Teknoleather, a company active in the tanning chemical sector, keep on being committed to sustainability: the work is still supported by major investments
Certifications and bio-based. These are the two main landmarks that affirm the path of Teknoleather, headquartered in Arzignano (Vicenza), a chemical company working in the tanning sector, in the field of sustainability. The daily commitment of the Veneto-based company is to process with reduced energy and water requirements, elimination of restricted substances and development of products with low environmental impact.
Teknoleather is ZDHC level 3 certified with several hundred products uploaded to the Gateway portal, the world’s first database of safe chemicals for the tanning and textile industry: the range of chemicals enables tanning companies to produce high-quality hides in a more sustainable way. In the face of huge investments, which will continue in the coming years, the main goal is to make client care and attention to detail the core focus of its business.
“Sustainability, which we develop across the board,” points out owner Santino Mecenero, “for us is a fundamental concept that guides our entire approach to our surroundings. Starting with creating a safe and stimulating work environment for our employees: cornerstones of our reality, whose energy and ingenuity make our success possible. For years our project has transcended company boundaries, with social sustainability projects and initiatives carried out with passion and conviction, which has allowed us to establish ourselves internationally and to be known by brands all over the world. In terms of energy conservation and emission reduction, we have outsourced energy production to renewable sources, investing in photovoltaics. We transform solar energy into electricity with the aim of optimizing costs, contributing to environmental sustainability and becoming an increasingly green company. Our plant, operational from July 2022, is able to monitor and quantify the actual savings of CO2 emitted into the environment.”
In terms of certifications, 2024 is set to become a year of further breakthroughs for Teknoleather, which in the first half of the year formalized two brilliant achievements: in January the environmental ISO 14001:2015, which complements the ISO 9001:2015, already held for several years and essential in the perspective of quality and unceasing improvement. In May, the renewal of the ZDHC Level 3 certification was announced by the relevant bodies, an absolute highlight.
“We had first obtained ZDHC Level 3 compliance back in 2022,” points out Lucrezia Mecenero, who works in the family business and personally oversaw the processes that led to the brilliant results, “being among the first chemical companies in our area. Last year, with the update of the MRSL to version 3.1, the compliance requirements for companies to obtain Level 3 also changed. In fact, what was previously Level 3 became Level 2, and a number of additional requirements were added to obtain Level 3. At this point we immediately returned to work, because the goal was to secure the highest point from the ZDHC (an acronym for Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals, ed.), trying to meet all the new requirements of the standard in the best possible way: even in the face of a busy and demanding period of work, our efforts paid off. Certainly the adherence to the ZDHC protocol is an important added value for our clients, who have always appreciated us for the environmental attention put in place since the year of our foundation. In the range we provide there are almost 200 products that are level 3 certified and MRSL 3.1 compliant, and this allows us to present ourselves at trade fairs and events around the world with a prestigious business card in terms of quality, safety and environmental attention.”
Another high point, which has enabled Teknoleather to become further known globally, is the certification of the bio-based content of several products through the Biopreferred program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “This certification,” Santino and Lucrezia point out, “was obtained with the USDA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The idea of the program is to certify the amount of carbon derived from biomass, that is, from renewable sources, compared to its total organic carbon content within the product. This certification, which we wanted to propose for a selection of dyes and fatliquors, defines that the products are indeed “bio- based,” majority derived from renewable carbon sources, such as plants. For the tanning sector, the idea of certifying this kind of data is a new development and an important step forward, but in fact this concept is already applied in many fields and for different purposes.”
What are the special features of the Biopreferred program?
“In reality it does not represent a request coming from clients but a corporate choice, since we have always worked for sustainability, we have always tried to be one step ahead in this area. Joining this voluntary certification program is an overall step forward for the sustainability of our products, one more way to demonstrate to clients around the world our commitment to the use of renewable sources. It is a new piece that is part of a company project: undoubtedly, we were favored by the fact that in 2013, when we founded Teknoleather, there was already an awareness of sustainability, although at the time it was not yet as fundamental as it is today. We chose to fully embrace this idea and immediately presented ourselves to the market in a convincing manner.”
Regulations in this area are becoming increasingly restrictive and will remain so in the coming years. As such, is your entrepreneurial strategy proving successful?
“Our attempt is always, as far as possible, to anticipate the regulation rather than suffer it. So we have been taking a proactive approach for years, investing heavily in research and development to anticipate the needs of clients and the market, including and especially from a regulatory perspective. For example, we have worked a lot on the issue of bisphenols, managing to offer a range of products that guarantee not only low content of these substances, but also at the same time excellent quality performance.”
What projects are you currently pursuing?
“One project that is very dear to us and on which we have been working diligently over the past few months is definitely that of the dyes in the Teknosol and Teknoluce ranges, which used alone or in combination with each other make it possible to achieve very high resistance to light and enforced pvc. After much research work, including borrowing solutions from other industries, we can now say that we have succeeded in achieving the performance we originally set out to achieve. However, we are keep on pursuing the research project so to expand the range of colors available more and more.”
www.teknoleather.com
Santino e Lucrezia Maria Mecenero
