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Life cycle methods and experiences of environmental sustainability assessments in the wine sector

Abstract:

The sustainability assessment of wine production under a life cycle perspective has rising growing interest since the first studies were carried out in 2001. The first part of this chapter is devoted to the revision of previous research on the application of the life cycle perspective to wine chain to provide an overview of key methodological aspects and main scientifically based findings, with special focus on the functional unit definition and the environmental hot spots identification. A broad description of current practices, covering organizational and different geographical scopes, is presented afterward to give the floor to a more detailed description of the Product Environmental Footprint method, the harmonized methodology for the calculation of the environmental footprint of products and organizations promoted by the European Commission. Consistent and standard methods are vital to guarantee transparent and proper communication about the burdens that products cause directly or indirectly on the environment, so the standardized types of voluntary environmental labels and declarations are introduced and their implementation in the wine sector described. Finally, from the knowledge gained in this chapter, the main challenges in relation to the application of both life cycle and circular economy-related approaches as well as the main obstacles that might slow down the success progress to achieve sustainability in the wine sector are draw.