• VID-EXPERT aims to facilitate the interoperability and diagnosis of the carbon footprint in a smart way between farmers and wineries to contribute to climate change mitigation in the wine sector.
• The VID-EXPERT project is framed within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) directly and indirectly fulfilling goals 17, 15, 13, 12, 12, 9, 8 and 5.

VID-EXPERT is a system that aims to facilitate the interoperability, diagnosis and management of the carbon footprint for winegrowers and wineries, to contribute to climate change mitigation in the wine sector, continues to advance after more than a year of work and data collection to nurture this tool.

This tool, when operational, will not only determine the calculation of the carbon footprint in the vineyard and in the production of wine in the winery, but will also provide each user with personalized recommendations for decision-making related to climate change mitigation in the sector. In short, VID-EXPERT aims to be the software tool that will mark a turning point in the fight against climate change in wineries and vineyards.

For its development, the VID-EXPERT Operational Group has developed exhaustive surveys integrating the agricultural part (vineyards) with the production part (wineries), through which it intends to obtain sufficient information to be able to feed and test the tool.

At the same time, work has been done on the development of the data model from which this intelligent system will be developed. This model is based on the methodology for calculating the carbon footprint, taking into account the sources of greenhouse gas emissions in winemaking activities.

Once the data collection phase has been completed through surveys distributed throughout the Spanish wine-growing territory and its subsequent processing and analysis, the Vid-Expert software is designed, which will be a novel and valuable contribution to the wine sector on a global scale. This digital tool goes beyond the mere calculation of the carbon footprint, as it will perform an intelligent analysis of the data with artificial intelligence techniques, and will provide a personalized diagnosis of the emission sources and mitigation recommendations based on their relationship between cost and efficiency, taking into account their compatibility with the culture of the organization and with the type and image of the wine produced. 

It is important to note that the wine industry is increasingly aware of the effects of climate change, and is striving to find ways to adapt or implement mitigation measures. For effective mitigation management, companies often require costly external services. As a result, this project will make it possible for vineyard and winery managers to make decisions more independently and cost-effectively. 

Additionally, the VID-EXPERT project analyzes the characteristics and status of the current sustainability certification in the wine sector (SWfCP), within which the carbon footprint is evaluated, and aims to make technological proposals that can increase the value of certification and promote a more widespread use of this certificate. In this sense, the FEV, as promoter of the Sustainable Wineries for Climate Protection (SWfCP) certificate, will develop improvement plans that wineries can implement to be more sustainable. Thus, the digital tool VID-EXPERT will allow wineries to calculate their global carbon footprint and its distribution among the different practices in the vineyard to be able to act where it is most necessary and effective to reduce the carbon footprint accurately, and from there manage its reduction in an efficient and personalized way, facilitating future certification or its renewal if they already have it.

Vid-Expert is a project funded by the EU through the 2022 call for grants for innovation projects of general interest by operational groups of the European Association for Innovation in Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability (AEI-Agri), under the National Rural Development Program 2014- 2020 of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

The operational group VID-EXPERT is formed by: Asociación Española De Normalización (UNE), Federación Española el Vino (FEV), Intergia Energía Sostenible (INTERGIA), Sistemas Avanzados de Tecnología, S.A. (SATEC), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (CEIGRAM-UPM), Instituto De Investigación Y Tecnología Agroalimentarias (IRTA) and Universidad De Zaragoza (UNIZAR).

For more information, please visit VID-EXPERT website https://www.une.org/cooperacion/vid-expert