Sustainable Finestra+ Project: Scenarios, Opportunities, Tools and Strategies

15 June 2023, H-Farm of Roncade: Consorzio LegnoLegno presents Finestra+, the first national project dedicated to sustainable windows and doors

Consorzio LegnoLegno, in collaboration with its partners, belonging to different phases of the wood supply chain (Finiture, DDX, CloudFabric, Sayerlack, Sherwin – Williams, Swisspacer, Fantacci, Mungo, Working Process, Gilardi and Saint – Gobain) organized the Finestra+ launch event in the beautiful setting of the H-Farm in Roncade, an oasis surrounded by greenery and the first start-up incubator in Europe. What better place to welcome the recipients of the project - the window and door manufacturers - and talk to them about a topic as important as it is inflated as sustainability? Sustainability which in itself contains the very important theme of innovation, necessary for SMEs in the sector not only to survive, but also to seize new opportunities in a context of rapid changes, which are starting to invest more and more in durable goods from non-durable goods . Many responded to the call: around one hundred were present, including some young representatives of the third generation of the company, who were particularly sensitive to the topic.

The biggest challenge of the day was to clarify the vague concept of sustainability in its concreteness and multidimensionality (environmental, social and governance), to make its numerous advantages perceived (from corporate reputation, to the ability to innovate and improve performance, to attract talent and capital, increase internal cohesion and create shared value) and transmit it as a priority element to be integrated into company policies. All this to an audience of entrepreneurs who, starting from scratch, have made their way into an extremely competitive local market and who, despite having introduced important elements of product and process innovation over the years, are not fully aware of how these are strictly connected to the topic of sustainability. Consequently, there is little investment in tools to measure and communicate to its stakeholders its commitment in this sense. Given the circumstances that Italian SMEs will have to face in the short term, it is necessary to accompany them in the process of raising awareness and metabolizing sustainability not only as a necessary investment, but also as an opportunity for growth and competitive advantage. This is the main mission of the LegnoLegno Consortium.

Stefano Mora, speaker of the event, broke the ice by mentioning Alex Bellini, a well-known Italian explorer, who decided to start from the rivers, the main pollution conduits, to clean up the seas. A fitting example to make window and door manufacturers understand the importance of adopting a logic not oriented towards the final product but towards the entire supply chain, starting from the procurement of raw materials. He then offered an overview of practical information relating to future market scenarios, from European Directives, to the future energy performance required by designers and public administration, to the introduction of new evaluation standards (ESG, circular economy), to the strategies to be implemented designed to be recognized on the market and guide the choices of designers and consumers.

Specifically, it reported alarming estimates, at a European level, on buildings, responsible for 40% of energy consumption, 36% of greenhouse gas emissions and 80% of the energy needed by families for heating, cooling and the production of DHW (domestic hot water). The window and door represents a large part of the envelope of a building and is therefore primarily called into question.

Given the seriousness of the situation, mitigation and contrast strategies are becoming increasingly widespread: from the environmental certifications of buildings, often voluntarily adopted by builders to protect their investments, to the introduction of CAM (Minimum Environmental Criteria) for construction in Italy. All this is leading to the entry into force of protocols and tenders based on rewarding mechanisms towards suppliers/contractors with better environmental performance. The question becomes particularly interesting in this special historical period, where the Public Administration has huge funds from the PNRR. At European level, the "Green Homes" directive, recently approved by the EC, will provide for a new wave of renovations (2030-2050) based not only on energy saving criteria but on a new energy certification system (GWP) which will measure the impacts of construction on global warming.

Financial aspects will also be affected by this wave of change and this is an absolutely non-negligible fact on the part of window and door manufacturers: according to specific directives, the spaces for mortgages intended to purchase or redevelop houses with higher energy performance will be reduced. It goes without saying that buyers will be "forced" to purchase houses with high energy performance in order to access mortgages, and this will have direct consequences on designers and therefore on window and door manufacturers.

How to adapt - and anticipate - new market scenarios relatively quickly? Demonstrating one's environmental performance, which cannot be anything other than a measurable, quantifiable, comparable number. A reference benchmark against which the company can become aware of its current and future performance.

The most widespread tool is the EDP, an environmental product certification - subjected to independent control - which allows the environmental impacts associated with the life cycle of the product to be quantified (via LCA - Life Cycle Assessment methodology). LegnoLegno offers window and door manufacturers two possibilities to obtain this certification: measurement for a single company or for groups of "similar" companies in terms of product type. This last possibility is particularly advantageous, not only to optimize costs, but above all to allow the construction of a validated tool in which to insert the data of the individual sampled companies and generate individual EDPs that are comparable to each other. The challenge, by July, is to obtain the interest of seven companies for the validation of the tool.

All clear?

However, LegnoLegno's vision goes far beyond the illustration of scenarios and strategies: the event in Roncade is not a one-off but aims to be the first of many other moments, organized in various parts of Italy, which are opportunities for discussion and networking between the various companies in the wood supply chain. In a sector that is very fragmented and not very cohesive in its response to the market, unity can be strength. By moving from a logic of competition to one of collaboration, real production districts could be created but above all an international reputation for the "Made in Italy wooden window".