For over half a century, we have considered making a more sustainable future to mean tapping into human intelligence to solve problems and offer solutions. And this is what guides and inspires us every day. The events of the past two years, coping with a global pandemic and upheavals in the supply chain, have underlined the fragility of global economic, environmental and social systems. The need for industrial transition has never been so urgent, and embracing change is not enough: we need bold actions in order to continue to live and work in a truly sustainable manner. It is not always easy to obtain results in this sense, but we know that this is the right way to continue our journey.
The fourth Iris Ceramica Group Sustainability Report confirms how, in every single solution proposed, we transform our love of quality into eco-innovation, because we have been serving humans and the environment they live in for over 60 years. As it was in the early months of 2021, with the tests carried out on our eco-active Active Surfaces®, which were also confirmed to be effective in eliminating the virus caused by Covid-19, demonstrating how ceramics can play an increasingly important role in all our lives, thanks to their high performance also in terms of hygiene and safety.
We are Ecopreneurs - “ecological entrepreneurs” - because we want our economy to develop in harmony with the environment and with people, and we think that, to be healthy, it must be based on the laws of nature, effectively and concretely translating the equation “Economy = Ecology”, coined in the ‘60s by my father Romano Minozzi, President and Founder of the Group.
Today we are called on to tackle the new crises that globalisation has in store for us, we pursue the goal of building a way of doing business where ethics, growth and technology are part of the same projects to create a truly sustainable world. We shouldn’t forget that the term crisis derives from the Greek krísis, which means “choice, decision”: a time of crisis like this can therefore offer new food for thought and assessment, it can become the necessary assumption for improvement and rebirth, for flourishing once more. And in times like these we have to invest in order to improve ourselves, paving the way for a more sustainable future, not only in environmental but also in economic terms. In September 2021, we announced the project for the world’s first ceramics factory designed to run 100% on green hydrogen, a key factor for ensuring carbon neutrality by 2050. Able to interpret the future and its needs in a creative, intelligent manner, we are contributing to writing a new chapter in the history of the ceramics industry, driving an epoch-making change on an international scale.
This year too, sharing, coherence and continuity are the three words that have best expressed our transparent and authentic approach to cultural innovation, where every single person is a central asset for the company. The health, safety and well-being of all our collaborators are our priority. That’s how it will always be. Not by chance, the survey “Italy’s Best Employers for Women” by the Istituto Tedesco Qualità Finanza ranked us in first place as best employer for women in the ceramics industry. Because women - of all ages - are happy to work with us, because our central focus is human worth.
This year too, we have confirmed our constant attention to the supply chain, to ensure that our values are shared by the people we work with. This is why, in drafting our Report, we have recognised the importance of involving the stakeholders throughout the whole chain, confirming the importance of maintaining a broad vision of the sector’s value chain.
With Fondazione Iris Ceramica Group, we continue to pursue our commitment to art, culture, the environment and society, cooperating with national and international associations to promote sustainable development and social cohesion. We offer our concrete support to organisations working in social, scientific and environmental fields, to protect the rights of the weaker segments of the population and protect the environment. We organise and actively promote cultural initiatives and artistic events to raise awareness in the community.
Implementing change also means being aware that what we do can be improved, changed and adapted every day. Our Mission is that of re-engineering ceramics to obtain solutions that optimise interaction between humans and the environment. Particularly by responding to the expectations of the luxury culture: it was a great satisfaction to be acknowledged in the national and international press - including the German Handelsblatt and Newsweek’s International Investor focus - as leader in the luxury market and an excellence in the made-in-Italy segment.
For us, ceramics represent not only culture, knowledge and industrial know-how but also research into solutions for the future. This is also the pillar for Hypertouch and our commitment to the Italian Pavilion 2021 at the XVII International Architecture Exhibition at the Biennale in Venice. The exhibition in Milan, “Ceramics: Neverending Artworks”, also validated the study of ceramic material as a medium of excellence in art, laying the foundations for a new poetics of ceramics in the XXI Century.
At Iris Ceramica Group, we are used to imagining the world in perspective: a world of innovation, technology and energy transformation. We want to share our vision, creating unique, individual Customer Experiences with the ability to listen that is our distinguishing feature, and which plays an increasingly decisive role in the relationship with all our stakeholders. Our Sustainability Report 2021 shows how we are contributing to the creation of a world that fosters an increasingly green use of resources for all-round progress in society: from governance to individuals. I invite you to continue reading in order to find out more about our work, our projects and our results, as well as the changes the world demands from all of us.
We must look to the future with a positive, resilient approach, in order to create a general climate of trust after the recent years of difficulty. We must undertake concrete actions to support the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, approved in July 2021 by the European Union, making a collective effort in synergy with institutions and businesses: only in this way will the signals of optimism become a stimulus for growth, and become structural for a future with a high environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) value for the community and the economy. We believe in all these values, and have been upholding them every day for over 60v years.