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VIVA PROGRAM

VIVA is the program by the Italian Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security which since 2011 has been promoting the sustainability of the Italian wine sector. VIVA provides for the public standard in measuring and improving the sustainability performance of viticulture in Italy. Over the last years hundreds of companies joined the Program – both individually and through wineries and consortia – and the number is constantly growing:

201

farms

of which

15

cooperative

10.530

total companies

2011

THE PILOT PHASE

The Ministry for Environment, Land and Sea (now the Ministry of Ecological Transition) launched the V.I.V.A. Pilot Project -Assessment of the Impact of Viticulture on the Environment (Valutazione dell’Impatto della Vitivinicoltura sull’Ambiente ) in 2011.

The pilot phase was attended by several major Italian wineries, chosen on the basis of geographic and product criteria – Castello Monte Vibiano Vecchio, F.lli Gancia & Co, Marchesi Antinori, Masi Agricola, Mastroberardino, Michele Chiarlo, Planeta, Tasca dAlmerita, Venica&Venica –with the scientific collaboration of the OPERA Research Center for Sustainable Agriculture of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and the Agroinnova Competence Center of the University of Torino. The pilot phase was completed in 2014 and led to the creation of a technical specification, updated over the years, which constitutes the reference for all companies that want to undertake the path of analysis and certification envisaged by the Program.

2017

INTER-MINISTERIAL AGREEMENT

In September 2017, the Minister of the Environment and Protection of Land and Sea and the Minister of Agriculture, Food, Forestry and Tourism signed an inter-ministerial decree that kicked off the work to harmonize and integrate the two sustainability systems: the VIVA Program – Sustainability in Viticulture in Italy and the National Quality System on Integrated Production (Sistema di Qualità Nazionale sulla produzione Integrata, SQNPI) with the aim of obtaining a single standard of sustainable management of the wine sector, measurable and accredited, managed within the framework of a quality system, an unambiguous reference for Italian production, as well as a calling card for made-in-Italy production in international markets. Representatives of the VIVA Program actively participate in the Working Tables of the Committee on Wine Sustainability-Article 224b, Law18th July 2020, No.77.
2018

PRESENTATION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

On March 6th, 2018, Members of the European Parliament Paolo De Castro and Herbert Dorfmann hosted the workshop “New standards in wine sustainability and transparency to consumers-New standards in wine sustainability and transparency to consumers,”during which the national VIVA Program was presented to the Members of European Parliament and representatives of European lobbies. The workshop was attended by representatives from the Ministry of the Environment and Protection of Land and Sea, now the Ministry of Ecological Transition, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, along with stakeholders from the value chain and European industry associations.

2018

THE REGIONAL PROJECTS

The national VIVA Program has been adopted as the standard for assessing sustainability in many regional projects financed in the context of Rural Development Plans; in fact, VIVA was also created to promote and consolidate territorial and regional initiatives aimed at enhancing sustainability throughout the wine supply chain.

These experiences have the main purpose of declining sustainability at the regional level, defining benchmarks and minimum inclusion criteria of organizations identified, thanks precisely to these criteria, as sustainable. In these programs, the compulsory use of VIVA indicators makes it possible to measure impacts, and thus, to verify and monitor with quantifiable and precise indices the good practices implemented over time.

These projects include SOSTAIN: the Sicilian way to sustainability; VITA – Harmonious Viticulture: the principles of sustainability in the wine-growing territory of Piemonte; PROiNOS: cultivating sustainability in Veneto; and VITICOLTURA SOSTENIBILE Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
In May 2018, adherence to the SOStain program and fulfillment of the 10 minimum requirements for integrated sustainability in viticulture, which include adoption of the VIVA indicators, were recognized as a rewarding qualification and in the “Call for Tenders, Campaign 2018/2019 – National Support Program for Viticulture – Vineyard Restructuring and Conversion Measure. Interventions for the CMO viticulture” (publication 16.05.2018 – Regional Department of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Resources of the Sicilian Region).