Made Green in Italy, the national sustainability label

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In a period of great debate around greenwashing and environmental claims, as well as the adoption of stringent regulations by the European Union, an Italian regulatory intervention known as “Made Green in Italy” remains little known as it approaches its 10th anniversary. The law 221/2015 established the national voluntary scheme for the assessment and communication of the environmental footprint of products with the aim of promoting the competitiveness of the Italian production system in the context of the growing demand for products with high environmental qualifications. The implementation of detailed regulations was delegated to the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, along with maintaining the registers of participating companies.

The voluntary national scheme on Made Green in Italy pursues four main objectives:
- promoting the adoption of innovative production technologies and guidelines capable of reducing the environmental impacts that products have during their life cycle;
- strengthening the image, the appeal, and the communicative impact that distinguishes Italian productions, associating them with aspects of environmental quality, also respecting social sustainability requirements;
- strengthening the environmental qualification of agricultural products through a priority focus on defining sustainable production parameters from an environmental and landscape quality perspective;
- ensuring information regarding positive experiences developed in existing projects.

The implementation provisions on Made Green in Italy were adopted with the Ministerial Decree 56/2018. The regulation establishes the operating methods of the national voluntary scheme and the criteria for the issuance of a specific logo that allows identifying products that comply with the relevant category rules. To achieve uniformity in the European context, the regulation is based on the Product Environmental Footprint method adopted by the European Commission. However, some definitions used, such as lifecycle or environmental impact, are not fully aligned with those recently adopted under the Greenwashing Directive. This regulatory friction could necessitate, in the short term, the need for an adjustment of the Italian discipline to avoid conflicts that would undermine the efforts of the national initiative.

The regulation on Made Green in Italy is based on the product category rules, which are methodological guidelines issued by the Ministry that define criteria and requirements necessary for conducting environmental footprint studies for specific classes of goods. The underlying rationale lies in the impossibility of adopting general and cross-cutting rules because, depending on the peculiarities of a product and the market of reference, the management of environmental profiles requires specific evaluations. The rules can be proposed by groups of at least three companies (including at least one SME) that represent the majority share of the sector, meaning over 50% of turnover in the previous calendar year. Any category rules adopted at the European level must be incorporated and integrated with any additional requirements determined by the Ministry. The rules, adopted following a public consultation, are valid for four years and can be renewed.

Once the product category rules for a specific sector are approved, companies can join the scheme to obtain authorization to use the “Made Green in Italy” logo on their product, provided it is of Italian origin. The applying company must submit the documentation required by the regulation to the analysis of an accredited independent verifier who will conduct an environmental footprint assessment study and determine a value to compare with the benchmark defined in the category rules. The applying company's product can then be classified into three performance classes:
- A (performance better than the benchmark): can use the logo;
- B (performance equal to or close to the benchmark): can use the logo provided a plan for improvement is adopted and implemented within three years;
- C (performance worse than the benchmark): cannot use the logo.

As of today, there are 31 product category rules in effect, with a predominance in the food sector. Among the most well-known are the rules on Pecorino Romano cheese, DOP raw hams, and Italian extra-virgin olive oil, but also those on combed wool fabrics, raw tobacco, and corrugated cardboard boxes. The consultation of the rules and their related technical attachments is free on the Ministry's website where details can also be found on any expired rules or those under evaluation. The Ministry also gathers a list of products and companies that have joined the scheme, which can therefore benefit from visibility in a green perspective derived not only from the use of the logo on packaging but also from the presence in the ministerial database.