Hopland, Calif.—Fetzer Vineyards has installed smart water meters to rack water use in real time to spot any waste or other inefficiencies in another step toward greater sustainability.

The meters are from the Bellingham, Wash., firm Apana, Inc., and the winery expects them to help it meet its water efficiency goal two years early by 2018. "Integrating APANA's data analytics and cloud computing technologies with our winery operations allows us to leverage crucial environmental data to achieve our sustainability goals," said Cindy DeVries, Chief Operating Officer of Fetzer Vineyards in a statement by the winery. "It also allows us to update and improve our corporate water stewardship efforts at a time when conserving water is more important than ever."

Part of Apana’s industrial “Internet of Things (IIoT)” devices, the meters are designed to help businesses manage water as carefully as they monitor other crucial assets, such as inventory. The company’s proprietary hardware and software work by building up a perpetually developing database of clients' water use patterns, or water signature, allowing them to quickly spot variances and implement savings activities. Because energy use is closely tied to water use, Fetzer Vineyards expects the water meters could contribute to reductions of more than 10,000 kilowatt hours of energy in addition to savings of up to four million gallons of water annually.

In 2016, Fetzer Vineyards announced it will be the first wine company in the US to install BioFiltro's BIDA System, a wastewater treatment solution that functions as a passive aerobic bioreactor, using red worms and microbes to treat the winery's wastewater 85% more efficiently than traditional aeration technologies.