This file contains 2 innovations: on the one hand, a wine ecodesign software called Vit’LCA, and on the other hand a Serious Game called Vitigame®, which were gathered in a single file following the decision of the competition jury.

Vit’LCA is the first online software for calculating the environmental impacts of viticulture-specific practices using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method. LCA quantifies the gains obtained in terms of environmental footprint in most environmental compartments. In winegrowing, it factors in the contributions of all the inputs and materials used throughout their life cycle and the substances emitted into the environment. Users can thus easily identify and compare the eco-efficiency of winegrowing practices or technical itineraries from their field data, and assess the advantages of improvement solutions. The results shed light on a large number of environmental criteria, like the contribution to global warming and ecotoxicity for aquatic organisms. Vit’LCA makes this complex, powerful and comprehensive method available to advisors, teachers, students and winegrowing practitioners in the field. As the user chooses, it takes into account the planting phase, the first years of the vineyard, the production phase, and the end of the vine’s life. A single scenario is assessed to understand the causes of impacts, or several scenarios are compared to identify and evaluate ways to improve.
In interaction with the field, Vit’LCA was developed by LCA and winegrowing researchers from the USC GRAPPE research unit (ESA-INRAE) at the Ecole Supérieure des Agricultures in Angers, France and the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, with support from the Loire Region’s agri-food innovation programme (RFI Food for Tomorrow – CapAliment). A maturation programme carried by SATT Ouest Valorisation is working on its transition from Excel to an online platform, to make it more accessible to users.

The serious game Vitigame is designed to make players aware of the environmental impacts of vineyard management and develop their skills in eco-design.

It was developed by the Grappe research unit (unit under contract in Agri-food Products and Processes) of the ESA (higher school of agriculture) in Angers, in association with INRAE, with kind support from the Chambre d’Agriculture des Pays de la Loire, the Robert et Marcel winery and the Montreuil Bellay winegrowing school. Its development was financially supported by ADEME, RFI Objectif Végétal and the ESA.

It can be played by groups of winegrowers or viticulture students, with four to eight players, supervised by a game master.
The aim of the game is to improve the environmental performance of one of the viticultural cases proposed in the game.
The players choose an improvement strategy and then build an optimised technical itinerary according to weather forecasts, phytosanitary pressure and the information provided in the booklets.

The resulting environmental impacts are calculated during or after the game with the Vit’LCA viticulture life cycle assessment software.

Life Cycle Assessment, or LCA, is a method that quantifies the gains obtained in terms of environmental footprint in most environmental compartments. In winegrowing, it factors in the contributions of all inputs and materials used throughout their life cycle and the substances emitted into the environment.

The game is preceded by an introduction to LCA for grape production, and after it ends a discussion is held on the choices made and their effects.

The game box will be available from December 2022.

A one-day training course will then be offered for the game masters.