Girard Winery

Green Vines

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About Green My Vino

What is Facebook?
What are Facebook applications?
How does the Green My Vino Facebook application work?
What wineries are involved?
What is the "minutes goal" for each of the wineries? What if they do not meet their goal?
How can my organization get involved?

About Renewable Energy

How does the purchase of renewable energy in the application work?
I'm skeptical about Renewable Energy Certificates and Carbon Offsets...
Are Village Green RECs Green-e Certified?
What generators are supplying RECs to the Facebook application?
Does Village Green Energy have more Facebook applications or other creative partnerships coming out soon

About Green My Vino

What is Facebook?

Facebook is a social website that connects people with friends and others who work and live around them. People use Facebook to send messages to one another, share pictures and videos, and organize events and groups.

What are Facebook applications?

Facebook applications are small games or programs that enable Facebook users to interact with each other in new ways. Most of these applications are designed by Facebook users or other outside organizations, rather than by Facebook itself.

How does the Green My Vino Facebook application work?

Green My Vino makes it possible for Facebook users to force environmental change in business. The application enables Facebook users to give each other free online gifts worth One Minute, Five Minutes, and Ten Minutes of renewable energy. Each free gift adds Minutes towards a goal. Once the goal is met, a participating winery will commit to power its entire operations with renewable energy through Village Green. An additional winery will convert its power to renewable energy each time Facebook participants meet the next goal.

What wineries are involved?

The founding winery members are Iron Horse Vineyards, Girard Winery, Windsor Vineyards, and Windsor Sonoma.

What is the "minutes goal" for each of the wineries? What if they do not meet their goal?

The quotas are based on the amount of electricity each winery consumes, so there is a different goal for each winery. If the goals are not met, then the wineries will not convert their operations to renewable energy.

Goals (numbers are cumulative):

Iron Horse Vineyards:
Girard Winery:
Windsor Vineyards:
Windsor Sonoma:
10,000 minutes
17,000 minutes
30,000 minutes
45,000 minutes

How can my organization get involved?

Green My Vino is actively looking for the next round of wineries to participate in the application. Village Green Energy works with clients in a range of different industries to help green their business and explain their environmental commitment to their customers and employees. If interested in developing a creative marketing campaign for your business, please contact:

Robby Bearman, Co-Founder, Village Green Energy
(415) 367-3824, rob@villagegreenenergy.com

About Renewable Energy

How does the purchase of renewable energy in the application work?

Village Green Energy enables households and businesses to purchase renewable energy from wind farms, solar arrays, and other renewable technologies. We do this through the purchase of Renewable Energy Certificates - the legal rights to renewable power. When people purchase Renewable Energy Certificates from certain states, they force electric companies to build additional renewable power.

Check out the How It Works page for more info.

I'm skeptical about Renewable Energy Certificates and Carbon Offsets...

Village Green Energy agrees with much of the skepticism about the effectiveness of carbon offsets - to date the company has not sold carbon offsets from voluntary projects for this reason. In September however, the company plans to roll out a product that we believe will be the highest quality carbon reduction product on the market, and will guarantee that our customers' purchases reduce carbon emissions.

Village Green Energy holds itself to the highest standards in the industry on Renewable Energy Certificates. Village Green only purchases RECs from RPS states where electric utilities are required by law to own a certain number of them. This means that the utilities must replace any voluntary purchase with new renewable power. Village Green is the only REC provider that holds itself to this standard, which is even more stringent than Green-e, the third-party certification standard for RECs.

You can read even more about our views of carbon offsets and quality RECs here.

Are Village Green RECs Green-e Certified?

Yes, Village Green's RECs are Green-e certified.

What generators are supplying RECs to the Facebook application?

The first few wineries will purchase RECs from the Mountain View Wind Facility in Palm Springs, CA as well as a solar array on the Mary Pickford Institute in Los Angeles. If the application is successful, Village Green will purchase RECs from additional renewable energy generators.

Does Village Green Energy have more Facebook applications or other creative partnerships coming out soon?

Yes, visit our contact page to stay up to date on our creative efforts to engage the community in efforts to transition to renewable energy.