Seven Additional Wineries from France, Italy, Spain, Argentina and the U.S. Receive Medals for Their Outstanding Ground-to-Glass Sustainability Programs FORT WORTH, Texas – The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT®) is pleased to announce the winners in its 2017 International Award of Excellence in Sustainable Winegrowing competition. The platinum medal goes to Yealands Family Wines (Yealands) of Marlborough, New Zealand, based on the winery’s on-going programs that address the three elements of sustainability: environmental, economic, social – and of course, how well the wine itself tastes. Yealands’ achievements in sustainability include being the world’s first winery certified carboNZeroCertTM as well as operating New Zealand’s largest solar array: generating over 411 kilowatts o...

Carter Smith, Executive Director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to receive BRIT’s conservation award FORT WORTH, Texas – Carter Smith, executive director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) and BRIT’s 2016 recipient of the International Award of Excellence in Conservation, is passionate about the great outdoors. He’s championed the Children & Nature Network movement in Texas, and he’s been extremely active in the realms of private lands stewardship, invasive species issues, coastal conservation, and acquisition of new park land for state parks and wildlife management areas. As executive director of TPWD, a position he’s held since 2008, Smith is responsible for overseeing an agency of 3,100 professionals in 11 different divisions, including Wildlife, State Parks,...