Product Environmental Carbon Footprint Report: Organic Sparkling Wine

Abstract

In this work a carbon footprint was assessed by Natural Resources Institute Finland (later: Luke) for one organic sparkling wine product produced in Italy for Vindirekt Finland Oy (later: Vindirekt). Methodically, the work followed the ISO 14040, ISO 14044 and ISO 14067 standards and aimed to follow Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR) calculation guidelines (EU 2018) for the climate impacts to the best of its ability. The PEFCR for wine has been developed in accordance with the requirement provided in the PEFCR Guidance 6.3 (EU 2017) and PEF (EU 2013). Data was collected in one grape farm and winery in Italy from the year 2019. The study covered production of farm inputs, grape cultivation in vineyard, wine making processes in winery, production of packaging and bottling, as well as logistics from Italy to Finland (into Vindirekt’s warehouse). The retail, consumer (consumption) and end of use phases are excluded, as well as production of infrastructure (machinery, roads etc.). In addition, of all the multiple impact categories mentioned in PEFCR, only a climate impact was taken into consideration in this study. Climate impact results consisted of fossil and biogenic CO2-equivalents (including N2O, CH4 and CO2 emissions) taking into account possible land use and soil carbon changes. This report is presenting the main climate impact results with the most essential climate impact sources. The key issues on the assessment methodology and how the study was executed according to Wine PEFCR (EU 2018) will be presented in this report (and when not, clearly reported). Very detailed reporting under PEF was not carried out. The carbon footprint of the sparkling wine is 1.0 kg CO2 eq per 0.75L of bottled sparkling wine. Package (glass bottle) production produces the largest share (65%) of the impacts. The second largest share (12%) comes from grape production, of which the highest emissions were from composting the organic fertilizer, N2O emissions from fertilizer and green manure use, and tractor diesel consumption. The third largest share was from distribution (11%), then second fermentation (9%), and lastly vinification process (3%).