At Applitech 2025, held in Bologna, the spotlight turned to sustainability as a driver of innovation and competitiveness in the refrigeration and home appliance industries.
Marco Imparato, director of APPLiA Italia, emphasized that Italy now ranks second in the European Union for exports within the home appliance supply chain—an achievement reflecting the sector’s resilience and strategic importance.
“We are at a turning point in the refrigeration sector, where the adoption of sustainable technologies should be seen as an opportunity to reduce energy consumption, decrease environmental impact, and improve management. And for new systems of this kind, the payback period is just two years,” said Marco Nocivelli, Vice President of Confindustria, during the opening conference of Refrigera 2025 at BolognaFiere. The event, organized by A151 srl, brought together leading voices from industry, academia, and policy to explore the intersection of industrial performance and environmental responsibility.
Nocivelli noted that Confindustria is advocating for “long-term structural incentives with a duration of at least three years” to support companies investing in sustainable technologies. His remarks underscored the private sector’s growing call for stable, forward-looking policy frameworks to sustain green transformation across manufacturing.
The conference opened with a presentation by Mario Tozzi, senior researcher at CNR and a prominent environmental science communicator. Tozzi argued that technological progress alone cannot solve the environmental crisis. “Awareness is needed not only from institutions but also from businesses,” he said. “Sustainability must be a priority, and to help companies, tax relief measures should be introduced.”
Maurizio Martina, Deputy Director of FAO Italy, addressed the critical link between refrigeration and food security. He noted that approximately 17 percent of global food production is wasted, with an additional 14 percent lost before reaching consumers. “There is a lot of talk about food today, but we often forget to educate people towards greater awareness along the food chain,” he said. “Institutions must take on this role, but the contribution of private companies is also crucial.” Martina highlighted the importance of refrigeration systems in curbing food loss, especially in developing countries where infrastructure gaps persist.
Artificial intelligence also emerged as a potential catalyst for sustainability in refrigeration. “It can help us find new solutions,” said Nocivelli, adding that recyclability at the end of a product’s life cycle is a growing concern that deserves industry-wide attention.
Within Applitech 2025—a showcase for manufacturing, home appliances, and consumer electronics organized in collaboration with Senaf srl—Imparato detailed Italy’s strong export performance. The country’s home appliance sector generates nearly €11 billion in exports, accounting for 13.2 percent of all European appliance exports. Italy also leads Europe in the production and export of cooker hoods, reinforcing its industrial leadership.
“We are a strategic supply chain that must be safeguarded,” Imparato said. “Today, we face excessive regulatory burdens, high energy costs, and a lack of a level playing field, with regulatory imbalances that disadvantage EU production compared to imports—such as the absence of export compensation mechanisms. There is also a lack of strategic recognition.”
He warned that these pressures threaten both the survival and competitiveness of Europe’s home appliance industry. “We must aim for regulatory reform and strategic deregulation,” he concluded. “It is also essential to ensure a globally competitive operating environment and to prepare for the future through targeted innovation and skills development.”
The message from Bologna was clear: industry and environmental goals are no longer in conflict. For Europe’s home appliance and refrigeration sectors, sustainability has become not only a moral imperative but an economic necessity—one that could define the continent’s industrial future.
Find out more at: https://www.refrigera.show