October 12, 2002 | North Bay Electric Auto Association

The NBEAA chapter visited Fetzer Vineyards in Hopland to become acquainted with the business’ 3E environmental program. Patrick Healy, Environmental Manager, and Brad Campbell, Design Engineer, described Fetzer’s electric vehicles (including Ford Ranger EV pickup trucks, NEVs and utility vehicles), organic growing practices, widespread recycling and the use of photovoltaic panels to generate electricity at the site.

A gazeebo jutting into a large body of water surrounded by trees.

About a dozen attendees were treated to a beautiful meeting site, where for the first part of our meeting, we were treated to scrumptious cookies while we listened to Fetzer’s Environmental Manager Patrick Healy and Design Engineer Brad Campbell discuss the company’s 3E environmental program.

A small, red, open-backed, wedge-shaped, three-wheeled car with several people standing around. On the side of the car in yellow is “No SMokin’.com” along with a phone number.

After the first part of our meeting, we took a tour of the grounds of this part of the Fetzer Vineyards. Peter Senkowsky (in black), of NO SMOKIN'.com (and that’s as in no tailpipe smoke) gave us an impromptu Q&A about his CityEl three-wheeler EV, which is treated as a motorcycle in California. Over 5,000 of these vehicles have been built and sold in Europe.

A person drives a small, red, open-backed, wedge-shaped, three-wheeled car past a vineyard.

The next part of the meeting was to show us the building practises over at the Fetzer administration building, about a mile or so away. Of course, Peter Senkowsky took the opportunity to blow past us all on the drive over. Well, not quite the Corbin/Senkowsky Sparrow-on-Steroids from the late 90s, but it did bring back memories of those days.

Many people gaterhing at a building with a large area covered in windows.

Our destination, the Fetzer administration building, constructed from reclaimed and recycled materials.

A person gestures to a part of a building while a number of people look on.

Patrick Healy (right) describes some of the features of the building, including huge redwood beams and reclaimed solid wood doors from a PG&E building in San Francisco.

People looking toward the roof of a building with solar panels on it.

Part of the solar array can be seen on the roof of this building.

One of Fetzer's own Ranger EVs displaying the e3 logo and electric vehicle sign.

A white pickup truck parked near a building.

Nick Carter, NBEAA chapter president, borrowed Chuck Hammond’s (fleet manager for the City of Santa Rosa) Ford Ranger EV, since Chuck was unable to attend this meeting. The lease of this vehicle was assumed from Bob Wing’s estate, and the vehicle is described here. It is still on the road, and carried Nick over the 100+ mile roundtrip from Santa Rosa to Hopland and back, including in freeway traffic and up and over the Hi-101 Cloverdale Hill. Here the Ranger is charging from Fetzer charging facilities via an Avcon paddle for the trip back to Santa Rosa. A single public charger mid-way between Santa Rosa and Hopland would have allowed Nick to drive his own Ford Th!nk City, but no such investment in charging infrastructure has been deemed warranted by the powers that be…

Goaurds hanging from an overhead trellis.

Nick Carter, NBEAA chapter president, took the following shots of the Fetzer gardens before heading home. The annotations below are his.

The Fetzer gardens are spectacular and open to visitors, so after lunch I wandered around while the Ranger was re-filling. These were some awesome trellised gourds.

Rows of organic vegetables that supply the Fetzer Food and Wine Center kitchens.

Many flowering shrubs along a dirt path.

These rows were just alive with bees, butterflies and hummingbirds — all part of the organic practice of encouraging the whole natural cycle.

Tall cypress trees grow near shrubs bordering a walkway. In the distance, an archway provides an entrance through a brick wall.

A final view of the beautiful gardens.