Sustainability indicators and the impact on intermediate and final consumers in the agro-industrial system: the wine case

In recent years, various indicators have been calculated with the aim to quantify the environmental emissions associated with the realization of an agro-industrial product. It’s the case of the Carbon Footprint (CF) which was calculated for the assessment of CO2 emissions; the Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (ELCA) which aims to evaluate in addition to CO2 emissions (GWP), expressed in kg CO2 eq, other impact indicators (eg Eutrophication Potential, EP; Acidification Potential, AP; or Abiotic Depletion, AD) associated with the different stages of the life cycle of a product; Water Footprint (WF) which aims to estimate the amount of water (in cubic meters) used to produce a good or a service used, and includes three components: green, blue and grey (Water Footprint Network, waterfootprint.org). The water footprint is a first-order indicator of human’s interference in the water cycle. By measuring evaporation and pollution, it shows the immediate impact on a local water system (Hoekstra, 2008). In addition, some studies have dealt to measure the social impacts of an agro-industrial product through Social-LCA. Wine is undoubtedly the sector most studied and to which the various indicators were applied and calculated. There are fewer studies that have analyzed the relationship between the calculation of the indicators and the level of use by the company and by the final consumer. Especially studies that take into account all the different indicators. This work aims to explore the relationship between some sustainability indicators and the potential impact on the final consumers and/or intermediate ones. Considering the link with the final consumer, it's important to analyze the communication ways and the ability of perception by the consumer himself. Furthermore, there are cases in which the calculation of the indicator for a supply-chain phase partly overlap with the indicator of its suppliers (e.g. WF) so it is important for the sharing of responsibilities. The reasoning is dealt from a purely theoretical point of view.