The latest statistical bulletins show a Triveneto wide industrial recovery. In the first three months of 2021 the exports recorded a good increase (+5,8%), which allows them to return to the levels of the same period of 2019 (8,4 billion euro). Among the districts of the Veneto they stand out Treviso household appliances (+ 33,7%), the Vicenza goldsmith's shop (+29,1%), driven by jewelry sales in the United States, e the thermomechanics of Padua (+24,4%). In the midst of this post-pandemic recovery, anyone who observes the "belly" of the manufacturing Veneto cannot fail to notice a series of progressive changes intended to update its physiognomy.
In the Northeast, and specifically in Veneto, the ecological transition, the principles ofThe circular economy and a new one corporate social responsibility they are becoming an increasingly widespread and transversal topic, "grounded" even in dozens of very concrete projects. The stereotype of the Venetian entrepreneur interested only in the religion of the "schei" is no longer current, we are no longer just talking about taxes and bureaucracy but above all about how companies must and will have to coexist in a fragile economic and environmental ecosystem that needs to be preserved.
The leap in mentality in the Northeast is only partly attributable to generational change: certainly compared to their fathers, the second, third or fourth generations of Northeastern entrepreneurs, now in charge, have cultivated a wide-ranging vision of the global sustainability of industrial and production processes in their respective companies. For some time now, everything has not been measured only in terms of turnover and net profit. The fathers, the founders, who started in most cases from the garage behind the house, were all understandably oriented towards creating companies “physically” and competing in the world with little capital, a lot of work and inventiveness.
Today the projects and initiatives related toThe circular economy, recycling, energy sustainability, corporate welfare, are scattered throughout the provinces of the Northeast and it is hard to follow them all. They involve the manufacturing districts, the large subcontracting chains of Germany, the gold and tanning districts, the home system, marble and plastic processing.
«I am thinking, for example, of how the plastic industry of the Vicenza area has developed its own transition towards bioplastics for at least 15 years; or how tanning is on its way to achieving 100% recovery of production waste – he observes Laura Dalla Vecchia, recently at the helm of Confindustria di Vicenza, the first woman from Vicenza to lead one of the most important industrial associations in the country – We have excellent examples of how investments in sustainability also offer a very evident return in value. The final consumer is rightly more and more sensitive to the issue and therefore failing to implement serious and measurable actions to reduce the impact of one's products means being swept away, it's just a matter of time. The large international finished product industries, of which our factories are suppliers, continue to raise the bar of sustainability and, consequently, global competition is playing on this».
A Bassano del Grappa, center of the piedmont axis that connects the Vicenza area to the Treviso area and projects towards Trentino, a district famous for the mechanics linked to the automotive, furniture, gold and plastic sectors, the local Confindustria group organized the project "Future Roots 2030”, a widespread festival of sustainability and environmental ethics, which is above all a cultural operation to bring and teach the circular economy and sustainability among students. Workshops, company visits, seminars with dozens of young people to explain that the factories where they will work in a few years have a strategic need to reconvert and become increasingly green. To save an environment that has paid for fifty years of GDP growth in the Northeast but also to remain competitive in international supply chains, where those who are not "green" or eco-sustainable risk ending up marginalised.
Also in the Vicenza area, a Cartigliano, 3.000 souls in the middle of the area of the new Pedemontana road which over the years has produced an ecosystem of small "pocket" industrial jewels, in the springs, small parts or industrial machines, entrepreneurs have realized that in addition to greening, companies must "give back" something also in terms of financial resources to the territory that hosted them and which contributed to their fortunes. The theme that worries those who do business in these parts, in addition to the environment, is also the demographic one. The assumption is simple: companies thrive if there are families, young people, active centres. Consequentially the demographic question becomes strategic. St
and the small towns of the Northeast, satellites of the larger urban centers, shut down, in a few years companies will no longer find not only the mythical specialized technicians, but not even generic workers. The "Project Janus” was born in Cartigliano with this goal: every year the promoting companies will donate a part of their turnover to support local families with school expenses, from nursery school to high school, passing through summer camps. With the dream, in perspective, of putting families in the financial and social conditions to venture into the idea of having more than one child.
This new green sensibility is obviously innervated in industrial processes with different speeds: more immediate in structured industrial realities and slower in the last gears - usually artisanal - of the supply chain. Even in the academic world, environmental economics, as it was called a few years ago, is finding fertile ground in Veneto. The Faculty of Economics of Cà Foscari, one of the centers of excellence with Milan and Rome in economic-financial studies, has for some time directed the paths of economic analysis on the implications of climate change and the green revolution in finance. Venetian economists, among which Monica Billio and Loriana Pelizzon stand out, have produced numerous studies on the subject, which are also cited internationally. But the green transition in the Northeast will not be a gala dinner, there are many unknown factors that industrial districts will have to face and for this reason politics will also be needed.
«Europe and the United States have set ambitious emission reduction targets for 2030. This has costs – concludes Laura Dalla Vecchia (Confindustria Vicenza) – because a conversion of production and a transformation of skills involve enormous efforts and medium-long times. You don't change a factory with a click. Those who produce combustion engines cannot, overnight, start making batteries. On the other hand, it is clear that greenwashing operations should be avoided, sustainability must be real and finance pays close attention to this aspect: it does not invest in companies that do not undertake concrete projects. The transition period must be carefully planned and adequately resourcedotherwise we really risk social disaster. China, India and others, if they do not accept this challenge, on the one hand would be in a position to carry out commercial dumping and on the other they would risk jeopardizing the goal of limiting the rise in global temperature".
