Wine Supply Chain Network Configuration under a Water Footprint Cap

Abstract

As agriculture and industry exploit more than 90% of the global freshwater resources, water overuse and degradation have emerged as critical socio-environmental challenges for both nations and corporations. In this context, the water footprint concept was introduced in order to quantify the freshwater consumption and pollution of a territory or across a product’s life cycle. As research on water management in supply chains is growing, this work aims to integrate the perspective of freshwater resources into supply network configuration. Focusing on the agrifood sector, we have developed a mixed-integer linear programming model that can be used to minimize the operational costs under a water footprint cap in a wine supply chain network by selecting the optimal suppliers (vine growers), manufacturing sites (winemakers), and transportation modes (fuel-powered trucks). The optimization outcomes unveil that the wine network’s configurations (structure and fuel type) vary significantly depending on the values of the water footprint cap so as to balance the trade-off between economic and water-related environmental efficiency. Beyond the viticulture sector, the proposed model is anticipated to act as a paradigm for setting joint sustainable targets or caps to limit water use across supply chains.