Katie Jackson Is Making Jackson Family Wines Climate Positive by 2050

Thanks to her Rooted for Good initiative, America’s ninth-largest winery has emerged as a leader in sustainability.

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Published on June 5, 2023

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When Katie Jackson was growing up, her backyard was her parents Jess Jackson and Barbara Banke’s Stonestreet Winery in Sonoma County. “I played in the vineyard and made forts out of the canes,” she recalls. “I remember us taking hikes around our properties and being outside a lot.” Those childhood activities instilled a love of nature in her, so after interning at the family’s biodynamic Yangarra Estate Vineyard in Australia, she returned to California in 2010 and immersed herself in an endeavor at Jackson Family Wines’ Kellogg vineyard in Sonoma’s Knights Valley. The property had a maze of reservoirs and an aging dam. Working with federal and state agencies, the Jacksons, with Katie’s help, removed the barriers and dedicated their water rights to the stream to keep it flowing for fish. The project was among the earliest to implement a Safe Harbor agreement, a program that encourages landowners to establish habitats for endangered species.

“It gave me the bug to do more,” Jackson, 36, says. At the time, the company’s sustainability department consisted of a single employee. Jackson took over. Today, as senior vice president of corporate social responsibility for a producer who sells 6 million cases per year across 40 different brands, she’s grown Jackson Family Wines’ social and environmental efforts in a way that has had an impact far beyond her own company.

In 2014, the family announced they would pay a premium for certified sustainable grapes, to incentivize Sonoma growers. “Having Katie in our backyard helps us continue to push the envelope for sustainability and climate efforts and provides visibility for our stewardship,” Sonoma County Winegrowers president Karissa Kruse notes. During COVID, Jackson launched an online seminar series to advance discussions on climate action, social impact, regenerative farming, and water conservation. And with her Rooted for Good initiative, which pushes four company goals—ensuring diversity, equity, and inclusion; reducing water use; transitioning the vineyards to regenerative farming; and becoming climate positive by 2050—she is pioneering a new culture of responsibility in wine.

In 2019, Jackson cofounded International Wineries for Climate Action to promote science-based practices for decarbonizing the wine industry. “As the new generation,” says cofounder Miguel A. Torres of Spain’s Familia Torres winery, “Katie had the strategic vision to trigger other wineries to start rigorous carbon emissions reduction programs.” IWCA members measure and continuously decrease their emissions. Jackson has gone further. Again under her lead, by partnering with The Soil Inventory Project, Jackson Family Wines helped secure a $20 million USDA grant to fund climate-smart agriculture for all types of U.S. farmers.

This is all a way of paying forward her own sylvan upbringing for future generations, Jackson feels. “As a larger wine company, it’s imperative that we demonstrate meaningful actions and progress. Particularly now that I have children, it’s become more personal to me that our company acts truly responsibly.”