Resumen de Comparing wine sustainability certifications around the world: history, status and opportunity

Daniel Moscovici, Alastair Reed

• The number of sustainability certifications in the wine industry has grown over the past decades. They are distinctly different from organic, biodynamic or other certifications. This paper combines a detailed literature review of related sustainability certifications to understand the trend in wine certification. The methods include a questionnaire of 12 identified wine certifications (including wineries, vineyards or both) around the world that have sustainability in the certification or organization title. These data help elucidate how these sustainability measures were developed, their levels of membership over time, the mechanics to become certified as sustainable and their plans for future certification. Results show strong support from the wine-making industry and compounded growth in certification. Even with the many differences, all certifications encourage an education component and technological advances. The paper compiles hectares and number of vineyards certified globally. The authors find that the certifications differ in mechanics, leading to issues surrounding transferability and possible confusion for the consumer. Other issues include varying cost to certify, lack of transparency of certified information and no cooperation between certification bodies. Given that all of the certifications plan to grow, more research is needed into sustainability certification, especially from the consumer perspective.