Development and implementation of a qualitative framework for the sustainable management of wine companies

Gloria Luzzani; Lucrezia Lamastra; Fiamma Valentino; Ettore Capri

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143462

Development and implementation of a qualitative framework for the sustainable management of wine companies

Sci Total Environ. 2021 Mar 10:759:143462. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143462. Epub 2020 Nov 10.

Authors

Gloria Luzzani¹, Lucrezia Lamastra², Fiamma Valentino³, Ettore Capri²

Affiliations

¹ OPERA Research Center, Department for Sustainable Food Process, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore - Piacenza, Italy. Electronic address: gloria.luzzani@unicatt.it.
² OPERA Research Center, Department for Sustainable Food Process, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore - Piacenza, Italy.
³ Ministero dell'Ambiente e della Tutela del Territorio e del Mare, AT Sogesid - Roma, Italy.

PMID: 33199006
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143462

Abstract

A growing number of companies around the world have already adopted sustainable practices as the majority of consumers are increasingly concerned with environmental and health issues. Despite this, lack of knowledge in sustainability can represent a limit to a sustainable conversion of Italian wine companies. This paper focuses on the development and suitability assessment of TERRITORY, a qualitative framework that assists sustainable management of winery farms with respect to biodiversity, neighbouring land use, agrochemical use, soil management, water management, landscape, site selection, heritage-cultural and aesthetic aspects, product quality and safety, human resource management, health of employees, community and consumers, economic repercussion of structures and territories, resource depletion, procurement practices and traceability. 47 wine companies have adopted the framework and its suitability has been tested and validated in a ten years trial. The present work reports the results of TERRITORY framework adoption in a winemaking cooperative, a grape and wine producer and a bottling firm, that respectively performed 76%, 92%, 62% (where 100% is maximum implementation of sustainable practices), with lower adherence in water, landscape and human resources management. The framework has driven wine companies towards improvements implementation: most relevant deal with a more effective communication to local community and consumers about health and safety, protection of biodiversity (towards a deeper knowledge of its territorial features), territorial values enforcement and improved communication. From the results it emerges that the framework guides the structural transformation of wine farms towards sustainable production and management by assisting the wine producers in identifying emerging opportunities in wine sector, such as fostering network with local communities, defining better soil, and water management through a multi-actor approach. Furthermore, it has been adopted in addressing the selection of quantitative indicators to adopt and monitoring campaigns.

Keywords: Assessment; Certification; Food; Indicator; Sustainability; Territory.