Parma Ham towards the ecological transition
Launched in 2022, the project aimed to define an environmental policy for the Parma Ham sector that is at the service of its producers, optimising their sustainability performance.
To do this, the Parma DOP protection body involved highly qualified and recognized authoritative partners: the Polytechnic University of Milan for the definition and implementation phase of the project, its spin-off Enersem for the development of the software required by the research and CSQA for the aspects relating to the checks.
The project, over the course of more than two years, involved the implementation of several distinct phases. Initially, the environmental footprint of the Parma Ham sector was calculated by applying the official PEF (Product Environmental Footprint) methodology, a tool made available by the European Commission to evaluate, through specific indicators, the environmental impact of production activities. This operation was made possible thanks to the involvement and active participation of a large number of companies in the sector and was subsequently validated by the CSQA Certification Body.
In light of the data processed and collected in this first phase, the Consortium was able to deposit with the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE) the so-called Product Category Rules valid for all DOP raw hams, which define a reference environmental profile for this product category. This step was necessary to request the activation, for Parma Ham, of the Made Green in Italy scheme, the national certification scheme on the environmental footprint of the product promoted by MASE, which was created to recognize, upon voluntary request by companies, Made in Italy products of high environmental quality.
In the last phase, a software for calculating and reducing the environmental footprint was created and made available to companies in the Parma Ham sector , aimed at optimizing the performance of the entire production cycle. Through this software, also verified by CSQA, producers who request it receive personalized improvement suggestions for reducing the environmental footprint of the product and for energy saving, in addition to a report on their environmental performance and comparison with comparable companies.
"The value of a unique product like Parma Ham is also measured by its ability to show itself consistent with the needs of consumers and the challenges of a rapidly changing world. The indissoluble bond that our PDO has with its territory makes us even more responsible with respect to the impact generated by our productions, which is why we are particularly proud to have conducted this project together with the Polytechnic University of Milan, Enersem and CSQA. The main objective was to support our companies in their already significant commitment to the ecological transition, thus strengthening environmental protection, for the future of the sector and for new generations. What we note with deep satisfaction is that a significant number of producers have already decided to make use of the software we have created with this project, confirming the environmental ethics of our sector, also to the benefit of its competitiveness on foreign markets in relation to these important issues", comments Alessandro Utini, President of the Parma Ham Consortium.
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