Circularity is the keyword with which Icea, the Institute for Ethical and Environmental Certification, interprets sustainability: an integrated approach that unites the food and non-food worlds, linking processes, raw materials and supply chains to generate shared value.

Present at Ecomondo 2025, the international benchmark for the circular economy scheduled from 4 to 7 November at the Rimini Expo Centre, Icea brings a concrete and applied vision of sustainability, capable of connecting businesses, institutions and territories.

From its origins in organic farming, the body has extended its commitment to other strategic sectors, promoting the circularity of certifications as an essential link to ensure coherence and continuity in ecological transition processes.

Connecting processes, linking supply chains

"We started out with the early organic farming movements in Italy and Europe," says Mariano Serratore, Icea's technical director, "but from the very beginning we opened up to an integrated and widespread sustainability that today encompasses textiles, cosmetics, construction and sustainable tourism."

Founded as a non-profit organisation, Icea has maintained over time its identity as a cultural movement, as well as a technical one: "We are guided by a concrete approach, which translates into practice in everyday life and then finds application in our standards and certification schemes."

For Icea, sustainability is not limited to waste management or recycling, but enhances the relationship between supply chains and materials: "This generates processes in terms of bioeconomy and circularity, which are more relevant today than ever," Serratore underlines.

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And to complete this system, a further step forward is needed: "We have identified a missing link: ensuring, beyond the circularity of processes, the circularity of certifications," he adds. "Only in this way can we connect the different areas and maintain the added value generated by our work in the food and non-food worlds."

Icea is among the guest organisations in the Ecomondo Vip lounge, an exclusive space for meeting and exchanging opinions and ideas, dedicated to companies that make sustainability and circularity their primary objective.