Sustainable Fashion
Econyl: A thread granting continuity on Earth
Interview with Giulio Bonazzi, CEO and Chairman of Aquafil
Q: What's your concept of sustainability?
Well, I wish I could give you a simple answer. To me, sustainability essentially means to preserve lives on Planet Earth, including humanity. This means not just to protect the life of human beings, but to preserve life as such on the planet. I believe that if we want to do this, first of all, we need to change ourselves, our habits, and then save the planet. We all want to save the planet but it seems like nobody is noticing that it actually depends on us. It's our responsibility to make the change.
Luckily, we found out that we were working with the molecule of Nylon, which is extremely different from the other fibers or plastics because, thanks to depolymerization, the process by which it is possible to monomers this means that we can go one step back in the chemical chain. And so at this point, you can produce or reproduce any kind of product made with nylon.
We realized that if we didn't change our model, sooner than later we would have gone towards a final death, due to a strong dependency on oil and elevated consumption of energy to transform those oil derivatives into polymers and fibers. So it was very, very necessary for the company, if we wanted to grant the future, to allow a company to change to take place.
Econyl, instead of coming from oil, it comes entirely from waste, such as fishing nets, carpets or plastic scraps. It’s a very performing material, meaning that it has a very high mechanical performance, and can be used to make many different kinds of products such as carpets, rugs and of course fashion products. For example, we’ve been collaborating with Prada, producing clothing, selling backpacks,shoes and sneakers, and also with Burberry, making raincoats and some other special products.
We can also make products like tables or lamps or, you know, whatever you like, Econyl can even be used for 3D printing, if you like, which is certainly one of the future applications that can add something to our system.
Fashion & Luxury Culture Department - Creative Marketing Director
MORDILY WORLU
Giulio Bonazzi has dedicated his career to evolving Aquafil S.p.A. into a leading player in the global carpet and textile materials industry. Aquafil was founded by Bonazzi’s parents 50 years ago in Arco, Italy. An innovator and disruptor, Bonazzi is transforming his family’s manufacturing business into a sustainable global enterprise.
Today, Aquafil is recognized as a sustainability leader, a stalwart example of the circular economy, and has obtained a space in Fortune's 'Change the World' list of companies that are addressing social challenges through their core business activities.
Speaking with Mr. Bonazzi was an honor: a positive spirit, a visionary looking towards the future and the young ones for change and innovation.
For this change to take place, we must learn how to rightfully use the resources at our disposal from the planet, and grant the same availability to future generations. Secondly, when transforming resources into products we must absolutely avoid releasing polluting substances or unrecyclable elements into the atmosphere; and if we can't avoid polluting, we should at least try to emit these substances, not faster than nature can digest them, guaranteeing the maintenance of an existing equilibrium that's been going on for thousands of years. Easy to say, difficult to do through.
Q: Tell us how you got to the Econyl thread idea. What are the applications in the luxury industry?
Our journey with Econyl formally started 15 years ago. I was lucky enough to meet people who positively influenced me, and who believed in me making something good.
The first thing we did with the management team was understanding what sustainability meant for our company. We knew we needed a change to grant a future to our company. Most fibers and polymers' production strongly depends on oil, and its derivatives and require a lot of energy for the transformation.
Q: We are a society influenced by the idea of capitalism, and we're constantly reminded the need to keep on buying, using new stuff and needing more and more things. How do you think, from a consumer point of view, we are going to have a switch in mindset leading us to a more circular economy approach?
So it's not an easy transformation, but it is something that must happen for sure, because living in a closed system like our planet is, means having a limitation in the availability of resources. So we must learn how to use them in an efficient way without depleting the planet from their availability. You know that today, once we’ll get to August, we will have already finished the stock of resources for the current year.. So we must change the direction, we must educate people. To do this, we need three basic things:legislation, education, and Ecodesign. Legislation that goes through education , can drive the change, we have countries that create and implement responsibility systems that are helping in becoming efficient in the use of resources like, for example, plastic bottles. If you go to Germany there is a deposit system that is quite efficient and the recycling rate is at the 97 percent level. So basically plastic bottles are no longer a problem. On the contrary, they are an opportunity because of course and for sure, when you put water in a plastic bottle, you need less energy than in a glass bottle.
Then we need education. I believe that a higher education level among people may indeed help them to better understand what kind of messages are good and which ones are not.
Education also means, in an Italian point of view, to behave in a more educated or in a more polite way. People, for example, smoking or eating chewing gum who once they finish, throw away as if it disappears from the planet or people who throw trash out of the window of their cars. Or when they go trekking, instead of taking back their garbage home, they abandon it in the environment. So we need a higher education level and people that are behaving in a better way. And then, of course, eco-design, because today's products are not made with the idea of being reused or repaired or recycled, they are just made to be looking better or being less expensive or simply for a one-use-only.
On the contrary, we must design products and services in a way that will enable us to preserve the value of the raw materials that are inside those products.
Q: Aquafil in 2014 won the German Sustainability Award, and had a lot of recognition in the green industry; this will give a high profile by the virtue of the prize. How do you keep promoting what you believe in, and made you win in the first place?
It was an interesting night, and there were two moments I still remember quite vividly. The first was when I stepped up to the podium, with no feeling of winning at all, and had an exchange of glances with Mr. Michael Braugart, who was among the jury. Braungart is a chemist and book writer, known as one of the two inventors of the cradle to cradle system. In one of his books: “Remaking the Way we make things” he stated the utility of using Nylon 6 to resolve the matter of plastics, as it can be depolymerized. That’s exactly what Aquafil does.
The second moment was just after the award when I was interviewed by the television and asked how it feels to win the most prestigious environmental award in Germany, as an Italian company.
Well, Italians are very creative, sometimes strange but it’s worth recognizing the number of italian advanced companies which are established in our territory and abroad, as well as the university system considered to be one of the most advanced. After all, most of our graduates and PhDs are going everywhere in the world to showcase a lot of good results. That was my answer, as I believe that, as Italians, we need to protect our reputation, which is the most important asset in our company.
With this in mind, we must check carefully, not just which customers we choose to deal with, but also what kind of project they are willing to develop out of our Enconyl or Polymers. We need to question, are they going to make a good product? Will the finished product be destined for the fast fashion system? Do they establish an ethical working environment?
On the communication side, we are working harder on social media systems, because we believe that this is going to represent the future of communication and gain awareness among most of the younger generations. Social media platforms can be considered as spaces where they can learn, discuss with each other and shape their identity, and being on there is key for us. Unfortunately, I'm older, so maybe not the perfect person to manage this side of the company, but we have about 30 people who can do this.
Q: Speaking of the younger generation, it seems like you do rely on them and you believe that they will carry out a more spontaneous sustainable society. As a mentor, with an experience, what would be your message to the young ones?
I can tell them, you are lucky. You are lucky, because you were not raised with the idea that the planet is a paradise with infinite resources, and that you can live at the fullest taking from the oceans, and the lands without giving back. On the contrary, you are growing up with a very different mentality, expanded thanks to the Internet that gives you the possibility to see how different parts of the globe are according to where you are travelling to.
On top of that, I must say that I am having the pleasure to work with a lot of younger students and graduates within my company and outside of it, who are really good, much better than how we were 30 or 40 years ago. So fight for the elderly to go on retirement, because it is time that you take the lead and that you really try to change things.
Today we have Greta Thumberg. In the 90’s we had another very famous lady that may not be so well known today. Her name is Severn Suzuki. I still remember her 1992 speech during a session of the United Nations, where she was representing ECO (Environmental Children's Organization), a group of 12 and 13 years old children trying to make a difference.
She said: “If you don’t know how to fix it, please stop breaking it”, in reference to pollution and the environmental condition.
