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 kgCO2eq 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.