Page 14 - Sustainability Report 2019

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
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.
CHAPTER 1 | The search for beauty with a commitment to sustainability
experimental development, and technological innovation, which mostly originate in its network of relationships.
Ratti is a member of the Lombardy Region clusters “AFIL - Associazione Fabbrica Intelligente Lombardia” (Lombardy Association of Intelligent Manufacturing) and “Chimica Verde” (Green Chemicals). Ratti is on the Board of the ETP, the European Technology Platform of Euratex, the “Confederazione Europea delle Aziende del Tessile e dell’Abbigliamento” (the European Confederation of Fabric and Clothing Companies).
The CEO of the Company is responsible for the area
of research and innovation of SMI ATI, the national association of textile and clothing companies, and is the President of the Made in Italy cluster.
This is a public-private alliance for cooperation between the worlds of research and business in fashion, and aims to achieve sustainable growth in the sector, in alignment with the European Union’s strategic agenda.
Ratti has three targets for its innovation:
Sustainability: this regards the development of plans that aim to achieve a sustainable offer, sustainable manufacturing, a reduction of consumption and waste, the reuse and recycling of discarded fabric, and the control of chemicals.
Product innovation: this is based on the solid foundations of Ratti’s recognised supremacy in stylistic and creative innovation. Its range of action extends
to new materials and new products, including those originating from circular economy initiatives.
This context also includes actions orientated at enhancing the cultural resources of the business which,
“Antonio Ratti was not a typical collector
of contemporary art. Instead of possessing it, hewantedtoliveithimself” LorenzoBenedetti
as the centre of the Ratti world, express themselves most obviously and recognisably in the accumulated heritage of the Company.
A vital resource for product innovation, the Ratti archives contain over one million items including fabrics, paper designs and digital files..
Processes and Advanced Manufacturing: this relates to the development of projects that involve both internal processes as well as manufacturing and external processes, whether upstream or downstream of the current industrial perimeter.
In such an environment Ratti’s production process is subject to the requests and changes required by the “Advanced Manufacturing” model (better known by the name “Industria 4.0”), which marks the transition from automated manufacturing to digital and intelligent manufacturing.
With regard to digitalisation, the company is receiving attention and interest from big data, robotics and artificial intelligence. Of no less importance, in such an environment, are the initiatives which have been undertaken with suppliers in a context of cooperative research. These are aimed at improving technology and developing plant and equipment, also from the perspective of sustainable manufacturing.
1
million
ITEMS INCLUDING FABRICS,
PAPER DESIGNS AND DIGITAL FILES IN THE ARCHIVE
14
BOOKS IN THE LIBRARY
12
thousand