“Made Green in Italy” and EU project Life Effige partnership dedicated to improving environmental performance and green economy development towards a more eco-friendly future. Key results available

This partnership program for eco-friendly products and sustainable development supports businesses and organizations to increase their awareness level towards the green products as well as consumers’ to make informed decisions about products environmental and quality accountability.
The Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) method and the “Made Green in Italy” label are discussed in the EU project LIFE EFFIGE (Environmental Footprint for Improving and Growing Eco-efficiency) mid-term press conference focusing on the environmental impacts of eco-friendly goods and environment friendly actions promoted in the Commission recommendation 179/2013/UE.

Under the coordination of Sant’Anna School academics from the Institute of Management, the EU LIFE EFFIGE partners present the project key results on January 20-21 in Pisa to Francesca Ettorre, Project Adviser of EASME, Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of the European Commission on her visit to the Sant’Anna.

The EU project EFFIGE, funded by the LIFE Unit of the European Commission, challenges companies operating in four manufacturing sectors - foundry, furniture, agri-food and catering services, which contributed significantly to the “Made in Italy” label. The Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) tool, aimed at product manufacturers, measures the environmental performance of products and services as recommended by the European Commission under the act 179/2013/UE.

“The Product Environmental Footprint method - said Professor Fabio Iraldo and Francesco Testa of the Institute of Management – is regarded as a reliable tool for assessing whether a process or product is environmentally friendly. We implemented the PEF for our ‘Made Green in Italy’ scheme so we can be confident our results are not due to chance. The ‘Made Green in Italy’ label will offer environmentally friendly products made from sustainable materials reviewed regularly.”

The project Life Effige, in partnership with the Italian National Agency ENEA for new technologies, energy and sustainable economic development, aims at reducing the environmental impacts of goods and services as well as communicating the information on the environmental performance of products and organizations to consumers. Rules and practices provided in the PEF method enabled companies to compare alternative approaches based on the same Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR) dedicated to improving the environmental performance.

Within the next twelve months, additional categories will be assessed through the evolving PEF methodology. The method has the potential to enable accurate comparison of environmentally effective and economically efficient products of all SMEs.

The EU project EFFIGE partners include the Consorzio Agrituristico Mantovano (agri-food sector); Camst (catering services); FederlegnoArredo (furniture) and Assofond (foundries association).