Alcantara supports Connect4Climate - A step forward in the Company’s commitment to sustainability

April 19, 2013 - PRLog -- Environmental protection involves values sharing, connects different competences, increases the communication moments and enlarges the reference audience, very often moving beyond the usual patterns of a well-established mechanism as the Fuorisalone. The highlight of the “Alcantara Dialogues. Connect4Climate: Re-Think, Re-Design, Re-New” event, which will be held in the Alcantara space at Superstudio Più during Milan Design Week, consists in a series of panel discussions built on sustainability and related to different subjects.

For Alcantara, sustainability means revising current business models: in this perspective, the wellbeing of the ecosystem is conceived as a real opportunity for the Company. It also implies the need for a new communication approach: the dialogue is extended to more voices, coming from different worlds but sharing the same vision. Alcantara considers sustainability as a long-term trend with a high growing expectations that in the future might become one of the key assets of the Made in Italy.

On such an important path, transparency is a must: this also means certifying every single activity undertaken by the Company to reach and ensure sustainability.

In 2009 the internationally-recognised certification body TÜV SÜD awarded Alcantara the prestigious Carbon Neutrality certification. To reach this important milestone, in one year only the Company reduced by 49% the carbon dioxide emissions derived from the material’s manufacturing process, while residual emissions were offset by financing international projects related to renewable energy sources under the UN patronage.

The international projects supported in the past four years are:

2009

Project Babilonia, hydroelectric plant in Honduras
Project Te Apiti, wind energy system in New Zealand
Project Varahi, hydroelectric plant in India

2010

Project Yundtag, wind energy system in Turkey
Project Tainan, hydroelectric plant in Taiwan
Project Gunung Salak, geothermal system in Indonesia

2011

Project Siam Cement, biomass plant in Thailand
Project Yangcun, hydroelectric plant in China
Project Ceramic, biomass plant in Brazil

2012

Project Lifestraw, drinking water system in Kenya
Project Tra Linh, hydroelectric plant in Vietnam
Project Wangkui, biomass plant in China

Carbon Neutrality and the Sustainability Report, both certified by a third party, are two fundamental steps taken by Alcantara in its road to sustainability. That commitment finds today further confirmation in Alcantara's support to Connect4Climate project, in line with the Company’s CEO and Chairman Mr. Andrea Boragno: "Business economic development must always be pursued in conjunction with social equity and environmental balance".