Sustainable Meetings

Sonoma County, California’s wine country, is the ideal venue for groups seeking a low carbon-impact meetings destination. A pioneer in sustainability, Sonoma County actively works towards a carbon free future. Sonoma County Tourism works with groups to further the organization’s commitment to making a positive impact by, among other efforts, supporting the offsetting of carbon emissions.

Additional initiatives making a difference include:

• Sonoma County’s Charles M. Schultz Airport connects travelers to the destination seamlessly, while being 100% powered by solar energy.
• Sonoma Clean Power is the only utility in California to offer the option of 100% renewable, locally produced, solar and geothermal energy for homes and businesses – effectively eliminating all greenhouse gas emissions from electricity use.
• The destination promotes and encourages the use of alternate modes of transportation, including bike and carpool incentives, regional rail (SMART train), and last mile solutions connecting bus and train stations to worksites and visitor experiences.
• Sonoma County strives to maximize carbon sequestration and minimize loss of natural carbon sinks including old growth forests, the Laguna de Santa Rosa, and open space land management.
• The County’s Five-Year Strategic Plan outlines actions for reaching carbon neutrality by 2030.

Sonoma County Tourism encourages you to help our destination in its mission to reach carbon neutrality by offsetting the carbon emissions from your Sonoma County meetings experience. Sonoma County Tourism’s team can help you curate a plan to offset your group’s carbon emissions through a partnership with Sustainable Travel International. By offsetting your group’s emissions your incremental investment will be applied towards climate projects that meet the most rigorous standards for carbon offsetting. Sustainable Travel International carefully vets all carbon offset projects to ensure they truly reduce emissions. Projects meet rigorous third-party verification standards to make certain credits are not double counted and meet the following criteria: ensure additionality, reduce leakage, increase permanence, and avoid harm to ecosystems’ communities.

Let Sonoma County Tourism help cultivate your ideal sustainable meeting in California’s wine country, where experiencing Sonoma County through low-carbon impact practices gives you an opportunity to make a difference. Together, we can protect and preserve this special corner of the world for generations to come.

Contact Sonoma County Tourism to learn more about sustainable meetings and contributing to the vital work of global climate action. 800-576-6662 or meetings@sonomacounty.com