Zegna Community of Care
Why is #sustainability important?
Sustainability is the key to preserving our unique planet.
According to the most recent studies, we face high risks from global warming, intensive exploitation of the earth, continuous resource extraction, and polluting production processes. Within a few decades, dozens of animal and plant species could disappear forever.
That is why awareness of environmental issues has been growing more and more in recent years, along with efforts by various world governments to switch to renewable energy, recycle more, and make better use of resources.
In addition to protecting ecosystems, the well-being of people, and the land, environmental sustainability creates jobs, giving the economy a useful boost to adopt environmentally sustainable solutions and prepare for a brighter future, where pollution and intensive exploitation of resources are no longer a problem.
Present in the corporate spirit of the #Zegna Group is the indelible imprint of its founder, Ermenegildo Zegna, who has been concerned about environmental protection since the early 1900s.
What does it mean to be sustainable?
The Zegna Group's commitment is perfectly reflected in the words of Gildo Zegna, chairman, and CEO: "Our responsibility is to harness our past to build a better present and future. This is reflected in everything we do, following the legacy of our founder."
Sustainability is based on this very principle of constantly perceiving one's responsibility and impact on the environment as a company and brand. The Group's green soul focuses on respecting the well-being of people, the land, and the communities that live on it, always ensuring the highest quality without compromise.
The next generations represent our future, and they will need to be given a legacy of a planet that can still offer excellent fruit, instead of a dried-up, polluted earth.
Zegna is proud of the results achieved through the commitment and dedication that characterize its continued worldwide success. The love of nature, combined with social and environmental responsibility, has characterized the Group for more than 110 years and will continue to be a guarantee in the future, following in the footsteps of the founder.
Since its founding in 1910, Zegna has recognized that product quality is linked to a positive relationship with nature. Taking care of resources is the best way to achieve garments of the highest quality.
Zegna's sustainability initiatives
Being a #sustainable brand is very challenging.
As a global luxury brand, the commitment is commensurate with success and requires constant attention to all processes that lead to the creation of unique garments.
In 2019, using the slogan #UseTheExisting, the Zegna group, together with artistic director Alessandro Sartori, launched the project dedicated to achieving the dream of creating and producing without waste.
Use the existing is therefore a way of thinking, as well as a slogan and a hashtag, adopted by the brand to achieve the goal of recycling during every production process.
Recycling resources, starting with fabrics, is an inescapable principle of the ecology theme, a fundamental process to make the production of high-quality garments truly green and sustainable. The quality that distinguishes the Zegna Group's precision tailoring goes hand in hand with the sense of responsibility and concrete actions taken to be able to eliminate waste altogether, through innovation in production processes.
Oasi Zegna
One of the biggest projects carried out by the Group is #OasiZegna.
Long before respect for the environment and sustainability became well-known themes, the group's founder Ermenegildo Zegna had already initiated a meaningful project, a model of environmental and social awareness and responsibility created in a completely spontaneous and natural way.
What was once a barren mountain in the Biellese Alps, thanks to an intensive reforestation project, became a lush, life-rich oasis thirty times the size of Central Park within a few years. A nature reserve covering more than 100 square kilometers where the Oasi Zegna foundation planted more than 500,000 trees, transforming an entire territory into a unique area of beauty and sustainability.
Along Road 232, built by founder Ermenegildo Zegna, one enters the heart of the oasis, which is capable of offering incredible views in any season of the year. The oasis is concrete evidence of a past in line with the Group's future goals.
To this great project is dedicated the Oasi Cashmere fabric, a tribute to the oasis of Trivero that thanks to ancient dyeing techniques gave life to unique and distinctive garments.
The Fashion Pact
During the 2019 G7 summit, the Fashion Pact is unveiled.
This agreement signed between the most important companies in the fashion and textile industry, at the behest of French President Emmanuel Macron, sees three main environmental goals: halt global warming, restore biodiversity and protect the oceans from pollution.
Zegna is among the very first companies to take part in the pact, perfectly espousing its goals and determination to achieve them as quickly as possible.
For the group, the Fashion Pact represents the natural continuation of the projects and vision of the founder, who has always been aware of the indissoluble link between high-quality garments and respect for the environment that provides the raw materials.
Ermenegildo Zegna Founder's Scholarship
Creating a sustainable future requires educating the next generation and showing them the best path.
The Zegna Foundation is one of the Group's most important projects and a useful resource for many exceptionally talented graduates.
Thanks to it, many new talents have the opportunity to take advantage of a scholarship that will enable them to continue their postgraduate studies and research abroad, gaining experience in their respective professional fields at the world's leading academic institutions.
Since the Foundation's inception in 2014, Zegna has made a commitment to donate 25 million euros over 25 years, funding the dreams of those who wish to be part of a better future.
Zegna Group's achievements: sustainability without compromise
The Group's commitment immediately yielded concrete results. In 2019, Zegna received the CNMI Award in Recognition for Sustainability, presented during the Green Carpet Fashion Awards in Milan.
The following year, #UseTheExisting was honored with the ADI Design Index 2020 Innovation Award and then the Fashion Transparency Index, awards that mark the various stages of Zegna's journey toward total sustainability.
The Transparency Award is a recognition that identifies Zegna as the first luxury brand to publish a complete list of its suppliers.
In addition, anyone, at any time, can access the full sustainability reports and find out how much Zegna has done to date by visiting the website page.
Traceability has distinguished Zegna around the world by helping to create an even more solid, strong, and serious image in the eyes of customers and society.
Excelling without compromise
Achieving a zero-wasting and totally sustainable production line is a real challenge.
If then, the company's mission is to make high-quality garments and precision tailoring, as in the case of Zegna, then the challenge becomes double, just as double is the credit once concrete results are achieved.
Creating innovative and sustainable garments is a challenge that offers access to the future of fashion when raw materials and garment processing must have zero impact on the earth and all living organisms.
Tomorrow's world aims to be green and back toward nature, quenching the thirst for exploitation and irrational consumption. The economy already relies heavily on sustainability, and all businesses, day in and day out, are taking advantage of the benefits of goods and services produced in an environmentally sustainable way.
Following in its own footsteps that have always distinguished its brand identity, Zegna will be present on the world stage with collections with an innovative, ecological soul, capable of surprising in terms of quality, beauty, precision, and comfort. The design talents of today and tomorrow have long been at work, always adding new pieces to the path that the Group has been tackling with passion, every day for over 100 years.
Future goals
One of Zegna Group's main ESG goals is closely related to resources.
Indeed, Zegna is committed to using at least 50 percent of raw materials recovered at the place of origin, as well as from sources with a low environmental impact, by 2026. There is also another goal, to be achieved by 2024, which sees the Group focused on using 100 percent electricity from renewable sources in Europe and the United States.
These are undoubtedly business challenges that impose tight rhythms and a constant focus on all the details that make up the processes of recovering raw materials and the steps during their processing.
The great advantage of Zegna is that the entire company is also and above all built around a spontaneous focus on collective well-being.