Innovation and sustainability: beyond comfort

“In the Italian House, the so-called ‘comfort’ is not exclusively linked to the needs and comforts of our life and the organisation of services. This ‘comfort’ is in something superior. It is in giving us with its architecture a measure for our own thoughts, in giving us with its simplicity a health for our habits, in giving us with its great hospitality the sense of a confident and numerous life.” So wrote Gio Ponti in his very first editorial in Domus in 1928. Almost a century has passed but his words still remain relevant. What has changed radically are the tools we use and the technologies we integrate into our homes and develop to serve our cities. This constantly expanding sector finds its necessary meeting point in MCE - Mostra Convegno Expocomfort, the biennial world leader in civil and industrial plant engineering, air conditioning and renewable energy. The claim of this year's edition for the event is "Beyond Comfort": this topic will be intertwined with the three main axes of MCE's offer: innovation, sustainability and energy efficiency.

The new edition will focus in particular on certain areas, to guide operators in choosing the best solutions: Industrial, Smartness and Hydrogen, connoted by dedicated events and visit routes to contextualise and rationalise the wide range of products on display, highlighting the newest and most specific components of some particular sectors.  The MCE 2024 edition also sees the introduction of new proposals for all professionals involved in the design, distribution, and installation of systems, with the transformation of the "Efficiency and Innovation Path" and the institution of new awards, the MCE Excellence Awards - Efficiency&Innovation for Transition Goals, which will be assigned to components, systems, and technologies that will accelerate the energy and environmental transition linked to the commitments made as part of the United Nations 2030 Agenda signed in 2015. An important novelty for 2024 - in line with the most up-to-date and innovative trade fairs - is the introduction of a new exhibition layout, which sees the convergence and integration of technologies, the definition of new direct connections, and the optimisation of visit routes. MCE therefore confirms itself as the unmissable appointment for building relationships and strategic alliances: this is borne out by the partial data that already sees 95% of exhibition spaces occupied (some already full booked), with over 1,600 companies registered to date and 55% from abroad.

The last aspect to be emphasised and explored is the increasing sustainability of the event. Massimiliano Pierini, Managing Director of RX Italy Srl (the company that organises MCE), says: 'We are committed to decarbonising the events industry itself. We are founding members of the Net Zero Carbon Events Pledge, by which we commit to making our company, our events and the entire industry net zero. We are committed to zeroing our greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 and reducing them by 50 per cent by 2030. Given the complex nature of our supply chain and the emissions associated with running an exhibition, it is only by working together as an industry that we will be able to secure a more sustainable future. To safeguard this important goal, MCE is designed and delivered under the ISO 20121:2013 Certification - Sustainable Organisation of Trade Fair Events."