Environmental Sustainability and Organic Wine Production: Evidences from Italian Industry

Global warming, the loss of bio-diversity, contamination and waste production have fostered a growing interest toward environmental and economic sustainability related to the development of products and processes. Agriculture and food productions are one of the main responsible for environmental pollution, as well as of the natural resources overexploitation. As a consequence, the topics of Sustainability and Social Responsibility acquire a great importance in agri-food and in wine industry, as well. According to this perspective, our paper focus on the Organic Wine Production, as the way some Italian wine producers commit to Environmental Sustainability. Our research particularly aims to investigate which factors drive the Italian wine producers to engage in Environmental Sustainability efforts. First research results show that Italian winemakers devote themselves to organic production mainly to differentiate their own offer at international level. Additionally, fundamental lack of knowledge about the differences between sustainable and organic wine, still remains among the producers with consequences upon the perception that they have about undertaken practices. Our results provide for new, empirical knowledge about sustainability in the Italian wine production, helping to fill the existing theoretical background usually devoted to the consumers’ behaviours and perceptions.