Environmental sustainability of wine sector: A focus on pesticide management

The environmental sustainability of the wine industry is increasingly scrutinized due to its substantial use of pesticides, which are essential for maintaining crop yields and quality. This review explores the impact of pesticides within the vineyard lifecycle, emphasizing the need for effective management to align with broader sustainability goals. Despite several Life Cycle Assessment focused on grape and wine production and some reviews focusing on this topic were published, the role of pesticide application in the environmental profile of grape and wine production is still overlooked.

Our findings indicate a considerable variation in impact results, driven by differences in system boundaries and functional units used across studies. Pesticide emissions, particularly fungicides, significantly impact several environmental categories, including toxicity to aquatic environments and human health. Additionally, the energy-intensive production of these chemicals contributes to global warming potential and resource depletion.

The review advocates for improved pesticide management strategies in viticulture, promoting integrated pest management (IPM) to reduce dependency on chemical inputs. This shift not only supports environmental objectives but also ensures the economic sustainability of the wine sector. By integrating more accurate emission models, the assessment of toxicity related impact categories would become more robust and the benefits related to the adoption of sustainable practices could be better modelled.