IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v7y2015i7p8178-8204d51669.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability Assessment in Wine-Grape Growing in the New World: Economic, Environmental, and Social Indicators for Agricultural Businesses

Author

Listed:
  • Irina Santiago-Brown

    (Inkwell Wines and Consulting, P.O. Box 404, McLaren Vale SA 5171, Australia
    School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, University of Adelaide, Waite Campus, Private Mail Bag 1, Glen Osmond SA 5064, Australia)

  • Andrew Metcalfe

    (School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Adelaide, North Terrace Campus, 6.43 Ingkarni Wardli, Adelaide SA 5005, Australia
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Cate Jerram

    (Adelaide Business School, University of Adelaide, 09.03 Nexus 10, Adelaide SA 5064, Australia
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Cassandra Collins

    (Inkwell Wines and Consulting, P.O. Box 404, McLaren Vale SA 5171, Australia
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

Abstract

Indicators have been used in many sustainability assessment methods, however, disagreements over a common definition and scope for the sustainability concept have led to many distinct assessment methods, which are not often directly comparable. Before developing a sustainability assessment, it is essential to: define sustainability and specify the viewpoint of the assessor, the purpose of the assessment, and the context and time frame of the assessment. This article presents a short list of indicators and a method that can be readily adopted by any agricultural business or region to assess sustainability, making any organization, region or crop qualitatively comparable. These indicators were proposed by 83 top-level executives in 14 group interviews conducted using our adapted nominal group technique (ANGT). Executives were sourced from wine-grape growing organisations from New World wine-producing countries that also owned vineyards, and they considered everyday management practices of farms. These indicators, grouped within three categories (economic, environmental, and social) were ranked by their importance. The method defines qualitative indicators that, in the context of distinct wine regions or crops should be quantified to maintain their relevance and usefulness.

Suggested Citation

  • Irina Santiago-Brown & Andrew Metcalfe & Cate Jerram & Cassandra Collins, 2015. "Sustainability Assessment in Wine-Grape Growing in the New World: Economic, Environmental, and Social Indicators for Agricultural Businesses," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(7), pages 1-27, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:7:p:8178-8204:d:51669
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/7/8178/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/7/8178/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dennis van Liempd & Jacob Busch, 2013. "Biodiversity reporting in Denmark," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 26(5), pages 833-872, June.
    2. Markus J. Milne & Suzana Grubnic, 2011. "Climate change accounting research: keeping it interesting and different," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(8), pages 948-977, October.
    3. Gray, Rob, 2010. "Is accounting for sustainability actually accounting for sustainability...and how would we know? An exploration of narratives of organisations and the planet," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 47-62, January.
    4. Bohringer, Christoph & Loschel, Andreas, 2006. "Computable general equilibrium models for sustainability impact assessment: Status quo and prospects," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 49-64, November.
    5. Sunding, David & Zilberman, David, 2001. "The agricultural innovation process: Research and technology adoption in a changing agricultural sector," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, in: B. L. Gardner & G. C. Rausser (ed.), Handbook of Agricultural Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 4, pages 207-261, Elsevier.
    6. Irina Santiago-Brown & Andrew Metcalfe & Cate Jerram & Cassandra Collins, 2014. "Transnational Comparison of Sustainability Assessment Programs for Viticulture and a Case-Study on Programs’ Engagement Processes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-36, April.
    7. Pannell, David J. & Glenn, Nicole A., 2000. "A framework for the economic evaluation and selection of sustainability indicators in agriculture," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 135-149, April.
    8. Bebbington, Jan & Brown, Judy & Frame, Bob, 2007. "Accounting technologies and sustainability assessment models," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2-3), pages 224-236, March.
    9. Espinosa, A. & Harnden, R. & Walker, J., 2008. "A complexity approach to sustainability - Stafford Beer revisited," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 187(2), pages 636-651, June.
    10. Michael Fraser, 2012. "“Fleshing out” an engagement with a social accounting technology," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 25(3), pages 508-534, March.
    11. Anthony Halog & Yosef Manik, 2011. "Advancing Integrated Systems Modelling Framework for Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 3(2), pages 1-31, February.
    12. Gray, Rob, 1992. "Accounting and environmentalism: An exploration of the challenge of gently accounting for accountability, transparency and sustainability," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 399-425, July.
    13. Stuart Cooper & Graham Pearce, 2011. "Climate change performance measurement, control and accountability in English local authority areas," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(8), pages 1097-1118, October.
    14. Reed, Mark S. & Fraser, Evan D.G. & Dougill, Andrew J., 2006. "An adaptive learning process for developing and applying sustainability indicators with local communities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(4), pages 406-418, October.
    15. Gómez-Limón, José A. & Sanchez-Fernandez, Gabriela, 2010. "Empirical evaluation of agricultural sustainability using composite indicators," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 1062-1075, March.
    16. Roger L. Burritt & Stefan Schaltegger, 2010. "Sustainability accounting and reporting: fad or trend?," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(7), pages 829-846, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ilaria Zambon & Andrea Colantoni & Massimo Cecchini & Enrico Maria Mosconi, 2018. "Rethinking Sustainability within the Viticulture Realities Integrating Economy, Landscape and Energy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-13, January.
    2. Nicola Casolani & Emilio Chiodo & Lolita Liberatore, 2023. "Continuous Improvement of VIVA-Certified Wines: Analysis and Perspective of Greenhouse Gas Emissions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-15, January.
    3. Paula Triviño-Tarradas & Pilar Carranza-Cañadas & Francisco-Javier Mesas-Carrascosa & Emilio J. Gonzalez-Sanchez, 2020. "Evaluation of Agricultural Sustainability on a Mixed Vineyard and Olive-Grove Farm in Southern Spain through the INSPIA Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-22, February.
    4. Trigo, Ana & Marta-Costa, Ana & Fragoso, Rui, 2023. "Improving sustainability assessment: A context-oriented classification analysis for the wine industry," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    5. Gloria Luzzani & Erica Grandis & Marco Frey & Ettore Capri, 2021. "Blockchain Technology in Wine Chain for Collecting and Addressing Sustainable Performance: An Exploratory Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-17, November.
    6. Inmaculada Carrasco & Juan Sebastián Castillo-Valero & Carmen Córcoles & Marcos Carchano, 2021. "Greening Wine Exports? Changes in the Carbon Footprint of Spanish Wine Exports," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-13, August.
    7. Norman Siebrecht, 2020. "Sustainable Agriculture and Its Implementation Gap—Overcoming Obstacles to Implementation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-27, May.
    8. Gohar Nuhoff-Isakhanyan & Emiel F.M. Wubben & S.W.F. Omta, 2016. "Sustainability Benefits and Challenges of Inter-Organizational Collaboration in Bio-Based Business: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-17, March.
    9. Bohua Yu & Wei Song & Yanqing Lang, 2017. "Spatial Patterns and Driving Forces of Greenhouse Land Change in Shouguang City, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-15, March.
    10. Shu Yu & Yongtong Mu, 2022. "Sustainable Agricultural Development Assessment: A Comprehensive Review and Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-18, September.
    11. Samir Mili & Javier Martínez-Vega, 2019. "Accounting for Regional Heterogeneity of Agricultural Sustainability in Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-20, January.
    12. Silvana Dalmutt Kruger & Antonio Zanin & Orlando Durán & Paulo Afonso, 2022. "Performance Measurement Model for Sustainability Assessment of the Swine Supply Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-19, August.
    13. Maria G. Lampridi & Claus G. Sørensen & Dionysis Bochtis, 2019. "Agricultural Sustainability: A Review of Concepts and Methods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-27, September.
    14. Svjetlana Janković Šoja & Ana Anokić & Dana Bucalo Jelić & Radojka Maletić, 2016. "Ranking EU Countries According to Their Level of Success in Achieving the Objectives of the Sustainable Development Strategy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-10, March.
    15. Despoina Dede & Eleni Didaskalou & Sotirios Bersimis & Dimitrios Georgakellos, 2020. "A Statistical Framework for Assessing Environmental Performance of Quality Wine Production," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-16, December.
    16. Giacomo Falcone & Anna Irene De Luca & Teodora Stillitano & Alfio Strano & Giuseppa Romeo & Giovanni Gulisano, 2016. "Assessment of Environmental and Economic Impacts of Vine-Growing Combining Life Cycle Assessment, Life Cycle Costing and Multicriterial Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-34, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lino Cinquini & Emilio Passetti & Andrea Tenucci, 2016. "La sostenibilit? ambientale in azienda: quale relazione tra disclosure volontaria e gestione interna?," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(2), pages 15-32.
    2. Brown, Judy & Dillard, Jesse, 2013. "Agonizing over engagement: SEA and the “death of environmentalism” debates," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 1-18.
    3. Shamsheer Haq & Ismet Boz, 2020. "Measuring environmental, economic, and social sustainability index of tea farms in Rize Province, Turkey," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 2545-2567, March.
    4. Olivier Boiral, 2016. "Accounting for the Unaccountable: Biodiversity Reporting and Impression Management," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(4), pages 751-768, June.
    5. Ranjan Roy & Ngai Weng Chan, 2012. "An assessment of agricultural sustainability indicators in Bangladesh: review and synthesis," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 99-110, March.
    6. Markus Milne & Rob Gray, 2013. "W(h)ither Ecology? The Triple Bottom Line, the Global Reporting Initiative, and Corporate Sustainability Reporting," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(1), pages 13-29, November.
    7. Amoako, Kwame Oduro & Lord, Beverley R. & Dixon, Keith, 2021. "Narrative accounting for mining in Ghana: An old defence against a new threat?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    8. Lueg, Rainer & Radlach, Ronny, 2016. "Managing sustainable development with management control systems: A literature review," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 158-171.
    9. Rong He & Le Luo & Abul Shamsuddin & Qingliang Tang, 2022. "Corporate carbon accounting: a literature review of carbon accounting research from the Kyoto Protocol to the Paris Agreement," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(1), pages 261-298, March.
    10. Carmela Gulluscio & Pina Puntillo & Valerio Luciani & Donald Huisingh, 2020. "Climate Change Accounting and Reporting: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-31, July.
    11. Passetti, Emilio & Cinquini, Lino & Marelli, Alessandro & Tenucci, Andrea, 2014. "Sustainability accounting in action: Lights and shadows in the Italian context," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 295-308.
    12. Bebbington, Jan & Larrinaga, Carlos, 2014. "Accounting and sustainable development: An exploration," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 395-413.
    13. Jane Andrew & Max Baker, 2020. "Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting: The Last 40 Years and a Path to Sharing Future Insights," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 56(1), pages 35-65, March.
    14. Matthew Egan, 2019. "Sense-Making Resource Efficiency Through “Sustainability” Reports," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 154(3), pages 797-812, February.
    15. C. Feger & Laurent Mermet, 2021. "Advances in accounting for biodiversity and ecosystems: a typology focusing upon the environmental results imperative [Innovations comptables pour la biodiversité et les écosystèmes : une typologie," Post-Print hal-02549016, HAL.
    16. Vasilii Erokhin & Dmitry Endovitsky & Alexey Bobryshev & Natalia Kulagina & Anna Ivolga, 2019. "Management Accounting Change as a Sustainable Economic Development Strategy during Pre-Recession and Recession Periods: Evidence from Russia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-23, June.
    17. Olivier Boiral & Marie‐Christine Brotherton & Léo Rivaud & David Talbot, 2022. "Comparing the uncomparable? An investigation of car manufacturers' climate performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 2213-2229, July.
    18. Davide Giacomini & Paola Zola & Diego Paredi & Mario Mazzoleni, 2020. "Environmental disclosure and stakeholder engagement via social media: State of the art and potential in public utilities," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(4), pages 1552-1564, July.
    19. Ramona Zharfpeykan, 2021. "Representative account or greenwashing? Voluntary sustainability reports in Australia's mining/metals and financial services industries," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 2209-2223, May.
    20. Saravanamuthu, Kala & Lehman, Cheryl, 2013. "Enhancing stakeholder interaction through environmental risk accounts," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 410-437.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:7:p:8178-8204:d:51669. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.