Paola De Bernardi spoke about the paradox and limits of the agri-food system, then suggested possible operational solutions.
Month: March 2023
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17 March 2023During the last Re-think in Milan, Kirsi Terho, Key Account Director of Infinited Fiber, spoke. Infinited fiber is an innovative startup from the perspective of developing new infinitely recyclable materials so that the textile industry is more sustainable. She says that in the textile industry, the time for using virgin fibers is over. Infinited Fiber makes this possible with its technology. They are a technology company that is turning old clothes into a new textile fiber. They take trashed clothes and make them into a new textile fiber called Infinna, that can be turned into yarns. The technology uses cellulose in the waste as its raw material to create the new fiber. It’s a unique technology that they are using at their pilot factories in Finland. Infinited Fiber was founded in 2016. Technology has been around a lot longer. It has been studied at the Technical Research Centre of Finland, VTT, and Infinited Fiber Company was spun off to commercialize the technology. It’s a patented technology that allows textile fibers’ regeneration – or rebirth. The dream is to stop waste from being wasted and to make textile circularity a reality by capturing the resources in the waste and giving them new value as new fibers. Infinited Fiber collaborates with several of the world’s leading fashion and apparel companies, like H&M Group, Patagonia, and Adidas, which have also made big commitments through investing in the company or signing multi-year purchasing deals, or both. Climate change is real as we all know, and these brands know it too. They are paying attention to sustainable sourcing, and they have made public pledges to shift to products made from recycled materials. To make good on these promises, they need innovations that enable high-quality textile-to-textile recycling, and Infinited Fiber is offering one such solution. Of...
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10 March 2023Let’s take the opportunity to celebrate all women playing a pivotal role in the progress toward a circular economy. From entrepreneurs and politicians to scientists and designers, women are making huge contributions to sustainable development. Here are only 5 of the most prominent thousands of females devoting themselves to circularity. ELLEN MACARTHUR 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes, and 33 seconds: this is how long Ellen MacArthur took to circumnavigate the whole globe, becoming the fastest solo sailor to complete this journey. During her boat trips, Ellen witnessed firsthand the by far unsustainable levels of waste and pollution of our planet, and the resulting pressing environmental challenges facing the world today. Specifically, she could not remain indifferent to the vast amounts of plastic bottles, bags, and debris floating on the water’s surface: plastic pollution was hopelessly harming marine life and ecosystems. The “take-make-dispose” economic model was one of the primary causes of this problem and needed to be replaced. In 2010, she founded the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, becoming a leading voice in the circular economy movement. As a matter of fact, the Foundation inspired circular change in businesses, governments, and organizations all around the world, and contributed to research on circularity and policy implementation. Just think that the Foundation contributed to the development of the European Union’s Circular Economy Package, promoting a more circular approach to resource use and waste reduction in the EU. JENNIFER HYMAN AND JENNIFER FLEISS Double the Jennifer, double the power. Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Fleiss are the founders of Rent The Runway: the leading clothing rental platform providing consumers simultaneously with a cost-effective and sustainable solution to show off the most iconic high-end looks. By allowing them to rent dresses for special occasions, RTR allows fashionistas to have high turnover fashion rates without harming the...
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3 March 2023During last February’s edition of Re-think Milano among other topics there was a discussion about sustainability communication of companies and brands engaged in this area. Nicola Camurri is a board member of Giglio Bagnara Spa, a company active in the same area since 1869. The relationship with the territory is fundamental if we want sustainable models that disintermediate competitive advantages. He is also Client Advisor at Altavia Italia a company specializing in retail commercial activation. At Altavia, Camurri is in charge of the advisory practice on fashion-related retail innovation and sustainability issues. The central objective of his speech is to focus attention on how to tell about the excellence present in our country: the Italians are actually championing both sustainability and the production of products used by luxury brands, think that among the same participants in the forum, there are some samples of wool and yarns that fashion companies around the world use. We are talking about an industry in which everyone can now recognize the importance of the issue of sustainability thanks to fairly effective but still largely negative communication. How many of us can tell whether or not fashion is harmful to the environment? By now it is well known how harmful fashion is, yet we have yet to build a counter-narrative that can show how much we have been able to do to change this trend. Sustainable production is the biggest business opportunity for brands, after digitization, but it is also seen as the second biggest challenge for 2022 after the raw material supply crisis. This tells us something very interesting: we are still looking in the wrong direction. Digitization is a fact, it’s a question of how the tools we are going to relate to, work with, and do more and more things with are changing....