Sustainability Index in the Yerba Mate Industry in Southern Brazil

Yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis A. St.-Hil.) is a legacy of the Guarani tradition that the peoples of Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil have shared for centuries. It is usually consumed as a mildly stimulating drink called mate. However, numerous other applications exist, such as in the composition of pharmaceutical products, dyes, cosmetics, food, and beverages. It’s industrialization for producing yerba mate relies on relatively simple processes, of which little information is available related to sustainability. This work proposes evaluating the yerba mate processing industry’s environmental, social, and economic aspects. Thus, industries from southern Brazil—Rio Grande do Sul state—were interviewed and answered a questionnaire with indicators associated with the tripod of sustainability. The responses were applied to a mathematical model to calculate the sustainability index. As a result, it was found that the maximum degree of sustainability for the environmental scope was obtained in 40% of the industries interviewed. In contrast, in the economic scope, it was 25%, and in the social scope, 35% of the interviewed sectors. The global sustainability index was identified with a maximum degree for only 20% of the industries interviewed. These results show that there is still room for improvement and the need for interventions so that more industries achieve excellence. The results based on this system provide subsidies for adapting processes and certifying that production follows guidelines and other standardization aspects associated with sustainability, contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and emphasizing the search for sustainable food production.