The “Visionary” series in building design returns to UC Davis in June with a program featuring Professor Roger Boulton and his vision: the most environmentally sophisticated winery in the world.

The campus’s 2-year-old Teaching and Research Winery is the first such facility in the world with LEED-platinum status, the highest level in the U.S. Green Building Council’s rating system (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).

The “Visionary” program, including a winery tour, is scheduled for the evening of Thursday, June 14. The public is welcome to attend. See details below.

UC Davis sponsors the series in partnership with the Central Valley Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and the Sacramento Branch of the U.S. Green Building Council.

“Professor Boulton was definitely the visionary for the platinum winery,” said the program organizer, Susan Rainier, senior project manager with UC Davis’ Design and Construction Management. She is a LEED "accredited professional" and a member of the American Institute of Architects.

Boulton, a winery engineering expert, is the Stephen Sinclair Scott Professor of Enology and Chemical Engineering, in the Department of Viticulture and Enology.

“He was a leader in striving for a building that is zero-carbon and off the grid,” Rainier said. “Additionally, he is showing how captured rainwater can be used and reused multiple times.”

Rainier said the upcoming program offers “a very special opportunity for those interested in sustainable design, pushing the envelope and making wine in a sustainable way.”

'Self-sufficiency model'

The winery shares a building with another LEED-platinum first, the August A. Busch III Brewing and Food Science Laboratory. The complex is located on the grounds of the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science.

The next component is the Jess S. Jackson Sustainable Winery Building; the ceremonial groundbreaking has taken place, and the design work is in progress. This building, next door to the winery-brewery-food lab, will house the equipment for the project’s green operations.

For example, rainwater will be collected and filtered, then used to clean fermentors and barrels in the winery. Further, 90 percent of the water and chemicals from each cleaning cycle will be captured and processed for use again and again, eventually being used as many as 10 times.

As designed, the winery will be independent of the campus’s water system, or “water positive.”

“We wanted to demonstrate a self-sufficiency model that is applicable to any business with limited water,” said Boulton, whom the "Visionary" flier describes as having a "passion for harvested rainwater."

This passion fueled his study of green systems for the winery, brewery and food-processing complex, making it a test bed for production processes and techniques that conserve water, energy and other vital resources.

Other examples:

• Off the grid — Solar panels on the rooftop provide all the electricity the facility needs. Power demand, by the way, is held down by the maximum use of natural lighting.

• Captured carbon — Carbon dioxide, a byproduct of fermentation, is kept out of the atmosphere. Thus, the gas cannot contribute to global warming.

“The goal for the facility is to not just be carbon-neutral, but carbon-zero, in terms of its carbon emissions,” Boulton said.

The “Visionary” series began in October with Steven Ehrlich, whose firm Ehrlich Architects won an international design competition for the United Emirates Parliament building in Abu Dhabi.

The June 14 program is set to begin with registration at 5:30 p.m., followed by the presentation at 6 in the RMI's Sensory Lab. The cost:

• Students (with ID) — free with preregistration, or $10 at the door
• Members of the American Institute of Architrects or the U.S. Green Building Council — $20
• Nonmembers — $30

Online registration.

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