A Verified Water Action Brand
Home Base Spirits, based in Berkeley, CA, is a mission-driven spirits company that produces sustainably made whiskies and liqueurs. The company is family-owned and operated by twin sisters whose mission is to ensure quality and transparency in their supply chain and the spirits production process. Home Base sources high quality locally grown grains and partners with sustainably minded local distilleries to produce their whiskies and liqueurs. All whiskies are then aged in barrels (built by a local cooperage) and blended in their Berkeley facility.
Transparency in the Home Base supply chain begins with the mentality that whiskey is, at its core, an agricultural product. Home Base intentionally supports and celebrates the regional agrarian economy in California. They visit each farm to ensure best practices and quality of product and highlight the source of the ingredients for each whiskey they produce. Though Home Base knew that water was their biggest, and arguably most important input, traceability in its whiskey supply chain did not include water until recently. “We've always prioritized sourcing from farms using ecological growing methods, and it wasn't until learning about Verified Water Action that we realized our business could support sustainable stewardship for this crucial resource as well,” Home Base co-founder, Samantha Blatteis, says.
California’s Sacramento and San Joaquin River systems are identified in the CEO Water Mandate’s 100 Priority Basins list as watersheds with, “the highest level of opportunity for collective action from an economic and shared water risk perspective”. Most of the Home Base agricultural and production inputs originate in these watersheds. The World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct database identifies much of the California’s Central Valley as a high to extremely high water stress region. Mapping the company’s risk and identifying where they could make an impact led to a partnership with Verified Water.
Part of the corporate water stewardship process is choosing water metrics that inform water accounting. Keeping their focus on agriculture and whiskey as an agricultural product, Home Base initially wanted to understand the water withdrawn to produce the grains in their whiskies. After running an assessment of applied water used to produce the grain inputs used in the bourbon and whiskies that are aging in casks, they incorporated a water intensity metric of applied water per bottle produced. Home Base is using that metric to account for water use on a per bottle basis for the agricultural inputs. Their next phase is conducting an assessment in coordination with their distillers to understand the entire production footprint in their water use accounting.
Verified Water engaged with The Nature Conservancy to originate Verified Water Credits (1 credit =1,000 gallons of additional water annually against a validated baseline) using a TNC water right on Mill Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento River in Tehama County, CA. The property has been historically used to irrigate fields and for stock watering for over 90 years. The Nature Conservancy purchased the property and associated water right with an aim to augment flows and improve ecological function and resilience in this critical watershed, supporting passage and habitat for threatened Spring-run Chinook salmon. The ongoing importance of leaving this water in stream is crucial for salmon spawning, adjacent riparian ecosystems, and downstream community benefits.
“Home Base strives to create spirits that are connected to a place and that capture the terroir, climate, and spirit of California. We see contributing to the preservation of the vital Sacramento River watershed - that irrigates our whiskies' corn, barley, and wheat farms - as an investment in the future of our company and community.” Accounting for their water use and supporting water resilience projects in the Home Base value chain helps demonstrate the commitment to the ingredients, agricultural economy, and resources that benefit people and planet. It also makes for some authentically high quality, delicious, and sustainable whiskies and spirits.
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