Taking the bull by the horns
Italian label Arper, which has been creating design spaces and solutions since 1989, positioned itself as a pioneer early on with an eye on three goals: improving people’s quality of life, kick-starting the transition to a circular economy, and reducing environmental impact. In 2005, Arper set up an inhouse environmental section and embarked on a journey of sustainability to reduce the company’s carbon footprint and obtain certifications that served as milestones to guide the way forward. In light of the global crises of recent years, the family-owned company has since raised the bar a notch higher: “As we say in Italy, we took the bull by the horns,” explains Andrea Mulloni, Head of Sustainability at Arper. And Michela Possagno, Arper’s Environmental Expert, adds: “We are changing not only how we act, but also our very concept of what constitutes good design.”
The focus is thus on durable furnishings that go beyond the trends and are designed to fulfil various purposes during their lifecycle. What that means in detail for furniture production is the use of wood from sustainable forestry as well as the creation of a modular structure in which even individual parts can be replaced. Likewise, the company strives to ensures its products are completely recyclable, as in the case of the chairs and armchairs “Aava 02”, “Adell”, “Mixu”, or “Aston Club”, whose elements are also partly made of recycled industrial plastic. With the “Duna 02 Eco” armchair, the proportion made of recycled post-industrial plastic is already 80 percent. “One important project is the matter of renewal and reprocessing. With regard to the circular economy, we want to address three major topics: reprocessing, rental models, and return concepts,” says Michela Possagno.
To this end, a Europe-wide network is to be developed over the next few years in order to create short channels and exchange knowledge. “We need to reach out to each other to create a movement,” says Possagno. With this in mind, the company has also created the “Arper District”, an internal training program to increase awareness of sustainability processes among partner companies, too, and to establish common benchmarks within a network of expertise. Similarly, the team has created an organizational carbon footprint to track how much CO2 the company emits itself and through its projects. In this context, the vehicle fleet is also to be completely converted to electric vehicles, including shuttle traffic between the warehouses. Transparency and openness to new ways of doing things are the foundation for the holistic optimization of processes at Arper and for reducing the company’s environmental impact. “When it comes to sustainability, there has to be a direct relationship between customers and manufacturers,” says Michela Possagno.
