Do you also find greenwashing particularly annoying? It must be the fault of the flattened communication with which many companies now declare their sustainability on green backgrounds and always on palettes.
Even when referral of used products is encouraged, the input to repurchase is extemporaneous. The machine does not stop. Large-scale production continues and with questionable logic, while sponsoring the use of recycled materials to alleviate guilt. Marketing and upsell logics play hide-and-seek behind cosmetic environmentalism.
What is sustainability? To speak of environmental protection is reductive; it is more of a lifestyle that also encompasses the social and economic spheres.
power2Cloud, with Forethinking Benefit Society,organized an aperitif involving a number of local businesses to discuss the issue. After the event in Ostuni at the Officine Tamborrino, the appointment at the headquarters of the Dedalus Social Cooperative, in Naples, facilitated a moment of meeting to chart new trajectories and inspire change, which in these cases is always work in progress, effective if shared.
The result of this meeting was more than satisfactory, in that circle of companies, associations and institutions were found people animated not only by passion for their work, but open to listen to new opportunities and tell about their initiatives.
After greetings from Dedalus Cooperative President Elena de Filippo, here are some stories we wish to tell you. Sustainable stories, even though they are so different from each other, that start from a tailoring workshop, involve a waste disposal island, to those who produce packaging or inhabit residential spaces.
Everyone has rethought and reorganized their products and services, shared new motivations, created opportunities closer to new market niches, and left a tangible mark, not only for the environment.
Antonio Martiniello, an architect from Campania, greeted those present by telling them about the place, that of the former Sava Wool Mill, formerly the cloister of Santa Caterina a Formiello, which is the subject of a major urban regeneration project.
In Porta Capuana, this example of industrial architecture has become a box that houses different contents, many of them put together like a puzzle by Martiniello, who with foresight, years ago, identified spaces and created a virtuous network that works in osmosis with the neighborhood and the city.
"Everyone talks about urban regeneration, but few really know what it is. You have to talk about social redevelopment, and there is only one way to give people dignity, give them jobs!"
That's why his is the project to create and lead craft workshops for disadvantaged Italian citizens and non-EU citizens, seeking for them a new clientele related to contemporary art and design.
In the former Woolen Mill Sava, from the Dedalus Social Cooperative to the Luigi Solito Contemporary Art Gallery, from power2Cloud to Valeria Apicella's contemporary dance space, also Jimmy Durham, who passed away recently, and Mariateresa Alves who chose these places for their home-workshop.
"In 2016, the Cooperative opened in the former bread factory in Porta Capuana, Naples," explains Andrea Morniroli, a Dedalus partner, "with the idea of reversing the outlook and approach on immigration, promoting and protecting the rights of fragile people, but in fact those of the whole community.
The frail people we work with are experienced outside the Cooperative as problems and with concern, even very capable operators have begun to think they are only dealing with suffering and shortcomings. That's why it was useful to reconsider every perspective, proposing a meeting point between Italian, neighborhood kids and those with a migration background that would produce art, culture, training, education and fun.
We have become an opportunity for the neighborhood as well! They bring fifty coffees a day from Dedalus, operators park their cars in garages in the area, we continue to involve small businesses for catering or printing, in short we have created alliances.
The sartorial art workshop Ciak si cuce, run by Mariola Grodzka, is just one of the many activities we are pursuing."
"Ours is a space that through its activities weaves relationships, new ways of being together, micro-economies," continues Mariola Grodzka, Dedalus cultural mediator and laboratory contact person, "proposing initiatives and services aimed at the inclusion of people with migrant backgrounds.
Ciak si cuce is a place that offers opportunities to bring out talents and strengthen relational and professional skills, but also opportunities to exchange and share personal stories and experiences. Here those of women from Italy and from other countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Syria, Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Ukraine, Russia, Ivory Coast and Nigeria intersect. .
The plurality of cultures, histories, experiences makes the workshop a vital and creative place. Thanks to people who are experts in the field, we produce original and unique handcrafted objects made from recycled materials in a logic of sustainability and reuse. A work that, since the beginning, has found in the Cinema Modernissimo of Naples a valuable, concrete and effective collaboration.
It was thanks to discussions with cinema managers thatthe idea of recycling film advertising tarpaulins to produce shoppers, bags, placemats and other sartorial products, which we displayed in cinemas and those on the circuit connected to the national network.
Each artifact contains a story steeped in humanity, sustainability, coexistence, and inclusion with respect for people and the planet we inhabit."
"We have rolled up our sleeves," continues enthusiastically Luigi Cuomo, Director of the company Penisolaverde, which manages waste and public green in the Sorrento Peninsula, "promoting a series of activities to make citizens understand what is the tangible effect of virtuous behaviors.
The collaboration with the Ciak di Cuce workshop of Dedalus was born, to which we handed over the tarpaulins of advertisements collected in the City of Sorrento to turn them into bags and placemats that we donated to citizens during the disposal of plastic or waste oil.
Networking with local businesses is important, with the St. Paul Polispecialty Institute, which has a food and wine focus, we invited star chefs to cook with the kids, rewarding those who produced the least waste at the end of the dinner.
Another proposed initiative, copied in Monte Carlo, concerns public tree-planting.
In 2021 in Sorrento, we harvested and had eight tons of oranges analyzed before processing them, turning them, thanks to local companies, into jams, essential oils and juices. With the proceeds, we have planted fifteen trees, saved the payment for the delivery of tons of organic waste and distributed, in agreement with Federalberghi, at least 5,000 jars of oranges to the best hotels in Sorrento as a cadeau for guests at the end of their vacation.
This is our idea of sustainability! We try to follow the directions of our territory and stay close to realities like Dedalus with whom we will expand our collaboration."
"The closing window is the new UN report on climate change, reflecting a crucial moment. We can't put it off any longer: it's now or never!".
The floor is given to Gennaro Durante, CEO of ForeThinking Benefit Society, which provides research, consulting and training to accelerate product and service innovation processes toward sustainability.
Institutions are creating a new regulatory system to protect sustainability, regulations that are also changing the competitive landscape of businesses. A risk for those realities that have lagged behind, but also an opportunity for those that are keeping pace and approaching new consumers.
Sustainability in fact allows one to think of new products and services, avoiding obsolescence of one's offerings and industrial crisis.
With respect to these issues, we have to say, Made in Italy lags behind: many declare green certifications and labels, but the dimension of innovation related to environmentally sustainable products and services is still an area for few.
Differentiating waste or bringing to market new products composed of recyclable material is not enough and does not contribute to real sustainability.
The Forethiking Method seeks to go deep, assessing the environmental impacts of products or systems by integrating market focus tools.
Forethinking helps companies determine sustainable trends and scientific methods of analysis as a parametric tool for eco-design and systemic design.
We blaze new trails by making use of partners in research, digitization and finance such as the Department of Chemistry of the University of A. Moro of Bari, the Polytechnic University of Milan School of Design, the Department of Physics and Materials Science University of A. Moro of Bari, RSM Auditing and Accounting Organization Company, and power2Cloud".
"Digitization for many is a mystery that belongs only to techies and IT," continues Alessia Impagliazzo of power2Cloud, "which some companies pursue out of necessity, perhaps as a result of a problem, or because the trend is supported by concessions.
How useful is digitization? Entrepreneurs probably care how much they are saving or gaining.
Being aware of the added value offered by digitization would help organizations of all verticals and sizes to fully support all teams, from customer service to administrative, practicing sustainability, not just for the dematerialization of paper files.
Simplify and automate the work of every employee, streamline internal processes, improve the user experience (B2B or B2C), and it reflects on productivity.
In this perspective, a partner like power2Cloud, somewhat like a coach, works in the field, side by side, to channel efforts and investments, support, personalize and simplify the adoption of digital strategies and tools.
As a ISO 9001:2015-certified company,at least until the end of 2022 powerCloud is taking care ofTraining 4.0 with major tax breaks.
Aircall, Google Cloud, HubSpot, or Zendesk are names that not everyone traces back to the most important market leaders in innovation, but in fact they help us do our jobs on a daily basis: answering the phone, sending out communications and promotions, providing timely service, and collaborating smoothly with colleagues, even when they are not in our office.
A good digitization project enhances the individual, thanks to technology, helping to create valuable and more empathetic relationships, because that's what we need!"
"Scaffsystem," explains one of its owners Licio Tamborrino, "is a historic Apulian company that has been involved in logistics, shelving systems, mezzanines and everything else needed for storing materials since 1956.
For the past decade or so, we have returned to our roots by resuming our first brand, that of Officine Tamborrino, a division that deals with architecture and design, which is also an architecture school for children and supports ethical social projects in the area.
We are happy to have met Dedalus and to have found people who put their souls into it, kind of like we try to do. We feel we can make our small contribution to people's work, oftenthe starting point is a shared well-being.
With Gennaro Durante of ForeThinking, we have begun a path of sustainability, benefited in part by the use of steel, which is recyclable. We have projects on residential construction in partnership with Knauf for the development of increasingly lightweight and modular construction technologies.
A comprehensive, technologically advanced solution capable of optimizing construction and assembly processes, as well as simultaneously reducing time and costs.
We take our houses apart and put them back together!"
"Stampa Sud," its Administrator Attilio Posa then tells us, "is a printing industry founded in Apulia in 47 by my grandfather, carried on in the 1970s brilliantly by my father, and run since the early 2000s by me and my sisters.
After the crisis in publishing and advertising, we reinvented ourselves by taking over a packaging company.
In 2018, Gennaro Durante, who had been following us as a consultant for many years, began to introduce us to sustainability projects, which in the common understanding,until a few years ago, was seen only as an activity related to reduction and not as developing an opportunity.
Going to study all the possibilities, we started a path of analyzing the materials we use in the production cycle with the Chemistry Department of the University of Bari, then redesigning the product catalog thanks to ecodesign, to reduce packaging to the detriment of the environment, but also to work on new projects.
In the last period with Forethinking, we have created new environmentally sustainable packaging production lines for food delivery and take-away.
"Eco_packaging supply chain Puglia 2026" is a project of systemic innovation and reuse of industrial paper waste, approved by the "FARO" program of the Ministry of Ecological Transition (PNRR). The production waste of Stampa Sud and local companies, which daily therefore goes outside of Puglia, contributing to CO2 production, is being transformed into new luxury containers for champagne and high-end products."
The evening ended with delicacies prepared by Zazzu healthy Neapolitan taste, a local, all-female business that promotes seasonal food and balanced caloric values.
Before the greetings, the bag made by Ciak si cuce workshop with sunflower seeds was donated to those present. We hope that new fruitful collaborations and ideas will arise from this meeting before spring!"