Mitigating climate change impacts in the wine supply chain through integrated energy and water efficiency assessment

Abstract

The wine industry is increasingly exposed to the combined effects of climate change, resource scarcity, and rising consumer expectations regarding environmental responsibility. Extreme weather events, water shortages, and fluctuating temperatures are threatening vineyard productivity, altering grape composition, and disrupting the stability of traditional production systems. As a result, wineries and supply chains must evolve toward more sustainable, resilient, and data-driven management models, integrating energy, water, and environmental efficiency into their operational and strategic decisions.

Building on the benchmarking methodology proposed by Ciotti et al. (2024) for assessing energy efficiency in wineries through Energy Performance Indicators (EnPIs) and outsourcing indices, this research extends that framework to include water-related dimensions, offering a comprehensive view of resource efficiency and sustainability in the wine supply chain.

The original Ciotti et al. approach demonstrated the value of categorizing wineries by process typology and energy intensity, allowing comparative benchmarking across different production contexts. In this study, the same systemic and modular methodology is applied to water management, integrating insights from water footprint analysis (Lamastra et al., 2014; Rinaldi et al., 2016) and supply chain optimization under water constraints (Aivazidou et al., 2022).

The resulting model enables the simultaneous evaluation of energy and water performance, highlighting their strong interdependence in achieving both environmental and economic sustainability. An extended benchmarking layer correlates energy and water consumption profiles with production scale, process configuration, and technological maturity, identifying key efficiency patterns and bottlenecks across the supply chain. Empirical results from a sample of Italian wineries reveal significant variability in both energy and water performance, emphasizing the influence of organizational maturity, climatic conditions, and process design. Smaller wineries tend to exhibit higher variability and sensitivity to external factors, while larger operations show more stable yet resource-intensive profiles. Overall, the extended Ciotti et al. methodology provides a holistic and scalable framework for assessing and improving sustainability performance in the wine sector. Its application can be extended internationally and offer valuable decision-making support information to wineries, consortia, policy makers and sustainability standards to guide climate mitigation actions, optimize energy and water efficiency, and develop coordinated strategies throughout the wine supply chain.

References

Aivazidou, E., Aidonis, D., Tsolakis, N., Achillas, C., Vlachos, D. (2022). Wine supply chain network configuration under a water footprint cap. Sustainability, 14(15), 9494. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14159494

Ciotti, G., Zironi, A., Bietresato, M., Gubiani, R., Zironi, R. (2024). Enhancing energy efficiency in wineries: A novel benchmarking approach. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments, 71, 103983. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2024.103983

Lamastra, L., Suciu, N. A., Novelli, E., Trevisan, M., Capri, E. (2014). A new approach to assessing the water footprint of wine: An Italian case study. Science of the Total Environment, 490, 748–756. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.05.063

Rinaldi, S., Bonamente, E., Scrucca, F., Merico, M. C., Asdrubali, F., & Cotana, F. (2016). Water and Carbon Footprint of Wine: Methodology Review and Application to a Case Study. Sustainability, 8(7), 621. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8070621