Sustainable Land Management
I like to tell people that Kendall-Jackson takes a generational approach to farming the land sustainably. Our goal is to ensure that the land remains healthy and productive for the next generation to farm. I’m sure to many people the term generational approach sounds like a marketing slogan, but the opposite is true.
Over the past 30 years our founder Jess Jackson and his family acquired some of the most desirable and dramatic vineyard land in California. His passion for the land was always clear and few things quenched his thirst like spending time in nature with his family.
Although Jess passed from this world in April, we continue to see his dreams come true. His dream of maintaining the vitality of the land and our business for the next generation is a reality. His children are stepping to the forefront to help direct our company’s future with their mother Barbara in charge. It’s also very clear that Julia, Christopher and Katie are just as committed to being socially and environmentally responsible as their parents.
Surveys of recent college graduates show that over 90% of them would prefer to work for an environmentally responsible company. We need to be ready for a sea-change because these young professionals will lead our nation’s businesses and government in the future. It’s exciting to see this next generation of leaders emerging at our company and to witness first hand their focus to maintaining our commitments to the environment and quality.
But just because the next generation is emerging doesn’t mean our work today has stopped. In the next few weeks we’ll be talking about our land conservation strategy, which includes things like:
- Open Space: how wildlife corridors allow animals to live in and around our vineyards and to travel freely to other natural resources like water, food and shelter
- Integrated Pest Management: specifically techniques to draw beneficial insects into the vineyards to eradicate harmful pests; and how using cover crops, like clover and legumes, help control erosion and replenish the soils naturally with organic matter
- Land Restoration: a long-standing cooperative effort with various government agencies to demonstrate our stewardship of the land including tree planting, endangered species protection, stream restoration and land conservation set-asides
- Third-Party Certifications: a rigorous program to have our practices audited by independent organizations so you can have confidence the work we’re doing is valuable, including Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing, Sustainability In Practice and Certified California Organic Farming.