Prosecco Greening

Literature suggests that wineries’ characteristics and ownership are strongly related to investments in sustainable practices. Nevertheless, no empirical study – to our knowledge – has been performed on the Italian wine industry. Results from a self-completed, structured questionnaire on wineries in the Prosecco district (N=130), performed in 2014, reveal that larger firms (in terms of total turnover, number of employees and amount of vineyard) and those more export oriented are keener to adopt sustainability plans. As recent studies have demonstrated that a core success factor in spreading sustainable practices is local players’ networking capacity, this area appears as particularly interesting for possible, positive, spill over effects.