Sustainable Industrial Sotol Production in Mexico—A Life Cycle Assessment

Juan Manuel Madrid-Solórzano, Jorge Luis García-Alcaraz (), Eduardo Martínez Cámara, Julio Blanco Fernández and Emilio Jiménez Macías
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Juan Manuel Madrid-Solórzano: Instituto de Arquitectura, Diseño y Arte, Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez. Av. del Charro 450 Norte. Col. Partido Romero, Ciudad Juárez 32310, Chihuahua, Mexico
Jorge Luis García-Alcaraz: Instituto de Ingeniería y Tecnología, Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, Av. del Charro 450 Norte. Col. Partido Romero, Ciudad Juárez 32310, Chihuahua, Mexico
Eduardo Martínez Cámara: Departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica, Universidad de La Rioja, C/San José de Calasanz, 31., Logroño 26006, La Rioja, Spain
Julio Blanco Fernández: Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica, Universidad de La Rioja, C/San José de Calasanz, 31., Logroño 26006, La Rioja, Spain
Emilio Jiménez Macías: Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica, Universidad de La Rioja, C/San José de Calasanz, 31., Logroño 26006, La Rioja, Spain

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 12, 1-12

Abstract: Sotol is a distilled spirit made in the north of Mexico produced from the wild plant Dasylirion wheeleri . Although sotol was awarded the Designation of Origin (DO) in 2002 and has an economic influence on the DO region, its environmental profile has not been determined. For that reason, this paper reports a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of the industrial sotol production process in the Mexican state of Chihuahua to determine any significant environmental impacts caused by sotol production from raw material acquisition to the packaging stage. The LCA was modeled using SimaPro 8.5.2 software (PRé Sustainability, Amersfoort, The Netherlands) and the environmental impacts were calculated using the CML-IA baseline v3.03/EU25 impact assessment technique. The findings reveal that sotol beverage manufacturing considerably affects three of the eleven impact categories selected and that the harvesting and bottling stages have the greatest negative environmental impact of all the sotol production stages. According to empirical data, one bottle (750 mL) of sotol results in a higher carbon dioxide value than any other spirit evaluated in earlier LCA studies, with white, rested, and aged sotol generating 5.07, 5.12, and 5.13 kg CO 2 eq, respectively. Other drinks, such as mescal, classic gin, and whisky generate only 1.7, 0.91, and 2.25 kg CO 2 eq, respectively. In conclusion, sotol distillery companies should start to decrease road transport of raw materials used in the packaging stage and begin to cultivate sotol instead of extracting it from the wild as strategies to achieve cleaner production.

Keywords: LCA; environmental impact; carbon footprint; carbon emissions; sustainable production (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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