Last May 29 the DM 21 marzo 2018 n.56 has been published on the Official Gazette of the Italian Republic regarding the national voluntary model for the assessment and communication of products environmental footprint named Made Green in Italy (Art. 21, comma 1, Legge 221/2015). The Made Green in Italy model is a tool allowing to increase competitiveness in the Italian producing system while nationally and internationally, it grows the demand for high quality and eco-friendly certified food.

Regulations provide for the employment of PEF (Product Environmental Footprint) methodology in order to determine products environmental footprint as specified in the “Raccomandazione 2013/179/UE” of European Commission (April, 9, 2013), created to counter the proliferation of products environmental impact assessment methodologies.

First important results, set out by the European Commission experimental program named “Single Market for green Products Initiative”, are now available and a two years experimentation is going to consolidate controversial aspects such as those related to the public communication.

PEF methodology and the methodology of VIVA – Sustainability and Culture national program are not in contrast, and could easily complement each other in the future. The Italian Ministry for the Environment Land and Sea, which promotes both Made Green in Italy and VIVA, has carried out, in collaboration with ENEA, a preliminary study to compare these methodologies.

Entering into details, PEF is based on LCA (Life Cycle analysis: it assesses the sustainability of a product throughout its entire life cycle referring to 16 environmental impact categories and considers other aspects related to sustainability (social, economic and cultural aspects) as supplementary requirements. VIVA program employs LCA method to calculate AIR Indicator, based on “Climate Change” impact category, and it includes other three indicators: WATER, VINEYARD and TERRITORY. VIVA WATER Indicator (which is similar to PEF Water Scarcity Indicator and calculates the water footprint), as well as VIVA VINEYARD and TERRITORY Indicators are a model and innovative example at EU level and analyze aspects merely considered supplementary requirements by PEF such as landscape quality, products environmental quality, social sustainability. Those aspects are extremely important to Italian production, synonymous with quality, excellence and quality of products.

In conclusion, talking about environmental impacts, the alignment between VIVA and PEF methodologies is not going to require firms an extra effort with regard to costs and data collection, nevertheless VIVA is far ahead as regards supplementary requirements and the aspects connected with the communication of sustainability and it serves as an example at EU level. VIVA sustainability integrated approach is a tool capable of anticipating environmental policies and the effort of those entering VIVA program allows to achieve far more than a label could summarize.

Prof. Ettore Capri
ettore.capri@unicatt.it
Direttore Centro di ricerca Opera