A Made in Italy of great significance is that concerning the production of Food Service Equipment, that is, machinery for professional kitchens and laboratories. This is an Italian excellence that we export all over the world and which sees our companies in a leading position internationally.

Our country's Food Service Equipment turnover, according to data released by the Anima - Assofoodtec Study Office, stood at 4.56 billion euros in 2022, an increase of 4.5 percent over the previous year. These are striking figures, attesting to the centrality of Italian products, capable of covering as much as 10 percent of the entire world market.

We want to turn on a focus here, within the overall sector, on the specific sector of professional coffee machines.

Coffee, in fact, represents a product with a high symbolic value, a true condensation of Italianità.

For Italians, coffee is a life companion, the undisputed protagonist of a small daily ritual, a distinctive and qualifying element of our lifestyle, the celebrated "Italian way of life."

A few enlightening words by Erri De Luca are enough to describe the strong and deep bond between Italians and coffee: "A coffee pot on the stove is enough to fill a room."

Obviously, the professional coffee machine industry is also grappling with the Paradigm of Sustainability, the informing principle of the Economy of our time.

Design, in the path of Companies in the sector toward sustainable Innovation, plays a role of fundamental importance, in its declinations as Product, Process and System Design.

The Italian Evoca Group has launched the "Design for Environment" project: a dedicated product path designed to respond effectively to new market needs. The initiative is distinguished by a peculiar and shareable attention to the aspect of Measurability.

The Company has adopted a Life Cycle Assessment tool in order to assess the environmental impact of its products. This is an analytical and systematic methodology that assesses the environmental footprint of a product or service throughout its entire life cycle.

The tool makes it possible, as early as the design phase, to determine the impacts of a machine based on multiple criteria in order to optimize its environmental performance.

Following the collection of information on impacts, Evoca has taken targeted actions, with reference to both the materials used (with the identification of alternatives to plastics in favor of recycled materials), energy sources (with the improvement of energy saving systems), and packaging (for alternative solutions to traditional packaging, in favor of recycled and environmentally friendly materials).

Gruppo Cimbali is on a truly wide-ranging path of Innovation towards Sustainability, making use of the tool of Design in the round. First and foremost, the company has developed its own Sustainability Manifesto, applying the goals of the United Nations' Agenda 2030 to the coffee supply chain.

The manifesto ranges from workers' health to waste reduction efforts, from the use of recyclable materials to the application of green technologies, and ongoing collaboration with others to achieve common goals.

Gruppo Cimbali is very active on the technological front, to develop cutting-edge solutions that improve machine performance and contain their environmental impact.

A significant example is the so-called Electronic Nose: a device, developed together with the University of Brescia spin-off Nasys (Nano Sensor System), to identify coffee bean blends by analyzing their organic volatile compounds.

The device works thanks to a nanotechnology sensor system and an artificial intelligence algorithm: inserted into coffee machines, the Electronic Nose breathes air into the hopper and captures the volatile components the coffee gives off, then compares them with the characteristics of recorded blends.

The device works thanks to a system of nanotechnology sensors and an artificial intelligence algorithm: inserted into coffee machines, the Electronic Nose breathes the air in the hopper and captures the volatile components that the coffee exudes, then compares them with the characteristics of recorded blends, assessing the freshness of the blend and allowing action to be taken on the machine by modifying the grinding, temperature and pressure parameters.

The Global Remote Service Program, developed in conjunction with TeamViewer, is a connectivity software to interact remotely with the machine and optimize after-sales services.

Digital Twin, a project in collaboration with Altair, operates a convergence of real data and simulations to optimize product performance and production efficiency.

Smart Plug represents a device, developed in collaboration with Khoena, that can reduce the energy consumption of coffee machines.

Termica Istantanea (Instant Thermal) constitutes a system for instantaneous heating of circuit water, with a low-volume boiler that provides energy only when needed.

At Faema, coffee grounds are transformed into an innovative biopolymer, called Rekrill Coffee, with which Faemina's cup holder grids are made.

The project, conducted with Krill Design, also used 3D printing, which allows for a reduction in waste compared to traditional production.

Remarketing, finally, is an initiative whereby machines withdrawn from the market are remanufactured, certified according to safety regulations, and put back into use, with a guarantee of their perfect efficiency.