# Accounting for Carbon Footprint Flows in Wine Production Process. Case Study in Spanish Winery
## 2 Background
### Carbon Emissions in the Wine Industry  
The wine industry forms part of the agro-food sector and, particularly, of the farming industry. As such, its relationship with the environment is intense, since its main produce comes straight from the soil. Through the years, many studies have addressed the environmental impacts of the wine industry in different geographical areas focusing on several topics such as waste [6], sustainability [7; 8], eco-efficiency [9], or Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) [10], among others. Focusing on carbon emissions and energy consumption as one of the main elements of MFCA, the CF measurement for agro-food has been widely studied by a number of authors [11; 12; 13; 14; 15], as its importance for labelling and reporting grows worldwide. In the wine industry, most methodologies studied are focused on savings in energy, raw materials, diminished emissions and waste generation and, in particular, on water consumption [15; 31; 32]. Drawing on contingency theory, the current use of water-related environmental management accounting information (here named as water management accounting) was implemented by [PERSON] [33] to assess the long term implications associated with water management in Australian wine supply chains. However, most studies have only addressed specific methodological issues from an attributional life-cycle perspective, or have directly reported the CF profile for a given wine product, making it increasingly complex to assess market interactions linked to the entire life cycle of wine-making. The quantification of greenhouse gas emissions often underpins the life-cycle of wine, which has also been applied to several studies [17; 19; 34; 35; 36; 37; 38; 39] since it can be considered an adequate methodology for the accounting itself [18]. The studies that calculated the CF of different types of wine to determine the main reasons for their varying results indicate the relevance of factors such as wine ageing, optimization of inputs, harvest yields, data quality or agricultural practices (i.e., organic vs. conventional), and argue the difficulty in standardizing specific mechanisms for greenhouse gas emissions communication within the wine sector [15]. The conventional production system has been found to have a higher CF than the organic production [17; 40] mainly due to the agricultural and packing phases. A critical review of several methodological and conceptual issues focused on wine carbon footprint is offered by [PERSON] et al. [41]. Another interesting contribution to the applied measurement of CF is offered by [PERSON] et al. [42] who calculated the CF in a winery company using a method composed of financial accounts (called \"MC3\"). One of the principal outcomes obtained was demonstrating that having an appropriate determination of the CF is an important factor of competitiveness, especially in the international market, which will inevitably impose restrictions based on sustainable production. Agricultural practices for vineyards have been included as well as the landscape conservation-related issues as a long-term provision of a full range of ecosystems [43]. Viticulture is, in fact, the stage with the largest relative contribution to the overall environmental impact, while the bottle production is the subsequent stage, followed by its transport [17; 37]. Indeed, [PERSON] et al. [44] showed that the vineyard-planting phase has a significant impact on the wine CF and has to be considered in the life cycle. Even though it is frequently omitted in literature, the supply chain of wineries shall be studied as a significant contributor to the aggregated CF. From a communication perspective, labelling and reporting the CF can be important drivers to promote carbon emissions measurement in organizations and their supply chain, boosting the life cycle thinking of the sector [45]. Indeed, a correlation exists between environmental disclosure and eco-innovation [46].