The role of system and product certifications for the sustainable production of commodities in Italy

The production of goods has substantially changed over the years and, thanks to technological innovation, there has been an economic evolution of the society, with the transition from an agricultural/artisanal/commercial sys- tem to a modern industrial system. This allowed the production of large quantities of goods, generating an increase in consumption and the research of new markets with a consequent increase in the mobility of materials, goods, resources and people on a global scale. These changes led, on one hand, to a significant economic development and, on the other hand, to remarkable negative consequences on human relation with the environment, involv- ing, inter alia, the indiscriminate exploitation of lithosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere resources, as well as an abnormal waste production. A measure of the current situation can be obtained using some elements provided by the Global Footprint Networkand, in particular, the Earth Overshoot Day that marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year: the date for 2017 is August 2nd. In view of the current environmental situation and of the results of several studies, which all converge on possible definitely alarming future scenarios, it is absolutely necessary to understand which measures, among the given ones, have to be adopted, to start a changing path that can assure humans a sustain- able development. Some of the international initiatives undertaken for spreading out new approaches, basing on green economy and circular economy, seem to be going in the right direction and being able to provide concrete answers for a sustainable development. Therefore, this paper aims to outline the role that environmental, product and system certification can play in contributing to the creation of a production system able to provide goods by adopting compatible methods with sustainable production and consumption, in accordance with the UN’s Sustain- able Development Goal 12. An analysis of the situation in terms of diffusion of different certification schemes in Italy is carried out by using the ACCREDIA (the Italian Accreditation Body) databases. In particular, Italy presents a significant number of firms with a certified Environmental Management System that, as evidenced in a recent report on green economy status, contribute to let it achieve good environmental performance levels. Maintaining and improving these results requires the use of considerable resources to be deployed as efficiently and effectively as possible. To this end, a valuable support can derive by a widespread use of certification processes and, in par- ticular, of system processes. In fact, organizations that choose to implement a Management System (QMS and EMS in first place) have the opportunity to analyze and re-plan their processes, using resources consciously, in order to undertake, with good success chances, a path that brings together: the achievement of their goals, the capabil- ity to meet consumers and other interested parties’ needs, and an effective contribution to achieve a sustainable development.