Corporate responsability
Material
At Foglizzo our philosophy is one of “use what’s already there” as the raw material for decoration. Our commitment to a more sustainable world means: choosing a material with low environmental impact that will last over time, is almost maintenance free and can be repaired, reused or recycled:
- 100% recycled: all our production is based on hides collected as a by product of the food industry that would otherwise be scrapped as waste;
- 98% of our hides are sourced within the EU;
- Leather is one of the most ancient examples of the circular economy (using an existing resource to produce a long-lasting product that is repairable and recyclable at the end of its lifecycle);
- For as long as we use meat and dairy products, hides and skins will be available as a renewable natural resource.
Supply
Sourcing locally is not only a choice of quality, but also of reducing transport emissions, recognising local competences and respecting environmental policies:
- We only manufacturein Italy to the highest environmental standards;
- All our suppliers are Reach compliant;
- Italian tanning environmental standards are the highest in the world in terms of emissions, water consumption and chemicals used. Our partners are constantly audited by relevant authorities;
- Thanks to local sourcing and local production, our hidesrequire minimal transportation during the production phases;
- Our warehouse is about 300km away from our production site, reducing to a minimum CO2 emissions.
Production & tanning
Respect for the environment and supporting innovate tanning processes to constantly reduce our carbon footprint are the first step in our sustainability journey:
- Pure water is returned after production and reused in the production cluster. This is also the reason why we require two annual production breaks to fully clean the local water treatment facility;
- No use of Chromium 6;
- We prefer fresh hides in order to reduce the use of common sal;
- Our tanning processes have a lower Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) than many rival materials such as faux leather, “eco” leather and other fabrics based on non-renewable fossil fuels.
Operation
Only by looking into the details can we make a real impactin a global industry:
- We already source over 45% of our energy from renewable sources and we plan to reach 100% in the next two years;
- We offer innovative technological services to our clients to reduce travelling during the project development, verification and inspection phases, as well as post sales;
- All our packaging uses recycled and low-impact materials;
- All our catalogues are produced using paper made with scraps from leather dust and the samples are for trimmings;
- We offer an digitalised materials library to our clients to reduce the use of physical samples and shipping;
- We have made our samples smaller to minimise weight and reduce the shipping footprint;
- We work globally and therefore every effort has a big impact. We only use the maximum boxing size to improve the loading efficiency of our courier partners and to reduce the transport footprint.
Product life
Leather, luxury and respect for the natural characteristics of products contribute to a more sustainable world:
- Our leathers are very long-lasting products; high-end leather will last for generations, requiring very low maintenance when properly used;
- Most of our production is from high-end hides, therefore our leather is mostly aniline or nubuck with low finishing levels and minimal treatment processes;
- Our leathers are used in high-end products that tend to have a much longer lifecycle and therefore a more sustainable approach;
- Leather is repairable during its lifeand fully recyclable or totally biodegradable at end of life.
Wellbeing
People are our first resource and what make us unique. Contributing to the wellbeing of our staff while raising their awareness of environmental issues is key to performance improvements:
- Our offices are designed to respect the needs of our employees and guest with innovative negative-ion paint on walls, low-consumption lighting, outdoor spaces and relaxation areas, etc;
- We have reduced the use of plastics in the company by 90% by rethinking packaging, food and beverage consumption;
- We support all our employees in using alternative and sustainable means of transport with electric cars, e-bikes, free charging station, bike parking docks, etc;
- We have digitised our internal processes, providing staff with mobile devices to allow them to work regularly from home and come to the office only when really needed. This improves their quality of lifeand reduces CO2 emissions from daily commutes;
- We constantly train our staff on how technology can improve their quality of work and life.
Future
Managing a 100-year-old company means projecting our business decades into the future:
- We explore alternative technological solutions to improve services and reduce our environmental impact;
- We are investigating innovative tanning solutions that would require fewer resources (less dye, lower temperatures, etc);
- We are constantly reviewing our hide suppliers to find those with the most progressive environmental policies;
- We support all sustainability initiatives (eg.McArthur Foundation, Water Revolution Foundation, Tara Foundation), to learn how we canimprove our own behaviour and processes. Our thinking is based on the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
