Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Department for Sustainable Food Process, Via Emilia Parmense 84, 29122 Piacenza, PC, Italy.
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Department for Sustainable Food Process, Via Emilia Parmense 84, 29122 Piacenza, PC, Italy.
Sci Total Environ. 2024 Apr 1;919:170630. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170630. Epub 2024 Feb 1.
Nowadays, there is a pressing demand for precise tools to quantify sustainability and assess the contributions of products and processes to sustainable development. This requirement extends to the wine industry as well. In 2013, the European Commission introduced the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF), providing a standardized methodology grounded in life cycle thinking for evaluating the environmental impacts of products across various industries. Despite its potential and the availability of specific guidelines for wine, the application of PEF remains unexplored in the sector. This study contributes to the knowledge by applying PEF to assess environmental impacts of Italian still and sparkling wines production, identifying variations from European benchmarks. Additionally, it aims to pinpoint pivotal hotspots and provide guidance for effective mitigation strategies. Average data from 27 wines certified as sustainable under Italian VIVA program, were collected and used to perform a life cycle assessment in accordance with PEF protocol. Results revealed that Italian still wines exhibited a greater environmental impact than the European reference value, while sparkling wines displayed a slightly more favourable environmental performance compared to the European average. Notably, specific impact categories remained consistent across different wines and countries, with climate change, resource utilization, land use, and particulate matter harmful for human health accounting for nearly 80 % of the overall environmental footprint. Hotspot analysis identified the plantation/destruction of vines, energy usage in the winery, and packaging as significant factors influencing the environmental footprint of Italian wines. Addressing these elements could enhance the environmental competitiveness of the Italian wine sector relative to its European counterparts. However, to validate these findings, further studies are necessary, both within Italy and in other European wine-producing regions. Such research initiatives will improve and strengthen PEF methodology, bolstering its adoption as the primary tool for environmental impact assessment of wine at the community level.
如今，人们迫切需要精确的工具来量化可持续性，并评估产品和工艺对可持续发展的贡献。这一需求也延伸到了葡萄酒行业。2013 年，欧盟委员会推出了产品环境足迹（PEF），为评估各行业产品的环境影响提供了基于生命周期思维的标准化方法。尽管它具有潜力，并且有针对葡萄酒的具体指南，但在该行业中，PEF 的应用仍未得到探索。本研究通过应用 PEF 来评估意大利静止和起泡葡萄酒生产的环境影响，从而为该领域的知识做出了贡献，确定了与欧洲基准的差异。此外，它旨在确定关键热点，并为有效的缓解策略提供指导。收集了 27 种在意大利 VIVA 计划下获得可持续认证的葡萄酒的平均数据，并根据 PEF 协议进行了生命周期评估。结果表明，意大利静止葡萄酒的环境影响大于欧洲参考值，而起泡葡萄酒的环境表现略优于欧洲平均水平。值得注意的是，不同葡萄酒和国家的具体影响类别保持一致，气候变化、资源利用、土地利用和对人类健康有害的颗粒物占总环境足迹的近 80%。热点分析确定了葡萄园/葡萄藤的种植/破坏、酿酒厂的能源使用和包装是影响意大利葡萄酒环境足迹的重要因素。解决这些问题可以提高意大利葡萄酒行业相对于其欧洲同行的环境竞争力。然而，为了验证这些发现，需要在意大利和其他欧洲葡萄酒生产地区进行进一步的研究。这些研究举措将改进和加强 PEF 方法，增强其作为社区层面葡萄酒环境影响评估的主要工具的采用。
