Sustainability: the brand revolution

Itlas and Ecos Project

Itlas is a brand that produces parquet and wooden surfaces. It does this at a high level with a strong commitment to respecting resources. An idea that its founder Patrizio Dei Tos repeats with enthusiasm: wood is a living, reusable, regenerable material. This is demonstrated by his strategic choice to use, where possible, zero kilometer woods, such as those from the Foreste del Cansiglio collection. And, always and in any case, certified raw material for all production.

Itlas's latest invention is Ecos, a production process based on the principles of the circular economy which uses small waste wood chips, inevitable in manufacturing, to give life to a series of products based on post-production recovery.

Ecos parquets are, from the market point of view, competitive both from the point of view of performance and from the aesthetic point of view. Water-based painted and finished with a non-toxic sanitizing treatment. The company comments: “With Ecos every clipping is recovered and becomes part of new eco-sustainable tables, respectful of the environment and the gifts that the Earth offers to humanity.

A virtuous use of wood that aims to be a stimulus to the development of sustainable management and informed purchasing".

Kerakoll: communicating sustainability is fundamental

Conscious purchasing is one of the most critical issues when it comes to sustainability. Communicating company choices is a complex process, which mainly involves explaining the product and direct dialogue with customers. Kerakoll has chosen the path of a designer who is an ambassador of reflection on sustainability, Martino Gamper.

“Strato is a project that I created thinking about the restyling of the Kerakoll showroom in Milan. The idea was to play with the past and the present, with the architecture of the spaces and the range of colours, to create a new future", says Gamper.

The simple and geometric shapes hide a great complexity in the lines and cuts, indicating one of the possible paths towards a sustainable idea of design. Working on the surface, precisely, to communicate how much and how one can intervene in an environment without modifying what already exists.

Panariagroup: rethinking surfaces starting from sustainable thinking

An idea, that of limiting new interventions as much as possible, which Panariagroup also pursues with the two brands Cotto D'Este and Lea Ceramiche. In 2004 the industrial group began to invest in rigorous research into products with low environmental impact. A logic that manifests itself in every part of the design, from the rational use of materials to logistics, from installation to disposal.

From 2022 with the THINk ZERO project, Kerlite and Slimtech are the first slabs in the made ceramic sector in Italy to be 100% Carbon Neutral. They are thin slabs that can also be laid dry, without glue, on pre-existing surfaces and without the need for demolition work.

At the end of their life cycle they can be entirely recycled as a substrate for building and road works, or easily disposed of because they are essentially composed of water and kaolins. The solution is not in the material, but in the technological research which has guaranteed us to arrive at production solutions that totally eliminate the ecological impact.