EUROJERSEY is an all-Italian company and a leading manufacturer of a technical patented family of fabrics under the brand name of Sensitive Fabrics, which services the swimwear, ready to wear, activewear and lingerie market sectors. The head offices were designed by renowned Italian architect Antonio Citterio, and the 35,000 square metre manufacturing facility is harmoniously set in the urban context of Caronno Pertusella in the Varese province, where the company was originally founded in 1960.
The fact that the firm’s production has been based and developed in an urban context has stimulated a keen awareness on the part of the ownership and management towards environmental issues.
This vision has triggered the decision to take on the challenge of a sustainable project with regard to the largescale production of Sensitive® Fabrics through the implementation of a vertical manufacturing system.
However, what makes EUROJERSEY an exemplary model goes well beyond the sphere of environmental awareness alone. Thanks to the SensitivEcoSystem development programme, which involves customers and suppliers in a sustainable supply chain, the company has chosen to convert cost into an opportunity by investing in new machinery whose benefits are not only associated with efficiency, but reducing the environmental impact as well. The company firmly believes that sustainability, quality, fabric performance and creativity have to go hand in hand.
Eurojersey latest achivements through tangible projects
The adoption of state-of-the-art technologies makes it possible to drastically reduce environmental emissions, to minimise water consumption and the impact of dyes used in fabric dyeing and printing; supply chain control has been achieved thanks to the decision to introduce a vertically integrated manufacturing model, with all phases of production based in Italy, from knitting to dyeing and from finishing to printing, as well as quality control, and to purchase raw materials - yarns - from Italian or European suppliers.
The decision to integrate each and every phase of production within the company structure EUROJERSEY enabled to reduce transport-related CO2 emissions. The energy saving policies are equally important with regards to the reduction of emissions. Since 2009, EUROJERSEY has only made recourse to renewable energy sources, and has implemented various energy saving solutions such as an integrated system of photovoltaic panels which produces 18,000 kWh every year, enabling the entire office area to be self-sufficient, or an “HRS” fume filtration system enabling us to recover used water for cooling fumes and to reuse it for heating purposes. This process allowes to recycle 30 million litres of hot water (80°C) every year, for a consequent energy saving of over 200 Toe (tonnes of oil equivalent). Furthermore, thanks to its manufacturing efficiency, EUROJERSEY is able to save 200,000 cubic metres of methane gas each year, by reducing CO2 emissions by 400 t/annum and those of oil by 12,000 litres/annum.
Alongside emission-reducing technologies, significant savings have been achieved thanks to the EcoPrint printing technique which, compared to traditional printing methods, enables significant reductions in the consumption of water (-60%), energy (-30%) and greenhouse-effect gas emissions (-60%). Within the broader context of the SensitivEcoSystem® programme, its experience as a sustainable company comprises a three-year partnership with WWF Italia, in a project focusing on protecting marine wildlife in danger of becoming extinct, in the Mediterranean Sea which has a close bond with the Made in Italy identity of Sensitive® Fabrics.
The collaboration with WWF ITALIA for the year in course has led us to add another landmark to the SensitivEcoSystem programme: they have symbolically adopted the Sea Turtle Rescue Centre in the WWF Oasis of Policoro in the Italian province of Matera. Among the many activities in course, there are educational activities targeting children. The WWF educational projects take the form of hands-on activities, excursions in the surrounding area, learning labs and school camps. During the summer, the children may experience the fascinating discovery of marine biology and its environmental aspects with sea turtle monitoring sessions on the beach and in the Oasis Rescue Centre together with the chance to play a direct role in the moving experience of liberating the animal once healthy again.
In order to ensure the future of the Mediterranean Sea, it is necessary to involve the younger generations: it is for this very reason that this year EUROJERSEY has chosen to support the activities of the Sea Turtle Rescue Centre of the Policoro Oasis, a “hospital” which looks after sea turtles but also enables children to get to know the Sea, encouraging them to be increasingly committed to defending it. This is because real change can only come about if we educate the younger generations in this respect and Nature certainly proves to be an extraordinary open-air laboratory.