Finding ways to conserve and reuse water offers a company more than just awards for water conservation. It can save a bundle in energy costs as well.

That’s the lesson from California winery, Jackson Family Wines, home of the Kendall Jackson brand. The company has developed a filtration process that cuts water use 70% and dramatically reduces the vineyard’s demand for electricity to process, heat, clean and transfer water.

After testing this new water filtering and recycling technology, Jackson reduced its water demand by 6 million gallons a year. And with that much less water to process, the winery has reduced power consumption by 9 million kilowatts a year. That’s enough to power 1,300 homes, according to the company’s statement.

Jackson racks up big energy savings because the new filtering process lets it reuse 90% of the water for cleaning wine barrels and tanks and other equipment. The recycled water retains 75% of the heat, so Jackson needs less electricity.

And since Jackson is committed to sustainability, the company made sure that the filtering process also removes organic material that can be composted.

Jackson plans to offer the technology to wineries and other types of companies.

The water-conservation project is just the latest green achievement by the Santa Rosa-based company.

It just installed a new energy-efficient lighting system that is expected to cut electricity bills by $100,000 a year. The new high-intensity, fluorescent lighting system was supplied by General Electric’s Consumer & Industrial division.

Tags: energy-efficient lighting, GE Consumer, Kendall Jackson, water conservation