companies; it would provide them with clear data that could be analysed to optimise processes. “Traceability is the essential approach to enable a broad and all-encompassing focus on the topic of sustainability. What do we mean by traceability? An information system linked to the value chain that collects predetermined and regulated data”.
Until now, we have been thinking more in terms of best practices, identified by the marketing teams of each individual company and not related to the needs of the sector or the supply chain as a whole. Adopting a shared traceability system would help the industry make an evolutionary leap: “We need to move from a company-specific to an industry-specific approach. The aim is not so much to make the industry sustainable by making many companies sustainable, but to imagine and introduce a sustainable industrial system that allows companies to become part of it”. A concrete example: if a shoe is made up of around 60 materials, manufactured by almost as many companies, and for each part I have to determine how sustainable it is, so as to assign a clear and transparent sustainability passport to each finished product, it is absurd to imagine that such a challenge would not be met on the basis of an unambiguous approach shared by the
entire sector. Harmonizing different certifications and non-homogeneous data each time would be inconclusive as well as costly.
Expo Riva Schuh
& Gardabags and traceability Through the work of the Scientific Committee, the Riva del Garda trade show is acting as a sounding board for this more mature idea of sustainability and promoting a traceable supply chain. Its intention is not to highlight the good practices of individual companies, but to work towards a system shared by the industry and thus provide a guideline for all companies.
“Expo Riva Schuh & Gardabags intends to identify a number of technical partners and a select group of companies. This working team will be asked to determine the traceability principles that could transparently identify each company’s level of sustainability”, anticipates Enrico Cietta. Why should a trade show deal with such issues? “Because it is perhaps the only independent entity capable of bringing together the entire sector at international level. As opposed to individual entrepreneurs or associations, whether national or supranational, it has considerable competitive leverage: as a platform for promotion, communication and business, it is a key player in
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the market. When a trade show such as Expo Riva Schuh & Gardabags is committed to providing buyers with clear and comparable information on the sustainability level of companies and collections, it sends a strong signal to the entire industry, which will be increasingly incentivised to invest in sustainability. The trade show becomes an instrument of cultural dissemination, making sustainability a powerful competitive weapon”. The strategy devised by Expo Riva Schuh & Gardabags does not envisage the event becoming a certifying body or the developer of a platform for traceability, but rather aims to bring together and establish a dialogue between those who do this for a living and sector companies. Thus building a shared path that, through the traceability tool, will lead to the sustainability of the entire footwear and leather goods industry.
About Expo Riva Schuh & Gardabags
With more than 40 countries represented among exhibiting companies and visitors from all over the world, Expo Riva Schuh & Gardabags – organized by Riva del Garda Fierecongressi SpA – is the leading international trade show dedicated to volume footwear and accessories.
The next edition will be held from 14 to 17 January 2023, at the Riva del Garda Exhibition Centre. Opening hours: Saturday 14, Sunday 15, Monday 16 January 2023: from 9 am to 6 pm. Tuesday 17 January from 9 am to 4 pm.
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