Identifying Hotspots and Most Relevant Flows for Red and White Wine Production in Brazil through Life Cycle Assessment: A Case Study

Tiago Panizzon, Gregório Bircke Salton, Vania Elisabete Schneider and Matheus Poletto ()
Additional contact information
Tiago Panizzon: Graduate Program in Engineering of Processes and Technologies (PGEPROTEC), University of Caxias do Sul, Caxias do Sul 95070-560, Brazil
Gregório Bircke Salton: Salton Winery, Mário Salton Street, 300—Tuiuty District, Bento Gonçalves 95710-000, Brazil
Vania Elisabete Schneider: Graduate Program in Civil Engineering (PROEC), Federal University of Sergipe, Marcelo Deda Chagas Avenue, Rosa Elze District, São Cristóvão 49107-230, Brazil
Matheus Poletto: Graduate Program in Engineering of Processes and Technologies (PGEPROTEC), University of Caxias do Sul, Caxias do Sul 95070-560, Brazil

Resources, 2024, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-22

Abstract: This study undertakes a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of red and white wine production in Brazil, focusing on a leading winery in the Serra Gaúcha region. Given the notable lack of similar research in this area, our study employs LCA methodologies to evaluate the environmental impacts associated with the winery stage. Our results indicate that although white wine generally exhibits a lower environmental impact than red wine, the specific impacts differ substantially across various environmental categories, highlighting the necessity for context-specific assessments. We also find that electricity consumption, sugar usage, and liquid CO 2 production are the primary drivers of environmental impacts, especially in toxicity-related categories. Moreover, our research critically examines the suitability of the Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR) within the Brazilian context and proposes a revised set of impact categories. This revision enhances the accounted impacts from 55% in the existing PEFCR 2.0 to 80% in our recommended framework, suggesting the need for more tailored environmental impact assessment tools in regional settings. Through these findings, our study not only addresses a significant gap in LCA research within the Brazilian wine industry but also sets the stage for improved environmental management practices across Brazilian wine industries. These enhancements are crucial for aligning local production processes with global sustainability standards and advancing the environmental stewardship of the wine sector in Brazil.

Keywords: wine; LCA; PEFCR; Brazil; hotspots (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/13/7/88/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/13/7/88/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jresou:v:13:y:2024:i:7:p:88-:d:1421962

Access Statistics for this article

Resources is currently edited by Ms. Donchian Ma

More articles in Resources from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().