Environmental Impacts of Organic and Biodynamic Wine Produced in Northeast Italy
by Paola Masotti, Andrea Zattera, Mario Malagol ORCID and Paolo Bogoni
Abstract: Increasing awareness of sustainability in the agri-food sector is leading to a gradual
transition toward lower-impact farming systems, such as organic and biodynamic farming. The
environmental performance of organic wines has largely been compared to that of conventional
wines, and few researchers have investigated the differences between organic and biodynamic wine
production from an environmental point of view. Therefore, in this study, the environmental profiles
of two organic and two biodynamic wines produced in two areas in Northeast Italy were assessed by
performing a “cradle-to-gate” analysis according to the life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodology.
Results were used both to compare organic and biodynamic vitiviniculture and to draw overall
conclusions on the environmental performance of each of the analyzed wines in order to identify
environmental hotspots and provide recommendations to stakeholders. Production of the glass
bottles was identified as the main source of environmental burden in all four systems, followed either
by the production and use of fertilizers and pesticides, or the use of agricultural machinery. Results
also showed that biodynamic wines seem to be responsible for lesser environmental impacts than
organic ones.
Keywords: agri-food; organic; biodynamic; wine; life-cycle assessment (LCA); environmental