Life Cycle Assessment and Carbon Footprint in the Wine Supply-Chain

Abstract

Global warming represents one of the most critical internationally perceived environmental issues. The growing, and increasingly global, wine sector is one of the industries which is under increasing pressure to adopt approaches for environmental assessment and reporting of product-related greenhouse gas emissions. The International Organization for Vine and Wine has recently recognized the need to develop a standard and objective methodology and a related tool for calculating carbon footprint (CF). This study applied this tool to a wine previously analyzed using the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The objective was to test the tool as regards both its potential and possible limitations, and thus to assess its suitability as a standard tool. Despite the tool's user-friendliness, a number of limitations were noted including the lack of accurate baseline data, a partial system boundary and the impossibility of dealing with the multi-functionality issue. When the CF and LCA results are compared in absolute terms, large discrepancies become obvious due to a number of different assumptions, as well as the modeling framework adopted. Nonetheless, in relative terms the results seem to be quite consistent. However, a critical limitation of the CF methodology was its focus on a single issue, which can lead to burden shifting. In conclusion, the study confirmed the need for both further improvement and adaptation to additional contexts and further studies to validate the use of this tool in different companies.

Wineries’ Perception of Sustainability Costs and Benefits: An Exploratory Study in California

“…New research avenues could also compare costs and benefits of sustainable practices in the wine industry with other important agricultural sectors. Finally, further research should carefully analyze the interesting possibilities offered by linking wineries' (in California and elsewhere) management systems, environmental declarations, life cycle assessments and similar aspects using a product-oriented environmental management system (POEMS), as the POEMS offers an approach to address both policy sustainability goals and growing consumer interest in sustainable productions [31][32][33].…”

Il contributo dei fertilizzanti all'effetto serra nella filiera vitivinicola

“…Le applicazioni di LCA al settore del vino sono numerose [33][34][35][36] e altrettanto numerose sono le applicazioni di Carbon Footprint. Il settore vitivinicoloè ad oggi un settore produttivo globale in cui si confrontano costantemente tutti i produttori da tutte le nazioni su aspetti sia qualitativi che ambientali.…”

“…Tra tali coltureè possibile includere vitivinicoltura che, nelle sue forme varie forme di allevamento può avere una funzione ambientale attraverso la stabilizzazione (comunemente chiamato stoccaggio) della CO 2 atmosferica nelle proprie strutture vegetali e nel suolo [36][37][38][39][40][41][42]. Il carbonio atmosfericoè l'elemento di base di tutta la struttura della vite e la crescita delle stesse si ritiene possa stoccare elevate quantità di carbonio atmosferico sia nelle strutture lignee che nel suolo.…”

Considerations When Applying Simplified LCA Approaches in the Wine Sector

“…As climate change and water scarcity are two issues that have been raised by several stakeholders, the use of such a reduced set of indicators appears to be quite appropriate, mainly in terms of communicability to the final users. Nevertheless, it should be noted that focusing on a single environmental impact may result in neglecting any shifting of impacts from one category to another and thus in not promoting the improvement of the overall environmental performance [7]. This tool is not fully ISO-compliant, but it is PAS2050-and BPX-compliant, user-friendly and includes the possibility to extract the necessary data in order for it to be directly inserted into Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) reports [2].…”