Sustainability performance evaluation in the organic durum wheat production: evidence from Italy

This study aims to assess the environmental and social sustainability of Italian organic wheat production to identify hotspots and potential for improvement in the sector. A farm located in the municipality of Pienza in Val d’Orcia (Tuscany), a UNESCO World Heritage Site for the beauty of its landscape and the balance between nature and human activities, was chosen as a case study.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was used considering the most impactful stages at the midpoint and endpoint level, using SimaPro 9.5 software, supported by ILCD 2011 Midpoint + V1.11 and ReCiPe 2016 Endpoint (H) methodologies. The Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) was used to assess social performance, following the UNEP guidelines. The impact assessment (reference scale approach or Type I) was conducted considering the social hotspot database and Methodological Sheets.

Environmental sustainability performance highlighted that organic wheat production most impacts land use (9.73 × 10⁴ kg C deficit) and terrestrial and freshwater eutrophication with 1.71 × 10¹ molc N eq and 2.48 kg N eq, respectively. The sowing phase of wheat seeds accounted for more than 70% of environmental impacts in 13 out of 16 impact categories considered, while S-LCA results give insights into the workers’ category, where the ideal performance was achieved for health and safety due to the presence of regular health checks. Value chain actors showed negative scores resulting from promoting social responsibility subcategories (− 1), due to the absence of an explicit code of conduct that protects the human rights of workers among suppliers, while the rest of the subcategories are on compliance level.

The results and conclusions of this study provide interesting insights for similar wheat production systems and could underscore the importance of environmental and social sustainability in enhancing and preserving traditional agricultural practices, creating local employment opportunities, contributing to the socio-economic context of the area, and the preservation and prosperity of the Val D’Orcia.