Franca Carlotta Foerster,* Johanna Döring, and Moritz Wagner
*Hochschule Geisenheim University, Von-Lade-Straße 1, Geisenheim, 65366, Germany (carlotta.foerster@hs-gm.de)

Viticulture is one of the most environmentally impacted steps in the wine life cycle. Organic farming practices are considered a promising solution for reducing environmental burdens related to intensive agricultural management practices. However, organic agriculture is often associated with significantly lower yields. Therefore, the aim of the study was to compare the environmental impact of integrated and organic viticulture practices based on data from a long-term experimental vineyard in Germany (Vitis vinifera L. cv. Riesling) by means of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA in viticulture can provide valuable information for vineyard management to identify which inputs and processes are the most significant contributors to its environmental impact and to improve the environmental performance of viticulture. By direct comparison of the management systems within an otherwise harmonized system, sources of variation caused by the environment are excluded. The system boundary of the study is Cradle-to-Farm-Gate. The functional units of the LCA (the reference basis for calculations) are “area” (1 ha vineyard) and “mass” (1 kg grapes) to account for management-related changes in yield. This study provides a detailed description of hot spots within the different impact categories for every management system and identifies potential areas for improvement of environmental sustainability. The LCA is conducted in alignment with the ISO standards 14040 and 14044 and applying the indicators and methods defined in the Product Environmental Footprint Standard of the European Union using the software openLCA. The impact assessment revealed that the functional unit “mass” favored integrated and the functional unit “area” favored organic management practices, because of changes in yield. Environmental hotspots did not differ between the cultivation systems, except for metal resource use, because copper fungicides are used in organic farming. It was found that vineyard establishment, especially trellis construction, was the most impactful step of grape production.

Funding Support: The project is partially financed from the TT-Bundespauschale (federal grant of German government), funds from the profile A for sustainability and internal funds from Geisenheim University.