Summerhill Pyramid Winery owner Stephen Cipes has been named the first recipient of the Sustainability Leader of the Year Award at the inaugural Eco-Nomics Awards.

The awards, handed out by the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce and Okanagan College’s Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE), recognize businesses and business leaders who successfully integrate environmentally sustainable practices in their business operations.

“I’m really touched by this because it recognizes the work we are trying to do,” said Cipes.

He said in addition to his winery producing certified organic wines, the cellar where they are produced has now been certified organic too.

Admitting it costs more to create wine without using chemicals,

Cipes said he feels it is worth it and so, apparently, do others.

He said when he came to B.C. in 1986 and saw Okanagan Lake, he realized that it was the source for much of the drinking water here and had to be protected. That pushed him to stop using chemicals in his vineyards.

Cipes grew up on Long Island Sound off New York, and said that water is now heavy pollute. He did not want to see that happen here.

Cipes feels the award from the Chamber and SIFE is vindication for the work he and others at his winery have been doing over the last 26 years.

In addition to the Sustainability Leader Of The Year award, four other awards were handed out at a luncheon earlier this week in Kelowna.

Spider Agile Technology Inc. was named the Industry, Agriculture and Manufacturing Award winner, Granville Island Candle Company was named the Retail and Consumer Goods Award winner, Orchard Park Shopping Centre and its operator, Oxford Management, were named the Business and Professional Services Award winner and the Best Western Inn was named the Personal Services And Hospitality Award winner.

Best Western general manager Trevor Salloum said the measures his

hotel has taken, including the use of solar power, have not only been good for the atmosphere, they have saved the hotel money— an estimated $40,000 per year in energy costs. “You hope to leave the planet in better shape than you found it,” he told the audience at the luncheon.