The ISO 20121 certification acknowledges Salone's initiatives towards sustainability

Salone del Mobile.Milano stands tall and proud on ten keywords: emotion, business, quality, design, system, young people, communication, culture, ingenuity and Milan. Its success is contingent upon an array of factors, including the robust industrial network that supports it and the excellence of its designs, which thoughtfully incorporate sustainability, in form and content, the ability to function as a system while training young people, and most importantly, the ability to capitalise on the extraordinary integrated communication and cultural mechanism that has always been a defining feature of the Italian city and its region.

This drive towards sustainability and conscious design has led Salone del Mobile.Milano to obtain the ISO 20121 certification for sustainable events management. A significant portion of the credit ought to be awarded to the initiatives made to avert and offset any potential negative effects of the 2023 Salone del Mobile edition, on the environment and people.

“I am extremely proud that the trade fair has achieved this major milestone: the credit goes to the work and commitment of a whole team, close-knit and focused on an important common goal, has never been side-tracked by the difficulties of the path ahead, but has enthusiastically undertaken all the activities and initiatives this year that have seen the change within our value chain become even more tangible and concrete. I see this certification as a new starting point—by continuing to weigh up our own environmental impact and cultivating sustainable design principles, as well as involving and enjoying the support of our stakeholders, we want to become a point of reference and a source of inspiration to the sector as a whole, following a business model that is as ethical as possible and that responds intelligently and coherently to the increasingly complex challenges that lie ahead," shares Maria Porro, President of the acclaimed annual design fair.

As part of the ‘New York Climate Week’, which spans from September 17 - 24, 2023, the ‘Nest Climate Campus forum’, a think-tank for exchanging sustainable practises, ideas, and effective policies for combating climate change, will be hosted from September 19 - 21, 2023. For networking and knowledge sharing on the current prospects and challenges faced in the fight against climate change, the design week, organised in collaboration with the UN General Assembly, cooperates with the New York-based event to bring together delegates from all over the world, including political leaders, businesses, and environmental activists.

Salone del Mobile.Milano utilises the design festival as a platform to reiterate its own dedication to lasting change, guiding its business model down a course of responsible and inclusive growth that will serve as a benchmark. The worldwide certification body RINA carried out the verification process that resulted in the accreditation for organising sustainable design events. This certification attests to greenwashing compliance, acknowledges and honours Salone's ethical and sustainable routes, and will direct the events management system towards ongoing development. To determine the steps and actions to be taken, towards completing the sustainable transformation of the sector, it also serves as the foundation on which Salone is moving forward. This includes rationally and laterally reflecting on how to achieve an even more ecological coexistence of fairs and the environment.

Salone del Mobile aims to demonstrate what has been accomplished thus far, reassert its own commitment to a path of inclusive, responsible, and sustainable growth, and provide inspiration for new resilient projects. To achieve this, Salone will be an integral participant in the Sustainable Italy initiative, which will be held at the Nest Climate Campus and is being organised by the Italian Consulate General in New York, in conjunction with the Italian Trade Agency ICE and coordinated by the Italian Embassy in Washington DC. The initiative is intended to highlight Italy's prowess and leadership in the field of environmental sustainability.

Design with Nature, the central installation produced by Salone and designed by Italian architect Mario Cucinella in 2022 as part of the trade fair's 60th-anniversary edition, will contribute to the occasion. The project addresses the themes of circular economy and reuse, based on the notion that cities may one day function as reserves containing many of the raw materials essential to development. By participating in this design festival, Salone will present its own ideas about ethics, circularity, domestic space, participatory architecture, urban regeneration, and upcycling, to an international audience of cultural debate protagonists with the expectation that a few will derive inspiration and lessons, accelerating the process of identifying practical solutions to limit the harmful effects of climate change.

Text by Ria Jha