Sustainability in the Italian wood and furniture industry. Towards defining a “Furniture Pact”

ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) factors are a source of new growth and innovation opportunities to intercept market demand and start on a path that can generate more value for companies, communities and the environment.

SDA Bocconi School of Management’s Sustainability Lab has conducted a research project aimed at supporting wood and furniture companies in adopting management models that are even more sustainable. It did so by creating a specific methodology for assessing value creation processes, based on seven categories of analysis covering over thirty relevant aspects.

This model was developed with the support of a group of companies in the production chain, including Biesse (woodworking machinery), Colombini Group (furniture), Diesis - Concreta (furniture), IMAB (furniture), Neodecortech (papers), Novamobili (furniture), SAIB (panels), Stosa (furniture) and Veneta Cucine (furniture) belonging to the industries of panels and papers, woodworking machinery production and furniture. These companies have shared on a process to assess their ESG positioning and improvement, then disseminated and implemented it both in terms of individual commitment, fostering change in their value chain, and collective commitment along the supply chain and in their relationships with different stakeholders.

This methodology has been further tested on a panel of over thirty international and domestic companies in the industry through document analysis.

This process resulted in a set of specific criteria and commitments, which make up the Furniture Pact. Some companies in the industry have already signed up to it; others can do so by adopting the same assessment model, and so improving their sustainability profile.

The Furniture Pact was presented at SDA Bocconi School of Management on 8 June. A conference was organized from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., attended by Giuseppe Soda, Dean of SDA Bocconi, Francesco Perrini, Director of the Sustainability Lab, ESG Lab and SDA Bocconi Professor of Corporate Finance and Real Estate, Stefano Pogutz, Director of SDA Bocconi’s Full-Time MBA and SDA Bocconi Professor of Sustainability, along with SDA Bocconi Sustainability Lab’s Stefania Carraro, Manlio De Silvio and Davide Reina.

SDA Bocconi School of Management