LIFE CYCLE APPROACH IN AN ORGANIC WINE- MAKING FIRM: AN ITALIAN CASE-STUDY

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1 LIFE CYCLE APPROACH IN AN ORGANIC WINE- MAKING FIRM: AN ITALIAN CASE-STUDY Luigia Petti*, Andrea Raggi*, Camillo De Camillis*, Paola Matteucci**, Balázs Sára*** and Giuseppina Pagliuca* * Department of Management, Statistical, Technological and Environmental Sciences University G. d Annunzio, Viale Pindaro 42, Pescara, ITALY l.petti@unich.it ** Azienda Agricola Matteucci Nicola Via Verso Tollo 198, Canosa Sannita, ITALY ***FEBE EcoLogic, Via Strocchi 16, Faenza, ITALY ABSTRACT This paper presents a case-study concerning the progressive adoption of a Life Cycle approach by a small Italian wine-making firm. The organisation under study already demonstrated a certain sensitivity to environmental issues, which was made clear from the adoption of organic production methods. As a first step, it was introduced to Life Cycle Thinking thanks to the implementation of VerdEE, a Life-Cycle-oriented tool for the selfevaluation of environmental performance. As a consequence, the management decided to introduce innovative measures in the packaging, which have led to reduced environmental impacts. This experience has certainly enhanced management and staff awareness of the importance of making strategic choices with respect to environmental performance throughout the entire product life cycle. As a follow-up action to VerdEE application, the management decided to implement a conventional LCA in order to obtain additional information on the environmental impacts generated by the life cycle of wine and identify further potential improvements. The preliminary results of the LCA implementation are presented here. Keywords: Organic Wine, Life Cycle Thinking, LCA, VerdEE, Case-study 1. INTRODUCTION The complexity of the environmental issues connected with the production and consumption of goods and services requires that a systematic and holistic approach for impact analysis and evaluation be developed. There is now a general consensus that it is not enough for a company to minimise environmental impacts at its own facilities, e.g. by the use of cleaner production technologies; it is necessary to broaden the analysis to an overall picture of the interrelations between a company s product and the environment in a life cycle perspective [1]. This is the concept of Industrial Ecology, that essentially calls for an integrated approach towards the environmental effect of industrial processes, rather than aiming at the reduction of the effects of separate processes. It promotes renewable energy, non-toxic materials, sustainable product design in a closed loop, crossing company boundaries. It is rooted within circular concepts of the product life cycle and based on the Precautionary Principle [2]. Agricultural practices can create significant negative environmental, social and economic impacts. These impacts are becoming increasingly significant for companies such as wineries that rely upon agricultural inputs for their products, since it has become more and more important to obtain agro-industrial products such as wine safeguarding the environment and health of the entire community.

2 To achieve this goal, many producers have adopted grape-growing systems with a low environmental impact such as organic farming and integrated pest control. This means a limited and controlled use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. Moreover, the strong ties of agricultural managers to the local territory have favoured the development of a particular environmental awareness, which finds concrete expression in a strong commitment to operating vineyards so as to obtain the best possible production while respecting tradition and making optimal use of innovations in production and control, in order to obtain a wine that satisfies the consumer s palate and simultaneously protects man and ecosystems. This is also the aim of the management of an organic winery, Azienda Agricola Nicola Matteucci, located at Canosa Sannita (Abruzzo region, Italy) which was involved in a research project aiming at testing the implementation of Life- Cycle-oriented tools in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The winery has 12 hectares of land planted with grapevines (the types of vines are all local in origin, for example: Montepulciano d Abruzzo, Trebbiano d Abruzzo and Pecorino). The annual production of grapes is, on the average, about 70 tonnes. Moreover, the winery carries out the wine making process, the packaging and the sale of the finished product to regional, national and international markets. The total annual production of wine averages around 50,000 litres. The winery cultivates grapes and processes them into wine following organic methods of production and it is monitored on a regular basis by an official control board. The winery management was firstly introduced to Life Cycle Thinking thanks to the implementation of a streamlined Life-Cycle-oriented approach, specially developed for SMEs (named VerdEE - Verification of Eco-Efficiency) [3]. As a result of VerdEE implementation, the management decided to introduce innovative measures in the packaging which were expected to be more environmentally-friendly. Afterwards, a full Life Cycle Assessment was carried out to quantify (as objectively as possible) the environmental impacts throughout the entire life-cycle of one of its products: organic red wine. A conventional LCA approach was also used to check the environmental preferability of the changes made to packaging as a result of VerdEE. Details on the implementation of VerdEE by this firm, as well as the main results obtained, have already been widely reported elsewhere [4-6]. However, to better illustrate the pathway followed by this firm towards the assimilation of a Life-Cycle approach, some major information on VerdEE will be concisely recalled here in section 2. Section 3 will focus, instead, on the implementation and result description of LCA. Future actions to improve the LCA model will be introduced in section 4, together with other conclusions concerning the Life-Cycle pathway. 2. VERDEE DESCRIPTION AND IMPLEMENTATION VerdEE is a simplified tool which allows a company to carry out a semi-quantitative environmental evaluation of its product that is reliable and consistent with the life cycle concept. The tool was originally developed by ENEA (the Italian National Agency for New Technology, Energy and the Environment) and ERVET Politiche per le Imprese S.p.A. (Regional Development Agency of Emilia-Romagna, Italy), with the collaboration of researchers from the University of Bologna, Italy, as part of a project sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Industry [3]. Two 5 X 5 assessment matrixes based on the Streamlined LCA (SLCA) method developed by Graedel [7, 8] are the central feature of VerdEE. The first matrix, called eco-efficiency matrix, aims at assessing environmental issues related to the main phases of the entire life cycle. The second matrix intends to identify improvement hot spots to support an eco-(re)design process. Despite the matrixes have a different scope, they are characterized by a common structure. The first dimension of a matrix consists of five basic life-cycle stages: pre-manufacturing, manufacturing, distribution and use, waste management, life cycle of the packaging. The other dimension regards environmental concerns, such as: material choice, energy and water use, solid wastes, waterborne emission and airborne emissions. Each cell in a matrix is assigned a score from zero (highest impact for the eco-efficiency matrix highest possibility to get improvements for the other matrix) to four (lowest impact for the eco-efficiency matrix lowest possibility to reach improvements for the latter matrix). The analyst is guided by a combination of experience, a design and manufacturing survey, appropriate checklists, and other information. Once an evaluation is done using the matrix approach, an overall environmentally responsible rating can be computed as the sum of the matrix elements. A more effective display of results is provided by target plots. The application of VerdEE may provide a company with the opportunity to get a better hold over its own product system, since it provides clear information on which stages of the life cycle are the most critical ones. A more detailed understanding of the production stages will make it easer to see clearly whether improvement is possible. The wine firm implemented VerdEE in Analysis of the VerdEE matrices, dealing with eco-efficiency and improvement opportunities (see Tables 1-2, respectively), showed that the most critical phases were: distribution and use, pre-production and packaging. This last phase is the one which emerged as the most likely to be improved. More specifically, the individual hot spots which showed the greatest opportunity for improvement were: 1. Airborne emissions and use of energy and water in the distribution phase (which refer to the distribution system, even on the international level, which is exclusively on rubber); 2. Airborne emissions, use of energy and water and solid waste generation in the packaging life cycle; 3. Airborne emissions, use of energy and water in the agricultural phase (pre-production) (which refer mostly to the use of mechanised farming equipment). 2

3 In light of the results of the VerdEE analysis, the winery under study decided to concentrate its efforts on improving the primary and secondary packaging. On the other hand, improvement of the distribution system could not be accomplished, at least in the short term, and there was no immediate possibility of improving the agricultural phase since this had already been brought up to date environmentally by the adoption of organic methods of cultivation. The improvement strategy regarded: the glass bottle, the cork and the cardboard box containing six bottles. In particular, as regards the glass bottle the following action was taken: the bottle bordolese Europea (weight: 600 g, height 31.6 cm) was replaced with a bordolese standard (weight 430 g, height 30 cm) having the same volume and analogous characteristics of resistance. The reduction in weight per bottle was 170 g, corresponding to 28.3% of the original weight. This has lead to benefits for the environment because of a lesser quantity of waste to process and a lesser quantity of raw material and energy required for the production of glass. In addition, an improvement in transportation also resulted from this change. The loading machinery which was able to load only 900 bottle at a time is now able to load 1170 bottles. This means 270 more bottle can be transported in each shipment. The substitution of the bottle led to a similar substitution of the cork with a lighter one. The original bottle called for a top of natural cork that weighed 4.80 g and was 4.4 cm long. The new bottle takes a cap of smaller size and weight (weight 3.70, length 3.8 cm). The result is the reduction of 1.1 g in the weight of each cork (about 25%). Moreover, the reduction of the height of bottles allowed the winery to use lower and lighter cardboard boxes as secondary packaging. Material choice Energy and water use Environmental concerns Solid wastes Waterborne emissions Airborne emissions Average score Life Cycle stages Pre-manufacturing Manufacturing Distribution and use NA NA Waste management NA NA NA NA NA NA Packaging Life Cycle Average score Overall score NA: Not Applicable Table 1. Eco-efficiency Matrix Material choice Energy and water use Environmental concerns Solid wastes Waterborne emissions Airborne emissions Average score Life Cycle stages Pre-manufacturing Manufacturing Distribution and use NA NA Waste management NA NA NA NA NA NA Packaging Life Cycle Average score Overall score NA: Not Applicable Table 2. Improvement Matrix 3

4 3. LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT 3.1 Goal and scope definition This LCA study has a twofold goal. The first one is to quantitatively assess agricultural practices, winemaking operations, packaging and transport processes concerning a red wine produced by the winery Azienda Agricola Nicola Matteucci in order to: 1. identify the stages that are responsible for major environmental impacts; 2. make efforts at such stages to reduce the overall negative environmental burdens. The second goal of the study is the assessment of the improvement solutions adopted by the winery after the implementation of VerdEE. A comparative assessment between the old product system and the current one is carried out in order to reach the second goal. The functional unit selected is a 750 ml bottle of organic red wine produced from Montepulciano d Abruzzo grapes, including primary packaging (glass bottle, thermo-retractile capsula, cork, adhesive label) and secondary packaging (cardboard box, PVC film and wooden pallet). This functional unit has been chosen because the objective of the entire process is to produce wine for drinking and the final product reaches the customer in a bottle with its package. The life cycle analysed so far is from the agricultural phase to distribution phase; system boundaries, indeed, extend from the vine field to the wine dealer (see Fig. 1). Wine consumption, transport of auxiliary materials, and the product s end-oflife phases have been temporarily excluded from this study. LCA processes and calculations wereimplemented through the GaBi 4 software [9]. 3.2 Life Cycle Inventory Assessment Fig 1. Life cycle flow-chart Most of the Inventory data, which are referred to 2003, were collected directly on site at the winery. When primary data were not available, processes included in Life Cycle Inventory databases were used. These will be specified on a case-by-case basis Grape production Grape production is an agricultural phase (pre-production) which includes all of the work on the vineyard (i.e.: pruning, vine-shoot tying, ploughing, organic fertilising, pest control activities, harvest, worker transportation to fields, laundry for working clothes, other field treatments, machinery maintenance, and high pressure water cleaning of equipments). When primary data were not available at this stage, processes included in the GaBi 4 database were used, with the exception of: 1. air compression process by a diesel engine, for which data from the I-LCA database were used [10]; 2. worker transportation to fields by diesel car, for which data from the IDEMAT database were used [11]; 3. detergent production, for which literature data were used [12]. In the case of the tractor used for field operations, primary data were integrated with secondary data from IDEMAT database [11]. It has been assumed that the tractor constantly runs at its maximum power of 60 kw. Provisionally, vineyard planting out and net absorption of CO 2 by vine plants have not been considered in this study. Since in the available databases, data were not found on the production process of vineyard strings used to tie vine shoots, only the production of the materials (HDPE and iron) which make up a string has been included in the study. The iron input flow of grape production also includes quantities of material for the maintenance of the navvy and milling machines. Styrene-Butadiene-Rubber (SBR) production has been considered for the consumption of working gloves and shoes. As field irrigation is not carried out for organic practices, water consumption has not been considered for this activity. Because of lack of data, milk, glucose and Bacillus thuringiensis bacteria - used for pest control and soil treatments were temporarily included in the analysis as input flows without considering any upstream production processes. 4

5 As regards copper released in pest control activities, it is assumed that 50% of copper is absorbed by vine plants, the rest remaining in the agricultural soil before reaching the ground water table [13] Wine production The wine production phase carried out by the winery starts with grape transportation, proceeds with winemaking processes and ends when the wine is ready to be packaged or sold as loose wine directly at the winery. These specific processes are briefly introduced hereafter. As a first step, grapes are transported to the winery by the above mentioned tractor. Then, the transformation of grapes, generally called winemaking, is carried out through the following processes: crushing, fermentation, pressing and clarification. Firstly, grapes are crushed and stemmed at the same time. The stems are removed because they would add unpleasant flavours to wine during fermentation. Crushing breaks up the large cells in the flesh of the grape fruit releasing the grape juice as free run juice, but it does not break down the cells within the skin or the seeds which are crucial to red wines flavour, in particular. The mixture of flesh, skins and seeds obtained after crushing is called must. Fermentation turns the sugars contained in must into alcohol and carbon dioxide. It is promoted by yeasts which produce enzyme catalysts. Old-fashioned wine making techniques simply used the yeasts which are naturally present on the skins of grapes, but modern winemakers, such a the winery under study, use commercially prepared yeasts to give more control over the winemaking. Fermentation is generally stopped when all sugars have been converted into alcohol, though in the production of sweet wines it can be stopped before this happens. Potassium metabisulphite is added to must to retard the growth of acetic acid bacteria, moulds, and wild yeast that are endogenous to grapes in the vineyard. After crushing, the free run juice can be drained off and the remaining solids can be pressed to release the flavours and colours in the skin and seeds in the solid pressings. Red wines need the colouring and flavour in the skins and the tannins in the seeds. Because of this they are fermented before pressing and may be given a second fermentation after pressing. Before processing is complete, wines are often cloudy due to the presence of suspended solid materials such as yeast cells, particles of skin and so on. Removal of the suspended material is called clarification and involves a number of different techniques: 1. Racking is the process of allowing the lees to settle and then decanting the wine from the lees. 2. Fining is the addition of a material such as bentonite (a type of clay), gelatine or albumin which adsorbs the particles and precipitates them. 3. Filtration can also remove yeast cells and bacteria. 4. Refrigeration can cause potassium hydrogen tartrate to precipitate out. The winery age its wine in large temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks that are above ground. Since nitrogen does not react with wine, it is commonly used to fill the empty space in tanks to avoid oxidation and, so, to preserve the taste. The co-products of the wine production stage are wine to be bottled and the loose wine. Since the functional unit is a wine bottle and not simply wine, it was necessary to carry out an allocation operation based on a mass criterion. When primary data were not available at this stage, processes included in the GaBi 4 database have been used. Due to lack of data, production processes have been temporarily excluded for the following products: activating substances, nitrogen, albumin, bentonite, potassium metasulphite and yeast. The ageing process has been also excluded because relevant data collection is still in progress Packaging This macro-process has been modelled in two different stages: primary packaging (or bottling) and secondary packaging. In the first stage wine is bottled in glass containers previously washed with water and soda. The filled bottle is then sealed with a cork, capsuled with PVC at the neck and labelled. In the second packaging stage, filled bottles are packaged in cardboard boxes, each of which contain six bottles. These boxes are then placed on wooden pallets and wrapped up with a polyethylene film. At the end of packaging process, the PVC film wrapping up the new bottles to be filled is discarded as a waste product and is disposed of in landfill. Cork and auxiliary materials, such as glue and ink, were not included in this study due to the lack of data; however, it should be highlighted that the amounts of such materials, on a mass basis, are relatively negligible. However, since in the case of toxic substances, being involved in negligible amounts does not necessarily justify their exclusion, toxicity potential of such materials will be investigated in the future. It was assumed that no recycled material is used for glass production since the percentage of recycled glass used to produce bottles was not known. Wooden pallet production were not considered in this study because all pallets are assumed to be reused virtually indefinitely. Also in this phase, when primary data were not available, processes included in the GaBi 4 database were used. 5

6 Distribution Organic wine bottles were sold in 2003 by Azienda Agricola Matteucci Nicola in regional (19%), national (61%) and international (20%) markets. The distribution system uses: a 38 t lorry-trailer to transport the products to foreign countries; a 7.5 t lorry to transport in Italy; a 3.5 van to deliver in the Abruzzo region. All of the transport processes were taken from GaBi 4 database. Average distances from the winery to its customers were calculated and percentage of lorry capacity were estimated. 3.3 Life Cycle Impact Assessment and Interpretation In the LCIA step classification, characterization and normalisation were carried out. The method used for impact assessment is CML 2001, which is a European LCA method released by the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) at Leiden University in the Netherlands. CML 2001 provides a framework for inventorying releases and resource consumption associated with a product or service, characterizing and normalizing midpoint impacts, and weighing the normalized damages. The CML method has been a standard method in the LCA industry since 1992 and was most recently updated in 2001 [14]. The CML impact categories considered in this study are: acidification (A), eutrophication (E), freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity (FAET), global warming (GW), human toxicity (HT), marine aquatic ecotoxicity (MAET), ozone layer depletion (OD), photochemical ozone creation (summer smog) (POC), radioactive radiation (RAD), and terrestrial ecotoxicity (TET). The results of characterisation are shown in Fig. 2 as percentage contributions of the various life-cycle phases to each impact category considered, while normalised data, based on CML parameters for Europe, are plotted in Fig. 3 (impact categories are reported as acronyms followed by the letter P for potential ; e.g.: FAETP = Freshwater Aquatic Eco- Toxicity Potential). As can be seen in Fig. 2, for the majority of impact categories, the most impacting life-cycle phase is primary packaging. 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% AP EP FAETP GWP HTP MAETP ODP POCP RADP TETP 1. Grape production 2. Wine production Secondary packaging 5. Distribution Fig 2. LCIA: Characterisation results 6

7 3,50E-12 3,00E-12 2,50E-12 2,00E-12 1,50E-12 1,00E-12 5,00E-13 0,00E+00 AP EP FAETP GWP HTP MAETP ODP POCP RADP TETP Fig 3. LCIA: Normalisation results Fig. 3 shows that Marine Aquatic EcoToxicity is the environmental impact with the highest normalised index value. The major potential contribution to this impact category comes by far, from the primary packaging phase. In particular, glass production is potentially responsible for about 86% of the overall contribution to marine aquatic ecotoxicity, while the grape production and the secondary packaging phases account for 10% and 3%, respectively. The percentage contribution of a few environmental flows to marine aquatic ecotoxicity is briefly shown in Table 3. It must be underlined that hydrogen fluoride, mainly emitted in glass production ( kg DCB-Equiv.), is the most important flow for this issue and, therefore, it can be identified as one of the major environmental hot-spots of the entire life-cycle. Environmental flows Hydrogen fluoride Flow category Inorganic emissions to air life cycle (kg DCB-Equiv.) Percentage contribution to the overall impact % Main responsible process/ Life Cycle stage main responsible process (kg DCB-Equiv.) Copper Heavy metals to agricultural soil % Grape production / Grape production Barium Inorganic emissions to fresh water % Table 3. Main environmental flows responsible for Marine Aquatic EcoToxicity Besides marine aquatic ecotoxicity, normalization has pointed out the following notable impact issues for the life cycle analysed: freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity, global warming and acidification. As regards the freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity issue, this is almost exclusively (97,5%) originated by copper used as anticryptogamic agent (pest control) in the grape production stage; a minor contribution comes from the primary packaging stage because of the inorganic emissions of barium during glass production. Flow details are shown in Table 4. Global warming potential contributions come mainly from primary packaging (62,2%) and at a lesser extent from the other life cycle phases: product distribution (16,4%), secondary packaging (10,4%), grape production (9,06%) and wine production (1,71%). Carbon dioxide, which is the most important flow as regards global warming, is mostly emitted during glass production. Other processes which are responsible for CO 2 emissions include: the tractor utilization for field operations; 7

8 oil refining to obtain diesel oil used as a fuel in product distribution; the domestic distribution; the production of low density polyethylene granulate (LDPE) necessary to manufacture the LDPE wrapping film used to package the bottle boxes placed on pallets. Methane emissions in glass production and in oil refining also potentially contribute to global warming. A minor contribution also comes from VOC released during LDPE production. The main flows associated with global warming potential are shown in Table 5. As regards acidification, it can be noted that all the life cycle stages play a significant role in potentially contributing to that issue. However, as for other issues, primary packaging is the most critical phase (49,1%), followed by product distribution (18,2%), secondary packaging (16,9%), grape production (9,26%) and wine production (6,45%). Both nitrogen oxides and sulphuric dioxide are mainly emitted to air during glass production. See Table 6 for the main flows related to the acidification issue. Environmental flows Flow category life cycle (kg DCB-Equiv.) Percentage contribution to the overall issue Main responsible process/ Life Cycle stage main responsible process (kg DCB-Equiv.) Copper Heavy metals to agricultural soil % Grape production / Grape production Barium Inorganic emissions to fresh water % Table 4. Main environmental flows responsible for Freshwater Aquatic EcoToxicity Environmental flows Flow category life cycle (kg CO2-Equiv.) Percentage contribution to the overall issue Main responsible process/ Life Cycle stage main responsible process (kg CO2-Equiv.) Tractor utilization / Grape production Carbon dioxide Inorganic emission to air % Oil refining / Distribution Domestic distribution/ Distribution Polyethylene low density gran. / Secondary packaging Corrugated cardboard/ Secondary packaging Methane Organic emission to air (group VOC) % Oil refining / Distribution VOC (unspecified) Organic emission to air (group VOC) % Polyethylene low density gran. / Secondary packaging Table 5. Main environmental flows responsible for Global Warming 8

9 Environmental flows Flow category life cycle (kg SO2-Equiv.) Percentage contribution to the overall issue Main responsible process/ Life Cycle stage Polyethylene low density gran. / Secondary packaging main responsible process (kg SO2-Equiv.) Nitrogen oxides Inorganic emissions to air % Domestic distribution/ Distribution Foreign distribution/ Distribution Tractor utilization/ Grape production Grape transport to winery / wine production Sulphuric dioxide Inorganic emissions to air % Polyethylene low density gran. / Secondary packaging Copper production / Grape production Polyethylene low density film / Secondary packaging Table 6. Main environmental flows responsible for Acidification 4. COMPARATIVE LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT After the adoption of improvement solutions founded on the results of the VerdEE analysis (see section 2), new inventory data were collected in order to compare the current improved system with the old one through the LCA tool (see Figs. 4-5 for characterisation and normalization results). Marine aquatic ecotoxicity remains the major environmental issue in terms of normalization index. However, a very significant improvement has been registered because of the packaging weight reduction (glass, cork and cardboard) which has determined an overall weight reduction of the reference flow. For that reason, the emissions associated to global warming, acidification, and photochemical ozone creation in the primary packaging and transport phases have decreased. In the latter phase, an environmental improvement is obtained as a consequence of the increased loading capacity of the lorries used for distribution due to the reduction of bottle volume. As regards the secondary packaging stage, the lower volume of bottles requires a smaller amount of LDPE film used to wrap up the filled pallet. This has also caused a notable reduction in the score of the global warming indicator. As a result of the implementation of the comparative LCA, the effectiveness of the improvement solutions adopted by the Azienda Agricola Matteucci Nicola firm, as well as the effectiveness of VerdEE, have been shown. In accordance with a continual improvement approach and in the light of the LCA results, the management is assessing to adopt biodynamic agricultural practices in order to reduce the copper usage which is responsible of a wide range of toxicity forms: marine aquatic ecotoxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity and human toxicity. 9

10 Organic w ine Organic w ine (2005) 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% AP EP FAETP GWP HTP MAETP ODP POCP RAD TETP Fig 4. Comparative analysis: characterisation Organic wine Organic wine (2005) 3,50E-12 3,00E-12 2,50E-12 2,00E-12 1,50E-12 1,00E-12 5,00E-13 0,00E+00 AP EP FAETP GWP HTP MAETP ODP POCP RAD TETP Fig 5. Comparative analysis: normalization 5. CONCLUSIONS In the case under study the sensitivity of the company management to environmental issues, already made clear by the adoption of organic production methods, was most certainly a leading factor to the implementation of VerdEE, a valid tool for self-evaluation of environmental performance. 10

11 It should also be noted that the attention to a holistic approach and to the quality of the information collected were actually reinforced by the systematic nature of the tool itself and its application to the various phases of the product s life cycle. That experience has certainly enhanced management and staff awareness of the importance of making strategic choices with respect to environmental performance throughout the entire product life cycle. Moreover, the fact that the company was so quick to consider the opportunity for reducing packaging, shows that they have fully understood the role of VerdEE as a support mechanism for re-designing a product system with the aim of ongoing improvement of the product s environmental quality. In addition, since the improvement adopted resulted in a decrease in costs, the company was able to demonstrate that environmental performance and savings can be accomplished simultaneously. After the implementation of VerdEE, the winery firm supported its improvement decisions by structuring an LCA study based on quantitative data. The preliminary LCA results, also presented in this paper, confirm VerdEE results and prove its effectiveness. According to a continuous improvement approach, the LCA model will be completed in the next future focusing on: further data collection to cover all the lacks; modelling of the bottle end-of-life; solving methodological concerns (i.e.: net absorption of CO 2 by vineyard); data quality analysis. 6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Our sincere thanks go to the management and staff of the Azienda Agricola Matteucci Nicola for their invaluable collaboration in this project. 7. REFERENCES 1. Bylin, C., R. Misra, M. Murch. and W. Rigterink, Sustainable Agriculture: Development of an On-farm Assessment Tool, Center for Sustainable Systems, Report No. CSS04-03, University of Michigan, USA, Boons, F. A. A. and L. W. Baas, Types of Industrial Ecology: the problem of coordination, J. Cleaner Prod., vol. 5, nos. 1-2, 1997, pp Masoni, P., B. Sára, E. Scimìa and A. Raggi, VerdEE A tool for adoption of Life Cycle Assessment in small and medium sized enterprises in Italy, Progress in Industrial Ecology, Vol. 1, nos. 1-3, 2004, pp Morgante, A., A. Raggi, L. Petti and P. Matteucci, Applicazione della procedura VerdEE al ciclo di vita di un vino biologico abruzzese, Atti XXI Congresso Nazionale di Merceologia, Foggia, Italy, September 2004, pp Raggi, A., L. Petti and P. Matteucci, Implementation of VerdEE Methodology to an organic Wine of the Abruzzo Region, Proc. of the 12th SETAC Europe LCA Case Studies Symposium, Bologna, Italy, January 2005, pp Petti, L., A. Raggi and P. Matteucci, Applicazione della procedura VerdEE al ciclo di vita di un vino biologico abruzzese, De Qualitate, July-August 2005, pp Graedel, T.E., B.R. Allenby and P.R. Comrie, Matrix approaches to abridged life cycle assessment, Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 29, no. 3, 1995, pp Graedel, T.E. and B.R. Allenby, Industrial Ecology, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, PE Europe GmbH and IKP University of Stuttgart, GaBi 4, Software and Database for Life Cycle Engineering, January, ANPA, I-LCA database, Italian Database for Life Cycle Assessment, 2nd version, IdeMat database, 2001 in: Pré Consultants, SimaPro 5, Amersfoort, The Netherlands, Saouter, E., G. Hoof, C. Pittinger and T. Feijtel, The effect of Compact Formulations on the Environmental Profile of Northern European Granular Laundry Detergents, International Journal of LCA, no. 6, 2002, pp Matteucci, P., Valutazione del ciclo di vita di un vino biologico. Il caso del Montepulciano d Abruzzo D.O.C. dell Azienda Agricola Matteucci Nicola, Master degree dissertation, University G. d Annunzio, Pescara, Kirk, B., C. Etnier, E. Kärrman and S. Johnstone. Methods for Comparison of Wastewater Treatment Options. Project No. WU-HT Prepared for the National Decentralized Water Resources Capacity Development Project. Washington University, St. Louis, MO, by Ocean Arks International, Burlington, VT,