VIVA Sustainable Wine is a project for "made in Italy" sustainable wine conceived by the Ministry of Environment to track the environmental quality of the production chain and to encourage the eco-sustainability in the Italian wine industry
Launched in July 2011 "VIVA Sustainable Wine" is intended to measure and improve the performances of sustainability of the chain vineyard-wine, starting from the experimentation with great Italian producers who have made the ecological impact of their production process from the field to the consumer to be assessed.
The wine industry represents a decisively fundamental sector in the national economy. Moreover, wine production is significant to our culture of management and of environmental protection, in close connection with the safety of products and the health of the consumers.
The project was created by nine great manufacturers selected on their location and products (F.lli Gancia, Masi Agricola, Marchesi Antinori, Mastroberardino, Michele Chiarlo, Castello Monte Vibiano Vecchio, Planeta, Tasca d'Almerita and Venica & Venica), in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and the world of research: Agroinnova Competence Center of the University of Turin, the Research Centre Work for Sustainable Agriculture of the Sacred Heart Catholic University and the Biomass Research Centre of the University of Perugia.
The objectives of the VIVA Sustainable Wine project are:
-The analysis of sample companies representative for wine production, in order to create a database to trace the current profile of the Italian viticulture in terms of eco-sustainability;
-Define the guidelines for sustainable production;
-Develop a sustainability code to initiate a certification for companies;
-Provide a practical informatic resource for assessing the environmental performance of vineyard management that takes into consideration social, economic and environmental aspects;
-Train technicians that can help companies to apply the protocols of sustainability;
-Publish these initiatives to the consumer, both in the Italian and in the international markets.
To assess the environmental impact of the nine wine producers' chains, four indicators (Air, Water, Land and Vineyard) were used. They returned data in terms of sustainability and developed ideas to undertake voluntarily a process of improvement.
The first results of "VIVA Sustainable Wine" will be presented on 7th April at Vinitaly, the international exhibition of wines and distillates that will take place in Verona from 7th to 10th April 2013.
