Sustainability evaluation of a Portuguese “terroir” wine

Abstract

The challenges of sustainability are transversal to all human activities, and the wine sector has its own role to play in the march for a more sustainable development. The proper definition of the most adequate measures and/or policies must be based on an objective and quantitative evaluation of the sustainability of a product or process. In this work the sustainability of a "terroir" wine is assessed taking into account its life cycle and using the following indicators: carbon and water footprint, material intensity, solid waste generated, worker turnover rate, investment in H&S training and EBITDA. All indicators are expressed per functional unit of 0.75 L of wine. The evaluation used data from the company complemented with data/information from the literature or life cycle inventory databases. To account for climatic variability, data from three consecutive years was used. Average values of 3.51 kgCO 2 eq and 481.4 L per functional unit were obtained for the carbon and water footprint respectively, both values within the range of values reported in the literature.

A Water Footprint Review of Italian Wine: Drivers, Barriers, and Practices for Sustainable Stewardship

“…More specifically, an evaluation of both direct and indirect freshwater use was performed for a Portuguese white wine variety during the viticulture and the winemaking stages, further analysing the related environmental impacts of water use [30]. In addition, a more comprehensive analysis included the LCA of the carbon, water, and energy footprints, as well as the material intensity and solid and water wastes, of a bottle wine during the phases of grapes' cultivation, wine production, bottling and packaging in Portugal [31]. More recently, the water-related ISO 14046 was used to analyse the WF profile of a Spanish grape variety for vinification and to address the impacts due to water scarcity and degradation from a life cycle perspective [32].…”

Performance indicators to support firm-level decision-making in the wine industry: a systematic literature review

“…This can be confirmed by the various initiatives to develop and implement guidelines, computational tools and certification schemes to assist wine growers and producers in being more sustainable. This situation represents not only a challenge but also creates business opportunities and/or competitive advantages, improving the performance of firms and/or wine regions (Martins et al, 2017).…”

“…Furthermore, the correlation was examined between efficiency scores and some performance indexes concerning profitability. Martins et al (2017) Based on the results, the processes or parts of the wine's life cycle with the most significant impact on the system's sustainability are identified, and potential solutions and/or improvements for them are proposed. The main differences between the two wines are due to differences in the production process, winemaking, an aspect still overlooked in practice that may be relevant in firms that produce many brands of wine with significant differences between them.…”

“…The wine industry is one of the oldest activities in the agri-food sector (Martins et al, 2017) and constitutes a significant economic activity for several countries (Maurel et al, 2017). According to OIV (2020), in 2019, the world wine export market expanded with respect to 2018 both in volume -105.8 mhl (þ1.7%)and value -e3.8bn (þ0.9%).…”

“…As several indicators can be used for decision-making, properly identified, defined and calculated indicators are in high demand (Martins et al, 2017). Nevertheless, it is crucial to identify commonly used indicators to monitor the wine industry.…”