Sustainability
Design With Nature curated by Mario Cucinella, Salone del Mobile.Milano 2022
Sustainability – environmental, economic and social – means change, process and progression. A path the Salone del Mobile.Milano embarked upon some time ago, rationalising and systemising all the “responsible” values and actions already embedded in its own DNA and its modus operandi, adding new regulations and objectives and structuring them into a far-reaching policy. The aim is to integrate sustainability into its corporate strategy and management and that of the events that it organises, contributing to making the entire trade fair system more competitive, human-centric and fit for the future.
ISO 20121 CERTIFICATION
Given that nothing can be carried forward or improved without first being evaluated, the Salone del Mobile.Milano has embarked on an informed and painstaking assessment of the changes generated thus far, not just from a substantive and programmatic point of view but also by having its environmental, social and governance-related impact certified by independent third parties. This led to the process by which the trade fair gained ISO 20121 certification for sustainable events management, which it was awarded following the 2023 edition, thanks to its efforts to prevent, mitigate and offset any potential negative effects of the event on the environment and on people
ISO 20121 certification recognises the Salone’s ethical and sustainable path, providing shared and standardised benchmark parameters, attesting to greenwashing regulation compliance and steering the event’s management system towards continuous improvement. This is the basis on which the Salone is moving forward, reflecting from both a rational and a lateral standpoint on the future of home living and trade fairs, in order to ensure that it really is moving in the right direction, and on how, from a different perspective, it can guarantee the ecological co-existence of trade fairs and the environment.
OUR STARTING POINT
In order to implement an increasingly sustainable business model, provide an example to and inspire the exhibiting companies and brands, meet stakeholder demands in terms of environmental, social and economic and create increasingly greater value for the communities in which it operates, Maria Porro, President of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, ratified the Salone’s Sustainability Policy document early in 2024. The document set out the commitments and concrete objectives the trade fair has set itself as drivers for steering its business model along an inclusive, responsible and sustainable path, with a view to constant improvement. Many of these objectives have been already achieved. However, in order to be a real driver of change, the Salone believes that much still remains to be done at a number of different levels, that it must constantly look beyond, and continue to challenge itself. By continuing to strive for sustainable change, the Salone will constitute a point of reference for the sector as a whole, bringing further value to the trade fair business, and to the people and communities in which it operates.
GREEN GUIDELINES FOR SUSTAINABLE DISPLAYS
The Salone is well aware that every business sustainability initiative is more effective and complete when put together with the active participation of all the stakeholders, to which end it distributes its Green Guidelines amongst all the exhibiting companies, with a view to providing them with as much support as possible in designing, planning and implementing their activities at the trade fair, responding increasingly effectively to the question of how exhibition spaces can be set up in full respect of the environment and ensure that a large trade fair event such as the Salone becomes increasingly sustainable. The aim is to encourage and provide concrete pointers to all the exhibitors so they feel supported in innovating and environmentally qualifying the process of creating temporary stands, which, from the Salone’s point of view, means putting the wellbeing of all the parties involved first and foremost, in a bid to achieve a positive balance between the various social, economic and environmental aspects.
