Joint life cycle assessment and data envelopment analysis of grape production for vinification in the Rías Baixas appellation (NW Spain)

An important percentage of European wine appellations base their production on a broad number of vine-growers that annually sell their grapes to the wineries under the specific Denomination of Origin. Hence, the use of average values for the environmental evaluation of this type of multiple datasets can create large standard deviations that may impede an adequate interpretation of the results. Combined implementation of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), known as LCA + DEA methodology, has proven to be a suitable tool for assessing multiple input/output data in several agri-food systems, such as aquaculture, farming or fisheries. In the current study, a total of 40 vine-growing exploitations belonging to the Rías Baixas appellation (NW Spain) were analyzed following LCA + DEA methodology in order to determine the level of operational efficiency of each producer. Furthermore, potential reductions in the consumption levels of the material inputs were benchmarked, while calculating the environmental gains linked to these reduction targets, thus verifying eco-efficiency criteria. Results led to average reduction levels of up to 30% per material input, which translated into environmental gains that ranged from 28% to 39% depending on the selected impact category. Additionally, a super-efficiency analysis led to identify the best performing units, which were used as a source of reference values for environmental impacts. Finally, potential economic savings of 0.14 € per functional unit (i.e.; 1.1 kg of grapes for the production of a common 750 ml bottle of wine) were estimated on the basis of efficient vine-growing practices.