Page 14 - Sustainability report 2018 Ratti Group

CHAPTER 1 | The search for beauty with a commitment to sustainability
1.2. The elegance of innovation
Innovation plays a key role for companies exposed to environments that are increasingly complex. The potential to grow in the long
term, and the safeguarding and improvement of competitiveness, are closely linked to the capacity to transform ideas into new and improved products and services.
Creating a working environment that favours innovation, that is open to contributions from managers and staff members is, for Ratti, an objective of critical importance.
In Ratti innovation contributes to the fulfilment of the strategic plan of a company that is sustainable, digital, circular, a leader in design, continually seeking to broaden and develop its offer, highly reactive and proactive in its relations with customers and the market.
In Ratti innovation comes both from a continuous improvement in practices, processes, products and services, as well as industrial research projects, experimental development, technological innovation, which mostly originate in its network of relationships. Ratti is a member of the Clusters of Regione Lombardia “AFIL- Associazione Fabbrica Intelligente Lombardia” and “Chimica Verde” (“Lombardy Association of Intelligent Manufacturing” and “Green Chemicals”). Through the Marzotto Group it is a member of the ETP,
the European Technology Platform of Euratex, la Confederazione Europea delle Aziende del Tessile e
600,000
designs and fabrics in the archive
14,000
books in the library
12%
of revenues invested in reserach and development
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dell’Abbigliamento (the European Confederation of Fabric and Clothing Companies).
Ratti has three targets for its innovation:
Sustainability, this regards the development of plans that aim at a reduction of consumption and waste, the control of chemicals, and the reuse and recycling of discarded fabric.
Product innovation, this is based on the recognised primacy of Ratti’s innovative design and creativity, and extends its range of action
to themes such as ecodesign, immaterial design, functionals and smart textiles. The choice of sustainable materials, the reduction of impacts, and digitalisation are the change vectors of contemporary design. In an environment such as this action is also taken that enhances the cultural reserves of the company. Ratti invests 12% of
The birth of silk
Legend has it that...
the empress Hsi Ling Shih was sipping tea in the shade of a mulberry tree swarming with silkworms. A silkworm’s cocoon fell from the green leaves into the steaming cup. The empress watched, astounded, as the cocoon in the tea took on the appearance
of a mass of threads.
She took hold of the end of one, and the thread unravelled to an interminable length. So the legend recounts the origin of silk at
the dawn of Chinese civilisation, three thousand years before Christ, along with the inseparable link between the silkworm and its only food – mulberry leaves
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Antonio Ratti: a patron with a vision
Beauty provides an infinite source of creative stimuli that recount
a freedom of expression that
avoids banality and overcomes preconceptions. An archive of images, designs and colours that are values infused in the DNA of the company and its founder.
Nominated Cavaliere del Lavoro (knight) in 1972 and appointed Honorary Trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York,
Antonio Ratti was one of the greatest exemplars of Italian entrepreneurship, in addition to being one of the most enlightened patrons, both nationally
and internationally. His search for beauty went beyond his passion
for silk, the fulcrum of his business activities, to embrace the world of art in all its manifestations, and his name was linked with some of the most prestigious cultural institutions, including the Guggenheim, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Palazzo Grassi in Venice, Palazzo Reale and the Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea (pavilion of contemporary art) in Milan.
Blessed with a heightened proclivity for innovation and non-industrial research, in 1985 Antonio Ratti