Sustainable winegrowing: current perspectives

Abstract

The winegrowing sector worldwide is strongly committed to improving environmental and social sustainability. The aim of this work, based on a literature review, is to highlight cur- rent sustainability perspectives and the related main issues. There is a broad consensus that the challenge to achieve a greater spread of sustainable practices is to enhance environmental and social sustainability while maintaining economic viability. From the producers’ point of view, the priority is to bridge the still substantial knowledge gaps in terms of perceived environmental benefits, economic benefits, and costs. Thus, an increased research effort focusing on the costs and benefits of different winegrowing practices and technical assistance with implementation might support their diffusion. Moreover, targeted marketing strategies are needed to: enhance consumers’ involvement and their attitude toward sustainable wine; improve understanding and use of sustainable labels and claims; and raise awareness of some environmental credentials of wine packaging, mainly with reference to lightweight glass bottles

Rethinking Sustainability within the Viticulture Realities Integrating Economy, Landscape and Energy

“…The Italian country embodies the second largest wine producer recording a world market share of 16.4% and a turnover of €10.5 billion [49][50][51]. The rising demand, even foreign, of Italian wine resulted into a strong increase in recent decades [35]. The growing devotion that wine sector dedicates on quality allowed to create a reference point for data and analysis of the Italian wine heritage [52,53], which boasts 523 protected products with designation of origin (PDO) and protected geographical indication (PGI) ( Figure 1 and Table 1).…”

“…Compared to other agricultural activities, the wine industry as an evolving economic activity resulted to be very inclined to achieve a rich set of tasks through its specific organizational capacities and resources [50]. As in other European countries, numerous sustainable practices have already been implemented by many firms in the wine industry during the last years, based on voluntary standards, management systems and specific agendas [35,50,54,55]. Compared to other agricultural activities, the wine industry as an evolving economic activity resulted to be very inclined to achieve a rich set of tasks through its specific organizational capacities and resources [50].…”

“…Compared to other agricultural activities, the wine industry as an evolving economic activity resulted to be very inclined to achieve a rich set of tasks through its specific organizational capacities and resources [50]. The effects of recent trends in the wine sector are visible on the local landscape [35]. Using Corine Land Cover maps, vineyard realities and landscape changes can be observed during three-time periods (2000, 2006 and 2012).…”

“…The effects of recent trends in the wine sector are visible on the local landscape [35]. Using Corine Land Cover maps, vineyard realities and landscape changes can be observed during three-time periods (2000, 2006 and 2012).…”

An overview of the biodynamic wine sector

“…11 Currently, on the market, the presence of several competing "green" categories with different logos and claims (natural, organic, biodynamic, sustainable wine, etc) has created confusion among the consumers who are not well informed about these product specifications or properties; this fact has increased the consumers' uncertainty and affected their choices. 10 The aim of this work is to provide an overview of the biodynamic wine sector based on the available literature and recent data. The analysis of the materials is performed according to the following steps: first the biodynamic movement is explained in its main characteristics, and the certification system is included.…”