A sustainability assessment of quality grapes-producing farms in Italy through a multi-criteria analysis

Climate change is already posing major challenges, in particular to the productivity of the agricultural sector. For this reason, many large companies in the European Union will be now required to produce a yearly sustainability report that respect specific reporting standards. However, smaller agricultural farms, including most wineries, will be exempt from this obligation, and will continue to publish sustainability reports on a voluntary basis. Therefore, this work aims to develop a sustainability assessment model based on objective indicators, that could be employed by Italian wineries. These indicators encompass the economic, environmental, and social dimensions, and are retrieved from the Italian version of the Farm Accountancy Data Network, with a focus on farms that produce grapes for quality wine. Through the computation of an aggregated sustainability score, an extensive ranking of 786 farms can be produced for the years 2015-2021, allowing for a more objective comparison and analysis of Italian farms’ sustainability efforts and strategies.