three-year investment of 15 million – Corriere.it

A platform to give life to the sustainable fashion of the future: this is the goal of Circular Hub That Gucciwith the support of Kering, will build in Tuscany.

There is a need, in the luxury sector, to accelerate the transformation of the production model from a green perspective. A turning point that can only be achieved by rethinking the entire value chain, starting with raw materials and product design up to optimizing production and logistics processes.

The platform will arise in Tuscany but will communicate with the structures of the Kering group, starting from the production sites and the network of suppliers of materials and finished products of Gucci in Italy (an ecosystem that has over 700 direct suppliers and 3500 sub-suppliers). Then the hub’s activities will be extended to the other Kering brands, with a view to then being made available to the entire fashion sector.

The investment for its three-year construction will be equal to 15 million euros and, according to the importance it will have for the territory, it will compete among the projects supported by the instrument of the Innovation Agreements of the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy.

The project is based on the creation of an open innovation platform on several levels: research and development, logistics, industrial partnerships, value sharing. Inside the Circular Hub there will be a center dedicated to research, where innovative technological solutions with a sustainable footprint will be studied which aim to improve the quality of the products (in terms of durability, reparability and recyclability) and to reduce the impact on the environment, with a rethinking of the transformation processes and the use of raw materials.

From the point of view of logistics, the platform will serve as a facilitator of development through the involvement of companies belonging to the production chains so that they track and confer the production waste to send it for recovery and regeneration. Industrial partnerships will then be launched to conceive, design and create solutions and plants designed to recover and regenerate materials so that they can be reused in the production process. Finally, all the processes and steps that will be developed and integrated into the Gucci supply chain (with the related patents and know-how) will be made available to other companies, precisely in the name of that open innovation we mentioned earlier. For this, the platform is expected to have a positive impact on the entire fashion system.

Thanks to its activities, the project will also improve the environmental impact performance of the Kering group, Gucci and its supply chain and the territories in which they operate. Fewer resources, lower greenhouse gas emissions, more (quality) jobs. According to an initial estimate of the environmental impacts carried out on the Gucci leather goods ecosystem, it will be possible to arrive at one reduction of up to 60% of greenhouse gas emissions currently generated in the management of production waste.

The Circular Hub anticipates the new production models that will be binding in Europe in the coming years and which will establish extended producer responsibility, forcing companies to take responsibility for the end of life of the product and waste materials. The project is complementary to the activities that will be carried out by the Re.Crea Consortium, coordinated by the National Chamber of Italian Fashion to manage waste and promote recycling innovation, of which Gucci is a member as a promoting member, and is in line with the entry of the Maison as a strategic partner in the Ellen MacArthur Foundation – a commitment aimed at accelerating the virtuous path towards circularity. Depending on the relevance for the territory, the project will compete in the ambit of the projects supported by the instrument of the Innovation Agreements of the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy.

The fashion industry today has the responsibility to stimulate concrete actions and find solutions capable of accelerating change, also rethinking production methods and the use of resources,” he said Marie-Claire Daveu, chief Sustainability and Institutional Affairs Officer of Kering —. The creation of the Circular Hub is an important milestone and was born to pursue this goal. a source of pride for me that the hub was born in Italy, home to some of the most important and renowned production centers and the know-how of the group. The collaboration with Gucci, continues Daveu, has given birth to the new Circular Hub and bears witness not only to a strong community of objectives within the Group but also to an ambitious example which, in the logic of open source, wants to be an invitation open to other realities to join in this process.

For Antonella Central, executive vice president, general counsel, Corporate Affairs & Sustainability of Gucci, circularity offers us a vision that involves the entire production cycle: a great challenge to make Made in Italy even stronger and more competitive. Today with Circular Hub we have the responsibility and above all the opportunity to pave the way for the luxury industry of the future – reads the press release -. By sharing the same objectives and pooling resources, know-how and synergies, the platform represents a concrete tool for enabling the entire supply chain and especially small and medium-sized enterprises, the beating heart of our country, making them an active part of the process of constant innovation that makes Italian know-how unique in the world.

The works will start in the first half of 2023, thanks to the researchers of the Kering Material Innovation Lab (MIL) in Milan and the support of technicians and product researchers for clothing, leather goods, footwear and accessories from the avant-garde centers of industrial craftsmanship and experimentation of Gucci of Scandicci and Novara. For activities related to the project, the hub will be supported by industrial partners and the scientific collaboration of the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa.