company, the largest retail provider of cleaner electricity in the nation, to reduce the environmental impact of this event. Green Mountain Energy is donating renewable energy certificates representing the environmental benefits associated with the generation of 100% pollution free wind energy, which will offset the majority of the CO2 emissions associated with the cruise ship’s voyage. The amount of CO2 emissions to be avoided as a result of this alliance with Green Mountain will have an impact equivalent to taking about 98 cars off the road for one year.
Supporting cleaner energy from natural and infinite sources like sunlight and wind helps stimulate development of new pollution-free generation facilities nationwide. In fact, Green Mountain Energy Company customers have already helped cause the construction of 13 new wind and solar facilities in CA, PA, TX and OH.
Founded in 1997 to change the way power is made, Green Mountain Energy Company (http://www.greenmountain.com) offers residential, business, institutional and governmental customers the choice to support cleaner electricity generated from sources such as wind, solar, water, geothermal, biomass and natural gas. Due to Green Mountain Energy Company’s efforts, about 600,000 customers nationwide are purchasing electricity that is significantly less polluting than typical system power. The company is based in Austin, Texas.
About the Global Cooling Collective:
Carbon offset tree planting sponsorship through the Global Cooling Collective
Through photosynthesis, trees take CO2 out of the air, replacing it with life-giving oxygen. Our program helps people plant trees on the world’s most barren, devastated lands. Each of these fast-growing, beneficial, permanent trees takes about 50 lbs. of CO2 from the atmosphere each year.
Planting trees is the most cost-effective way to take CO2 out of the atmosphere. For the 2005 Xingolati trip we have committed to planting 512 trees. These trees will trees to sequester all the carbon emissions for the ship in 40 years time. Trees take a long time to grow, but you can help speed up the process by planting more trees. If everyone aboard Xingolati contributes $1.oo we can sequester the emissions in just 5 years. Click here to donate now, or visit the Global Cooling Collective aboard the ship.
Offsetting your travel:
Flying: A typical jet emits approximately 1 pound of CO2 for every passenger-mile it flies. Over 2000 miles (3200 km), the plane emits one ton of carbon dioxide per passenger.
A roundtrip from New York to Los Angeles creates about 3 tons of carbon dioxide per passenger.
Driving: The typical American car is driven 11,000 miles in a year and emits its own weight in carbon as CO2. Visit http://www.globalcoolingcollective.org/ if you are interested in offsetting the emissions for your travel.
We work with former farmers and Peace Corps volunteers that are dedicated to helping people restore damaged, logged and abused lands. Last year over four million (4,000,000) multi-purpose, fast-growing trees were planted in more than 6,000 villages in Asia, Africa and the Americas and requests for assistance are increasing.
About Grupo Ecologista Antares
1% of event profits donated to an organization we felt is making a difference
GEA Supports Man-Made or "Artificial Reef" Projects in the Sea of Cortez
Artificial reefs are constructed by intentionally placing long-lived, stable and environmentally safe materials on a selected area of the ocean bottom. Once the material is in place it acts in the same way that naturally occurring rock outcroppings do in providing hard substrate necessary in the basic formation of a live-bottom reef community. These underwater havens provide hard surfaces required for attachment by invertebrates such as barnacles, corals, sponges, clams, bryozoans and hydroids. These organisms are the beginnings of an interactive food web that supports a host of reef fish species. By providing food and shelter, artificial reefs can enhance over fished populations of resident reef fish like snapper and grouper.
Grupo Ecologista Antares, A.C. (GEA), is a non-profit ecological association celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2005. Many of you may be familiar with the association that was formed by the founders for the purpose of establishing a national marine park in Loreto.http://www.geantares.org.mx/
