Most of the yarns in the new autumn-winter 2022-2023 collection (the textile is one season ahead of the finished product), just presented by Canepa at Milano Unica, are zero kilometer, recycled and organic. Eco-sustainable processing and energy saving have been the key words for many years and even more so for the relaunch phase that the historic company in the Como district of San Fermo della Battaglia is experiencing.
The history of the Canepa family dates back to the 1700s and the great-grandfather of the current president and CEO, Michele Canepa, helped to pass on the tradition of silk-growing, spinning, dyeing and weaving. A few days before the Milano Unica fair, which was held on 6 and 7 July, the entry of Azimut’s Eltif Capital Solutions fund (Muzinich group) into the company’s capital was announced. An agreement that is based, explains the CEO, “not only on financial aspects, but on a strategic approach to implement development plans”.
Loading…
The relaunch will be based, as demonstrated by the innovations presented at the most important European high-end textile fair, on environmental sustainability. Canepa was the first textile company in the world to adhere, in 2011, to the Detox protocol of Greenpeace to reduce the environmental impact of textile production by 2020. After the creation of its eco-sustainability manifesto, the company has grown thanks also to the registration of many ecological industrial patents, linked to the establishment of the CanepaEvolution research and development department. The patents allow, during the processing of the yarns, to considerably reduce the use of water and CO2 emissions, with great energy savings.
In 2012, Canepa then presented the revolutionary SavetheWater-Kitotex project, which allows to replace the microplastics, used in the yarn sizing phase, with chitosan, a substance of natural origin, non-toxic, biocompatible and biodegradable, coming from the exoskeleton of shrimp, waste from the food industry, to stay on the subject of circularity (see the articles on page 2). The Kitotex patent allows a 95% saving in water and energy consumption as well as the elimination of toxic and polluting substances (with certification of the Cnr of Biella) and the consequent reduction of CO2 emissions by 40%. An invention that, thanks to the assignment of the patent, has allowed an important result of eco-sustainable production also in the world of denim, confirming (see the article on Marc) the importance of sharing, within the supply chain, of best practice. CanepaEvolution continues to work on new patents, in particular on recycling and the circular economy, with a complex project to recycle obsolete fibers, unused fabrics and discarded clothing.