Exploring perceptions of sustainability and its indicators in grape and wine production in South Africa

Sustainability has always been a divided term due to the individuality linked to it. Just like the sustainability concept, measuring sustainability has been difficult because selecting indicators is just as subjective. In the South African grape and wine industries, this is even more so given the urgency and need to be sustainable. However, research on what sustainability means and what to measure is limited and mostly one-dimensional. This research adds to the current knowledge by taking a multi-dimensional approach to sustainability and its indicators. A mixed-method design was used comprising of a questionnaire with stakeholders and a Delphi Technique. The results show that different stakeholders interpreted sustainability meaning subjectively and the environmental dimension dominated most perceptions of sustainability. Respondents noted the near-constant trade-offs between the three pillars but deemed the environmental as the most important but the social as the most difficult to achieve. Furthermore, grape/wine demand and prices, brand value and production/quality consistency were deemed relevant for economic sustainability, soil health, chemical/water use efficiency for environmental sustainability and living wage, safe work environment and children’s welfare for social sustainability. This research showed the difficulty respondents had with balancing the three pillars in the economic production condition of the country that constrains their effort to do more.