English Version By Giovanni De Lisi – CEO & Co-Founder of Greenrail Giovanni De Lisi tells his experience in the field of railway infrastructures mentioning the startup Greenrail, that is responsible for creating eco-friendly sleepers made of plastic deriving from urban waste and rubber deriving from the recycling of end-of-life tires. The market where the company operates, was dominated by wood and concrete, with products that had been engineered in the early 1900s. In the world there are one million 700 thousand kilometers of railway lines currently in existence, of which 10% made of wood and the remaining 90% made of concrete. When he decided to start his start-up, De Lisi knew the reference market very well, having a family that deals with the assembly and installation of railway lines and in which he has worked directly for about 5 years. During this experience, he realized that the plastic sleepers, which were being developed at that time, could only be a substitute for 10% of the wooden infrastructures, and so the field of action was extremely limited. The idea was therefore to develop a product that could cover the remaining 90% of production with an environmental friendly material. The reference market for sleepers is a very large market. Just think that only the sleepers replaced for normal maintenance activities are 140 million per year. Beside the dimensions, De Lisi realized that the current dominant product, namely the concrete sleepers, had many limitations and, for this reason, he convinced himself to launch an alternative product that had better technical characteristics. As a startup, Greenrail had to undertake an uphill path: the sleepers mixture was realized in collaboration with the Polytechnic of Milan after 35 attempts. Initially, the mixture of thermoplastic material, obtained from about 50% from end-of-life tires and 50% from...
Month: June 2020
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5 June 2020English Version SEAY is production of sustainable beachwear from certified fabrics, short and local sourcing chains, conscious distribution policies and a marketing plan built around an intentional positive environmental impact. The fashion industry is moving fast to meet growing demand for low environmental impact garments resulting as much sustainable as possible. Organic cotton, recycled fabrics, natural dyes and low-carbon footprint supply chains are becoming day after day more requested in a sector dominated by fast-fashion chains that struggle to guarantee to their shareholders a certain marginality, blocking them to adopt green business models, leaving room for small brands to raise their popularity. So far, in the beachwear industry, very few brands have focused their business on a low environmental impact model and it is with this idea in mind that in March 2019 SOSEATY Collective and its SEAY brand was born. Certified fabrics, short and local sourcing chains, conscious distribution policies and a marketing plan built around a green manifesto. Not products with an ethnic look or typical of the fair trade sector, but goods able to express the latest fashion trends with the added value of materials and a business model capable of guaranteeing a circular economy. Sustainability in Fashion industry The colors and details of SEAY garments are aligned to the latest swimwear trends, but their certified yarns and the business model built around the paradigms of the circular economy describe the future of fashion. Giorgio Armani’s recent statements on the non sustainability – economic, ecological and ethical – of fashion as it has evolved in the last decade, is aligned with the vision of SEAY: fashion, which has always been a cultural expression, must stop responding to logics of fast fashion and return to a more human and sustainable dimension (both ecologically and socially). Armani underlined the...