From VenicePost Monitor | February 28, 2016
by Adele Gerardi – From Lago to Zordan, from Arte Sella to Cibicworkshop, from EcorNaturasì to Irinox, from Eurotech to Aquafil, from Solidpower to SAV: Green Week honors ten stories that tell how sustainability can produce cultural, social and economic innovation
From design to energy, from heavy industry to the new frontiers of IT to artistic creations that mingle and merge with nature: it would seem impossible to find a common denominator among such diverse fields and activities, but the “Ten Stories of Sustainable Innovation”-which will receive the 2016 Radical Green Award as part of a special Green Week event scheduled for Friday, March 4, 6 p.m., in Trento-are all marked by their green footprint. The ten stories of sustainable innovation are testimonies that tell how technological development and sustainable approach can coexist and become competitive factors; they are examples in which the “green” aspect is not a publicity “gimmick,” but is a natural evolution of family traditions and entrepreneurial vocations; they are ten examples of eco practice to make the best of our culture and business known in the territory and nationwide.
This is the case with Lago spa, which has focused on “inclusive” design. Along with the ‘use of environmentally friendly materials for interior design products, such as woods from controlled reforestation, non-toxic paints and low-impact packaging, the Veneto-based company has not neglected human sustainability. Daniele Lago, an entrepreneur and designer, joined by his siblings Franco and Rosanna, has configured a business and production organization inspired by Kaizen. This is a Japanese methodology which, starting from a philosophy that places Man at the center, pursues corporate improvement by involving each of its elements in an atmosphere of corporate “wellbeing.”
Similar path is that of the store interior company Zordan of Valdagno (Vi). After acquiring LEED mapping and forest certification for its product materials, the company is pushing the sustainability bar even further with a commitment to conquer the rigorous performance requirements of the U.S. ‘B Corp’ standard. “‘B Corporations’ or ‘Benefit corporations,’ are excellent companies that harmoniously blend the priorities of for-profit and nonprofit, that is, business performance with attention to the environment and people,” says Maurizio Zordan, “It means expanding the concept of sustainability by also taking into consideration employee training, good business climate, family-work balance, customers, the local area and the community they belong to.
Then, on the level of efforts to combat global waste, the Aquafil Group of Trento, Arco, which came up with the Econyl® system capable of obtaining nylon from waste with 100% regenerated polyamide 6, stood out. Aquafil thus contributes to the recovery and recycling of materials such as fishing nets, carpets and carpeting, and hard textiles that have ended up in landfills or the ocean and are dangerous to the entire ecosystem. An enterprise with a global face as large quantities of material are recovered in different countries around the world: the United States, Egypt, Pakistan, Thailand, Norway and Turkey. Since 2008 Aquafil, by creating the Energy & Recycling Business Unit, has focused on the sustainable evolution of the initial business, when in its early days in the 1970s it established itself as one of Europe’s leading carpet fiber producers.
For being able to turn love and respect for nature into art, close a Radical Green Award the Arte Sella Association. For more than two decades he has exhibited more than 300 works of art made from stones, leaves, branches and logs in the “Art Nature” trail created along the forest road on the south side of Mount Armentera in the municipality of Borgo Valsugana. Of these works 58 can still be visited because they are permanent installations. “Artesella conquers because of its philosophy that lies somewhat hidden behind the beauty and charm of the place,” said cellist Mario Brunello, music director of the event, “everything created there then returns to nature. The path of research on sustainability, interpreted, since the early 1990s, not only in an environmental and physical sense, but also in a cultural and social sense ,opening in fact to the design of “service design,” earned the award to the workshop of Vicenza designer Aldo Cibic. In particular, his intuition and sensitivity to environmental issues led him in 2012 to the sustainable hemp house project developed with Tommaso Corà and presented at the Green Home Design at Made Expo.
Innovation research becomes “hardware” with Friuli-based Eurotech, which has patented ReliaSENS to combat pollution. the cloud-connected environmental monitoring unit equipped with high-precision sensors for measuring air pollution, designed for both fixed and mobile installations in all kinds of environments: from airports to construction sites to hospitals.
Research with universities and support for farm production, on the other hand, distinguishes the activities of EcorNaturasì, created through the merger of Ecor, the largest wholesale distributor of organic and biodynamic products, and NaturaSì, the organic supermarket brand. Winning the award is the concept behind the work of the EcorNaturaSì Group : “the best possible product for people’s health is also the best for the life of nature around us.”
Countering energy waste is at the heart of the entrepreneurial strategy of the Treviso-based company Irinox, which has come up with “Fresco,” the innovative, environmentally friendly blast chiller destined to change the way we prepare and consume food as well as our habits. But it is also a way to reduce waste: according to some studies, an Italian family wastes an average of 6.5 euros per week of food due to spoilage. “With this system we can prevent it,” stresses Katia Da Ros, Irinox vice president. “It is part of our values, so much so that we have joined the Milan Charter against waste. We have a dream: if the world has the Americans to thank for the home fridge, we would like the world to do the same with the Italians for the home blast chiller.”
It is also a 2016 Radical Green Award for SAV- Società Alluminio Veneto for adhering to the EU regulation Emas III covering voluntary eco-management and audit systems, which are considered among the most modern organizational systems for environmental protection. “We are in the process of completing total recovery tanks for both rainwater and shed roof water for cooling the furnaces, in order to use and waste less and less running water,” says Valerio Rossetto, owner and president of the company since 1996, “In addition, we are carrying out a study to reduce emissions from our melting furnaces.
Finally, the Trentino-based company Solidpower, which makes fuel cells based on ceramic nanomaterials, so-called solid oxide, can be considered revolutionary. Solid Oxyde Fuel Cells enable the conversion of natural gas, biogas, hydrogen, and/or hydrogen mixtures into electricity and heat, not by combustion, but directly to the end user by an electrochemical process. “Our desire,” said CEO Alberto Ravagni, “is to become the leading player in the high-efficiency clean micro-cogeneration segment. The work of the last five years shows how the green economy ecosystem in Trentino can really make a difference.”