Exploring sustainability potentials in vineyards through LCA? Evidence from farming practices in South Africa

A. E. Strever,H. J. Ponstein,V. Russo

doi:10.1007/s11367-021-01911-3

Abstract

PurposeFollowing the urgency to curb environmental impacts across all sectors globally, this is the first life cycle assessment of different wine grape farming practices suitable for commercial conventional production in South Africa, aiming at better understanding the potentials to reduce adverse effects on the environment and on human health.MethodsAn attributional life cycle assessment was conducted on eight different scenarios that reduce the inputs of herbicides and insecticides compared against a business as usual (BAU) scenario. We assess several impact categories based on ReCiPe, namely global warming potential, terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, terrestrial toxicity, freshwater toxicity, marine toxicity, human carcinogenic toxicity and human non-carcinogenic toxicity, human health and ecosystems. A water footprint assessment based on the AWARE method accounts for potential impacts within the watershed.Results and discussionResults show that in our impact assessment, more sustainable farming practices do not always outperform the BAU scenario, which relies on synthetic fertiliser and agrochemicals. As a main trend, most of the impact categories were dominated by energy requirements of wine grape production in an irrigated vineyard, namely the usage of electricity for irrigation pumps and diesel for agricultural machinery. The most favourable scenario across the impact categories provided a low diesel usage, strongly reduced herbicides and the absence of insecticides as it applied cover crops and an integrated pest management. Pesticides and heavy metals contained in agrochemicals are the main contributors to emissions to soil that affected the toxicity categories and impose a risk on human health, which is particularly relevant for the manual labour-intensive South African wine sector. However, we suggest that impacts of agrochemicals on human health and the environment are undervalued in the assessment. The 70% reduction of toxic agrochemicals such as Glyphosate and Paraquat and the 100% reduction of Chlorpyriphos in vineyards hardly affected the model results for human and ecotoxicity. Our concerns are magnified by the fact that manual labour plays a substantial role in South African vineyards, increasing the exposure of humans to these toxic chemicals at their workplace.ConclusionsA more sustainable wine grape production is possible when shifting to integrated grape production practices that reduce the inputs of agrochemicals. Further, improved water and related electricity management through drip irrigation, deficit irrigation and photovoltaic-powered irrigation is recommendable, relieving stress on local water bodies, enhancing drought-preparedness planning and curbing CO2 emissions embodied in products.

Highlights

Introduction and backgroundOver the last two decades, we have witnessed a shift within companies, governments and global organisations to examine the environmental impact of products and services across the economy
Strong modifications in the usage of agrochemicals did not lead to corresponding changes in the results concerning the ReCiPe mid-point impact categories global warming potential, terrestrial acidification, human carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic toxicity as well as the for end-point damage categories human health and ecosystems
According to this sensitivity analysis, the contribution of energy inputs for irrigation to the global warming potential (GWP) of wine grapes can increase from 21% when applying the background dataset, no adaptation to as much as 56% according to 100% drip irrigation and Eskom standard electricity tariff

Summary

Introduction

Over the last two decades, we have witnessed a shift within companies, governments and global organisations to examine the environmental impact of products and services across the economy This is the case for primary industries such as agriculture in the light of increasingly constrained land and water resources along with decreasing biodiversity. International markets, the European Union (EU), are systematically applying pressure on imported products with, but not limited to, a high carbon footprint through potential trade barriers and border tariffs This has resulted in environmental product declarations (EPDs) and delivery agreements, whereby suppliers are required to demonstrate their environmental sustainability (Peters and Hertwich 2007). Social standards in global supply chains expected by export destinations, the European Union and USA, have shaped the South African wine industry. LCAs were performed for the value chains of certain textile products such as t-shirts and towels, whereas other studies were conducted for the infrastructure, water and packaging sectors (ibid.)

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