English What do a pencil and fashion have in common? Susanna Martucci, Founder Alisea – Perpetua and Alice Fortuna, Sustainability Communications Manager at WRAD Focus Design, explained to us – during our Re-think Circular Economy Forum 2020 in Milan – what it is and how it is possible. Susanna Martucci is an entrepreneur whose job is to extend the life of materials. She has always worked in sales and communication and after 12 years of experience in a large Italian company, in 1994 she founded her own: Alisea. She was in the business of creating promotional “gadgets” made in Italy. However, a little over a year, products made in China arrived on the market and competing became impossible because they had unbeatable prices and looked exactly as the products she was making. She was risking of going out of business and leaving 20 people unemployed. One day of that same period she found herself in a bar where an acquaintance gave her a small notebook as a gift. When she opened it she read “no trees has been cut down for the production of this notebook”. This suddenly took her back to 1982 when she was on a train and by her side two university professors were having a conversation: “we are all sitting on a huge landfill, it’s a ticking bomb, a huge problem for future generations but also a great business opportunity for those who will be able to seize it”. However, in 1982, in Italy, nobody had a clue what household waste recycling actually meant. Then, she asked herself: “Why don’t we give a new life to waste?“. Therefore, she started speaking to her clients’ marketing departments and asked to see the waste their companies were producing. Thanks to the production managers she could walk through their production processes and she could learn about the technical data sheets of the materials. This is the moment when at Alisea they realized how, through creativity, all waste could become the protagonist of a fascinating story to tell. In fact, it was 1996 and from that intuition Alisea found a unique collocation on the market, becoming the only operator in Italy that...
Month: August 2021
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26 August 2021by Fabrizio Cinque, Tondo Associate L’ambiente costituisce una fonte di risorse essenziale per il funzionamento del sistema economico, questo perché, come ogni attività umana, l’attività economica si svolge all’interno dell’ambiente naturale. L’ambiente fornisce risorse economiche: le materie prime. Esse sono un bene economico in forma grezza, che l’uomo, attraverso cicli produttivi, può trasformare in beni di consumo pronti a soddisfare i bisogni umani. Ciò però impoverisce l’ambiente, perché nonostante la natura sia una riserva di beni materiali molto grande, non è illimitata, di conseguenza, le materie prime sono risorse scarse. Quando si parla di scarsità di una risorsa naturale questa può essere assoluta (stock) e in tal caso si parla di risorse esauribili (non rinnovabili) oppure relativa, è il caso di risorse rigenerabili (rinnovabili). Ambiente ed Economia sono quindi due sistemi inseparabili e in continua relazione. Ci sono pertanto due distinti metabolismi sul nostro pianeta: il metabolismo biologico, o della Biosfera, cioè i cicli della natura e il metabolismo tecnico, detto anche Tecnosfera, cioè i cicli dell’industria. Biosfera e Tecnosfera: definizioni e funzionamento La Terra viene divisa da alcuni studiosi in varie «sfere»: Litosfera, Idrosfera, Atmosfera e, da pochi anni, è stata introdotta anche la Tecnosfera. Il sistema che comprende Litosfera (l’insieme delle terre emerse), Idrosfera (insieme delle acque) e Atmosfera è chiamato Biosfera. Quest’ultima comprende tutti gli ecosistemi della Terra e si può quindi considerare formata dall’insieme degli ambienti fisici del pianeta che possono ospitare organismi viventi. Caratteristica fondamentale della Biosfera è la diversità biologica (o biodiversità), cioè, la varietà di organismi viventi nelle loro diverse forme, e nei rispettivi ecosistemi. La parola Tecnosfera è stata coniata dal professore di geologia e ingegneria civile della Duke University Peter Haff, che afferma: «La tecnosfera è fatta dalle strutture che l’uomo ha costruito nel tempo: centrali elettriche, linee di trasmissione, strade, edifici, mezzi di trasporto, templi, aziende agricole,...
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24 August 2021Comunicato Stampa RE-THINK CIRCULAR ECONOMY FORUM APPRODA A TARANTO Aziende, organizzazioni, istituzioni, startup ed enti di ricerca mostreranno il loro percorso tutto circolare per favorire la nascita di attività innovative e imprenditoriali nel territorio pugliese 28-29 settembre 2021 – 28 settembre dalle 9.30 alle 18.30 & 29 settembre dalle 9.30 alle 18:00 – Evento in presenza e online – Link per registrazione Milano, 24 agosto 2021 – Con l’obiettivo di favorire la nascita di attività innovative e imprenditoriali nel territorio pugliese, Tondo, organizzazione internazionale operante nel settore dell’economia circolare, annuncia l’organizzazione del prossimo appuntamento di Re-think Circular Economy Forum che si terrà a Taranto il 28 e 29 settembre 2021. Si tratta di un grande evento in modalità mista sia in presenza fisica e sia online, questo il link per la registrazione. Tra i partner il Comune di Taranto e l’associazione ETS Eurota, partner territoriale di Tondo per Re-think Circular Economy Forum nella città dei due mari, Fondazione ITS Logistica ed Epm Servizi. Protagonista indiscussa sarà l’economia circolare. Nello specifico verranno trattate tematiche centrali per il territorio tarantino come la transizione energetica e le energie rinnovabili, la gestione ambientale e dei rifiuti e i porti circolari. Verranno infatti raccontati i trend emergenti e le tecnologie che utilizzano nuove fonti energetiche pulite, che trasformano i porti in luoghi dove implementare l’economia circolare, e che permettono il recupero dell’ambiente e dell’ecosistema, la gestione dei rifiuti derivanti plastiche e pneumatici e la produzione di bioplastiche dagli scarti organici. “Abbiamo subito individuato una connessione importante – spiega il sindaco di Taranto, Rinaldo Melucci – tra le attività di Tondo e dell’associazione Eurota e i principi del nostro piano di transizione energetica, economica ed ecologica “Ecosistema Taranto”. Per questo non abbiamo avuto dubbi sulla possibilità di essere partner di questa iniziativa, che per alcuni versi...
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6 August 2021English Version Jacco Verstraeten-Jochemsen, Lead Business Strategy at Circle Economy joined us in October at our Re-think Circular Economy Forum to talk about why and how we should measure our progress towards a Circular Economy. Circle Economy is an organization that strives to accelerate the practical and scalable implementation of the Circular Economy, which is why they are working to effectively measure circularity levels of different companies in Europe. The desire to create a tool to measure the levels of circularity arose from the realization that although economic growth has been exponential in recent decades, many other parameters have grown at the same time: these include material extraction, CO2 emissions, water scarcity, and loss of biodiversity. This is why, in 2018, Circle Economy started to study how the circularity of the global economy can be measured and, after that, they also introduced new methods to measure the circularity of a country and of a company. This is fundamental because if you can’t measure how circular you are, you can’t improve on that. Circle Economy also found out that people are still not aware of how urgent the situation is. When asked how circular the global economy might be, most people assumed that the level of circularity globally would be between 25 and 50%, when it is truly 9%. This means that only 9% of our materials is cycled on a yearly basis, through several different strategies: reusing, composting, recycling. This also means that more than 90% of materials on a yearly basis are lost, landfilled, or incinerated. But how does this work in practice? How can Circle Economy measure the circularity of a company? Jacco presented as an example the results they obtained when analyzing the Danish company Rockwool, which is one of the biggest producers of insulation materials for buildings in...
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2 August 2021English Is it possible to imagine the use of marble in the textile industry? Can marble be light? It sounds incredible, but Francesca Pievani and Alice Zantedeschi, Co-founders of Fili Pari, explained to us – during our Re-think Circular Economy Forum 2020 in Milan – how that can be done. Fili Pari is an innovative Start-Up focused on research and development of unconventional materials for the textile industry, respecting the territory and the environment. The Start-Up specializes in the development of cutting-edge technologies for the enhancement of marble powders. Fili Pari aims to contribute to protecting the land and valleys from the mountain’s dismemberment and encourage the use of by-products as a raw material. Fili Pari was born from the desire to create a new deep connection between the Italian territory and the textile industry. Fili Pari’s concept starts in fact from marble, a natural, typical element of the Italian territory. Since ancient times marble has been used in art, architecture, and represents a cultural, economic, and geological heritage, a symbol of uniqueness and timeless excellence. For instance, the Carrara marble is one of the most precious and luxurious marbles in the world. Generally speaking, Italian marble is among the most valuable in the world and it represents a very important sector of Made in Italy. The Italian stone industry boasts the fifth position in the world ranking for processed marbles, with a share of 10%. The supply chain has more than 3,200 companies and 33,800 employees and reached in 2016 a production worth 3.9 billion euros, three-quarters of which is destined to foreign countries. However, marble was never used in the textile sector. Before Fili Pari, there was no connection or synergy between these two industries. In fashion, it was used as an aesthetic inspiration through prints that reproduce...