Alcantara, the Italian Company that manufactures the homonymous material of Alcantara, applied in automotive, fashion and accessories, consumer electronics and interiors industries, has been continuously struggling against climate change for the past ten years.

Andrea Boragno, Chairman and CEO of Alcantara S.p.A.:

“Firmly believing sustainability is a necessary factor that is consistent with our long-term objective of increasing the economic and financial value of the Company, it is and it will remain a core value of our corporate culture, an important growth driver and a spur to developing our business strategy.”

Fighting against environmental pollution and Carbon Neutrality since 2009

In addition to sustainability management, economic and social sustainability, Alcantara attaches great importance to preserving our environment. so much so that it was the first Italian Company, and among the few in the world, to achieve the Carbon Neutrality status in 2009.

In 2019 Alcantara generated a total of 98,377 tons of CO2 equivalents. Of these, 61,558 tons have been reduced. For the residual emissions, that cannot be eliminated in any other way based on current state -of-the-art technology, Alcantara supported four international compensation projects coordinated by the UN of more than 40 projects in the last ten years.

These initiatives aim to expand the use of renewable energy resources and to improve the health and social conditions of people in the poorest and most disadvantaged areas of the world, while offsetting all CO2 emissions produced.

Compensation projects

Some of the most recent projects include two wind farms in India and Argentina, a solar plant in China and a water-saving project in Eritrea. To underline its responsible approach in this respect, Alcantara continues to participate in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), with the aim of continuing to measure and report CO2 emissions.

In the framework of environmental sustainability, more than 78 percent of waste materials are recovered through recycling and re-use. 65 percent of the energy required in Alcantara's production facilities is generated by a high-performance cogeneration plant.

Continuous improvement

Alcantara is focused on its continuous improvement in the field of sustainability. The Company has implemented a five-year plan to expand its production facility (2017–2022) with the aim to also reduce environmental impact.

There is also an ongoing commitment to progressively maximizing the use of bio-based raw materials in Alcantara’s production process in the view to create a totally bio-based product (that is not food-chain antagonist) consistently with available technologies. The Alcantara product portfolio also includes materials that contain recycled raw materials.

Raise awareness on sustainability

Alcantara is also committed to continuously raising awareness on sustainability amongst its suppliers, inviting them to contribute to CO2 measurement and compensation activities, and also towards its principle stakeholders by organising the international Symposia on Sustainability, to create a genuinely shared culture and the best practices on the issues of decarbonization and climate change.

Every year Alcantara transparently publishes its efforts and results in a sustainability report.

The report can be found here