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Fibres/​Yarns/​Fabrics

RadiciGroup stays committed to sustainable supply chain

The RadiciGroup 2016 Sustainability Report has been officially released, reporting on the objectives and goals achieved by the Group.

6th October 2017

Innovation in Textiles
 |  Bergamo

Sustainable, Clothing/​Footwear

The 2016 edition is the Group’s 13th annual Sustainability Report, which, as in the prior year, has been drawn up according to the guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative – version 4 (GRI G4 Core). For the sixth year in a row, the Report has received external assurance by Certiquality, an accredited certification body.

Group identity card

In all, 21 RadiciGroup production companies, in addition to the parent company, supplied information and data for the 25 quantitative and qualitative performance indicators covered in the Sustainability Report. Over 70 people were involved in the preparation of the document.

“I am really proud of our Sustainability Report,” said Angelo Radici, president of RadiciGroup. “It represents a kind of Group identity card with an annual renewal date, which we see not only as certification of our history as a company committed to social responsibility – a trait that has defined us since our very beginning –, but also as motivation for new initiatives that will, year after year, reinforce our commitment to the social and economic development of the communities we are honoured to be a part of, operating at all times with due respect for the environment.”

Environmental performance indicators

Despite the fact that the margins for improvement are getting slimmer as a result of the extensive work done by the Group during previous years, all environmental performance indicators in 2016 turned out positive, according to the Group.

For instance, 51.6% of the electrical energy used by RadiciGroup in 2016 came from renewable energy sources. This achievement was the result of a deliberate choice made by the company to shift increasingly more towards energy sources with lower environmental impact. During the past six years, this corporate policy led to an increase in the percentage of electricity from renewable energy sources, which went from 40.8% in 2011 to 51.6% in 2016.

In the same six-year period, the Group also reduced its total consumption of energy from fossil sources per unit of product processed by 17.5%. Finally, thanks to an improved energy mix, the emissions by Group companies during the last six years dropped by 51%. Additionally, air emissions have consistently improved, with a 68% drop in pollutants, mostly due to the implementation of the latest generation abatement technologies.

Ecodesign and circular economy

“I’d say that our approach to sustainability can be summed up in these words: ecodesign and the circular economy,” said Angelo Radici. “In practical terms, it means that RadiciGroup is committed to developing low environmental impact materials and, what’s more, having its products and processes certified.”

“The Group can be considered an ideal upstream supplier for an ecodesign-oriented market, which thinks about materials even in terms of the end of their useful life, putting into practice the European Union’s circular economy proposal. One of our greatest challenges, which we are concentrating on group-wide in all business areas, is the complete recyclability of our synthetic fibres: the goal is for all our textile products to be mechanically recycled, so they become new plastic materials for technical and industrial uses.”

www.radicigroup.com

Download the full Sustainability Report 2016

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