Environmental Practices in the Greek wine industry
Chalkia, Aglaia
The purpose of the current paper is to explore the level of implementation of envi-ronmental practices in the Greek wine industry and to identify sustainability issues. Lack of current insight into the level of implementation of environmental practices in the Greek Wine Industry constituted the motivational basis for conducting the present research, while international research highlighted key issues to be explored. The par-ticipants of the current quantitative study were 65 Greek wineries located in various geographical regions around Greece. The results indicated that Greek wineries mostly implement practices that relate to organic and solid waste, minimization of chemicals and use of environmental friendly equipment. The majority of the wineries are inter-ested in implementing environmental management systems, while the penetration level of Environmental Managements systems in Greece is very low, unlike the case of quality systems, an observation also supported by the current research. Although, sev-eral practices were not implemented, the respondents perceive them as being im-portant. Based on the aforementioned conclusion, it is proposed that future research focuses on the drivers and barriers of sustainability in the Greek wine industry. Finally, the introduction of regional sustainability wine initiatives could contribute significantly to the incorporation of sustainability in the Greek wine industry as would the existence of prevalent regulation and an environmental stewardship support system.