MILAN —Aeffe SpA is getting more serious about sustainability with behind-the-scenes work aimed at furthering its eco-credentials.
The publicly listed company, parent of the Moschino, Alberta Ferretti, Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini and Pollini labels, unveiled its 2023 Non-Financial Report at the group’s headquarters, Milan’s Palazzo Donizetti, on Monday, setting out a detailed sustainability agenda, roadmap and manifesto to be implemented over the next three years.
“The manifesto has represented an opportunity to reevaluate and rethink the company’s principles and values… Sustainability is an essential topic; you can no longer think of development and growth without thinking of sustainable and responsible development and growth,” said Francesco Ferretti, Aeffe SpA’s chief operating officer in his first spokesperson duty. He is the son of the group’s executive chairman Massimo Ferretti.
“This work is geared at ourselves and the people part of the group, self-setting guidelines and objectives,” he added.
The company has built its sustainability strategy on three pillars aligned with the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, and set in motion a transformation of its operations geared at advancing its responsible bent and sustainability governance.
The latter comprises a Sustainability Committee; a Control Committee on Risks and Sustainability; the Aeffe SpA board of directors, as well as recently hired sustainability manager Pasquale Apicella, a new corporate position across brands.
The executive, previously at swimwear brand Arena, joined the Italian fashion group in January 2023 and has been busy fueling a responsibility culture throughout the company in tandem with Ferretti and the teams.
“This journey started last year, even though Aeffe was not motionless on sustainability topics… Here I’m taking on an important responsibility. We’re building this journey together as it involves everybody,” Apicella said.
Aeffe SpA began issuing Non-Financial Reports in 2018 and between that year and 2022 largely focused its attention on enhancing its energy efficiency.
In the sustainability strategy’s “Planet & Environment” pillar, the first actions taken were geared at measuring the group’s impact, with Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions already assessed last year, including for the group’s retail network, via a three-year partnership with fintech start-up Up to You.
In 2024, Apicella explained, the group is targeting the assessment of Scope 3 emissions across its value chain, including third-party suppliers, to be able to accurately define in 2025 a net-zero emissions timeframe.
“Assessing [the value chain] from upstream to downstream is the most complex and challenging task. It’s the first time Aeffe is doing such measurements. But this is the prep work needed to define objectives. Between 2025 and 2026 we want to commit to concrete, measured, measurable and verified goals,” Apicella said.
Aeffe SpA’s ultimate goal is to join the Science Based Target Initiative, or SBTI, by 2026.
In 2023, the group hired an energy manager to further enhance its energy efficiency across its four headquarters, two in Milan and two in San Giovanni in Marignano and Gatteo, in Italy’s Emilia Romagna region.
In 2023 the group produced over half a million watts of energy from proprietary photovoltaic systems. The latest plant was installed at Pollini’s manufacturing site in Gatteo, Italy. The company also reduced its use of paper and has pledged to cut it by 50 percent across its sites and eliminate undifferentiated waste by 2025.
A Pollini bootie.
The transformations are set in place by engaging the company’s population, Ferretti explained, noting how committed and involved employees contribute significantly to the company’s sustainability achievements.
“Pushing creativity, design and innovation is key. Products don’t have only a style but also a life of their own. We must provide employees with knowledge to create sustainable products and tools to do so,” Ferretti said.
As part of the strategy’s “People & Community” pillar, Aeffe SpA has been educating its workforce,trying to engage the entire community rather than single clusters, with general training sessions offered to all employees and more specific ones tailored for top management.
Last year 27 percent of the company’s workforce had attended at least one course.
Aeffe SpA employs 1,309 people, 78 percent of whom are women, with about 92 percent of permanent contracts overall.
The tie-up with the fintech startup Up to You has expanded to the group’s participation in a challenge among different companies called “PlaNet Green Cup” centered on sustainability and daily life — an example of corporate initiatives intended to fuel the company’s sustainability culture.
The fashion group is also a member of Fondazione Libellula, a network of enterprises promoting gender equity and equality to further its inclusivity bent. A dedicated team is to spearhead corporate initiatives geared at inclusivity.
Mindful that most of the sustainability action in fashion happens upstream, the agenda’s third pillar is devoted to “Product & Supply Chain.”
Aeffe SpA has introduced a new ESG-based assessment method for its suppliers, with new partners already entirely evaluated in 2023. The company plans to further intensify audits and monitoring of its entire value chain this year. The group said that 83.6 percent of its suppliers are based in Italy.
“We are very lucky because our network of suppliers has made giant leaps forward,” Ferretti said.
The initiative is aimed at ensuring the traceability of Aeffe SpA’s products to ultimately introduce a digital product passport, likely in 2026 or 2027.
“Our goal is to provide our end consumers with the utmost transparency and only the digital product passport can ensure that,” Ferretti explained. “Its implementation requires a technological backbone which we are currently working on,” he said.
“We’re trying to anticipate some legislations,” added Apicella in reference to the European Union’s Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles first introduced in 2022, which entails eco-design principles, logistics, the digital product passport, as well as extended producer responsibility, or EPR. “The issue is felt deeply [in the industry] and we don’t want to face complex situations in the future.”
To this end, textile and material sourcing, as well as management, are also top of mind for the group. Its star brand Moschino has introduced recycled and organic cotton blends in its collections, subsequently adopted by the Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini label.
A look by Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini.
Aeffe SpA revealed its fur-free and angora wool-free pledges in 2023, kicking off in 2024. It has also aligned with the Standard Fur-free Retailer guidelines.
Packaging-wise the group has shifted its sourcing of plastic for its protective bags to post-industrial recycled sources and replaced 28 percent of virgin plastic used for beachwear-intended polybags to recycled alternatives from the spring 2024 collection delivered last year. E-commerce packaging has green credentials, too, as it avoids the use of virgin plastic and employs FSC-approved paper for 58 percent of boxes and 90 percent of paper sheets.
In sync with the EU’s EPR legislation, the group has joined the Re-Waste project led by Florence University to spur linkups between different industrial players to recycle manufacturing waste and the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana-led Re.crea consortium geared at defining a common framework for its partners to manage end-of-life fashion products.
Ferretti additionally shared that the company is plotting a stronger push in the secondhand market with certified products.
“It’s a year of strong transformations for the group; we are simplifying and formatting all the operational streams to fuel technological innovation and answer the market needs,” the executive said.
