Environmental Management Systems in the Wine Industry: Identification of Best Practices toward a Circular Economy

Over the last decades, great attention has been paid to sustainability issues in the wine industry. Thus, many sustainabilitypractices are spreading and at the same time many efforts have been carried out to spread them. In pursuing sustainability, agreat number of wine firms have also implemented Environmental Management Systems (EMSs), in compliance withinternational standards for EMS as ISO 14001 and EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme). Furthermore, in recent yearsalso the concept of circular economy (CE) has become widely diffused. The transition from the dominant “take-make-dispose”economic model towards a circular economy is engaging governments, institutions and researchers around the world, with thegoal of achieving a more sustainable society. Limited natural resources and environmental issues related to production are themain drivers of this revolution. Indeed, several national policies, businesses and consumers are gradually adapting to this newapproach. Different tools have been proposed to enhance the process circularity in different sectors, including the EMASRegulation. The aim of the present paper is to examine the potential contribution of the Environmental Management System,defined by the European Regulation EMAS, toward a circular economy and society. In particular, it explores the potentialapplication of EMAS environmental indicators as a baseline for the implementation of specific CE indicators. It also evaluatesthe role of EMAS for the dissemination of good practices and the identification of indicators for CE in wine industry. Startingfrom the analysis of indicators defined by the EMAS European Regulation, we have identified how these indicators can capturethe 3R principles of CE. Even though they can describe companies’ efforts in terms of input material and output waste streamsreductions, they lack in measuring reuse and recycling practices that are core activities in a CE approach. Nevertheless, theseindicators are a starting point to evaluate circular processes that fully embrace the logic of the “closed loop” production. Asthe paper has shown, the micro-level CE indicators that have been developed till now might be integrated together with EMASindicators developed in the wine industry to create common metrics to measure CE progress in the wine sector.