Environmental Management Systems in the wine industry: identification of best practices toward a Circular Economy

Over the last decades, great attention has been paid to sustainability issues in the wine industry. Thus, many sustainability practices are spreading and at the same time many efforts have been carried out to spread them. In... [ view full abstract ]

Over the last decades, great attention has been paid to sustainability issues in the wine industry. Thus, many sustainability practices are spreading and at the same time many efforts have been carried out to spread them. In pursuing sustainability, a great number of wine firms have also implemented Environmental Management Systems (EMSs), in compliance with international standards for EMS as ISO 14001 and EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme). Furthermore, in recent years also the concept of circular economy (CE) has become widely diffused. The transition from the dominant “take-make-dispose” economic model towards a circular economy is engaging governments, institutions and researchers around the world, with the goal of achieving a more sustainable society. Limited natural resources and environmental issues related to production are the main drivers of this revolution. Indeed, several national policies, businesses and consumers are gradually adapting to this new approach. Different tools have been proposed to enhance the process circularity in different sectors, including the EMAS Regulation. The aim of the present paper is to examine the potential contribution of the Environmental Management System, defined by the European Regulation EMAS, toward a circular economy and society. In particular, it explores the potential application of EMAS environmental indicators as a baseline for the implementation of specific CE indicators. It also evaluates the role of EMAS for the dissemination of good practices and the identification of indicators for CE in wine industry. Starting from the analysis of indicators defined by the EMAS European Regulation, we have identified how these indicators can capture the 3R principles of CE. Even though they can describe companies’ efforts in terms of input material and output waste streams reductions, they lack in measuring reuse and recycling practices that are core activities in a CE approach. Nevertheless, these indicators are a starting point to evaluate circular processes that fully embrace the logic of the “closed loop” production. As the paper has shown, the micro-level CE indicators that have been developed till now might be integrated together with EMAS indicators developed in the wine industry to create common metrics to measure CE progress in the wine sector.