Environmental sustainability indicators: thermodynamics aspects

The assessment of environmental sustainability of ecosystems, economic policies, productive processes requires an holistic approach, based on thermodynamic functions and able to consider all the complex mechanisms that are involved in a system. Many of the proposed indicators1,2, focus their attention on single aspects, thus their use is not sufficient. In this study the emergy methodology is used3, to assess the sustainability of three different process for production of DOC wine in the Siena Province (Italy): Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino e Nobile di Montepulciano. Emergy analysis is based on the concept of solar emergy that is the solar energy that is directly and indirectly required to obtain a product; emergy represents the memory of all that the environment has supplied to support a process. Other indicators desumed by the emergy concept are use for a complete emergy analysis. The three farms appear to be very sustainable repect to the national average and the one in Montepulciano is the most sutainable one from a strict environmental viewpoint, while the one in the Chianti zone is more efficient for quantities of grapes and wine.