THE MAXIMUM WITH THE MINIMUM

[Over to… Riccardo Cavanna, President of Cavanna SpA

The maximum with the minimum

by

Cavanna

«Packaging has always been inherently sustainable. It is a “hidden” fact from which it is necessary to start, if we want to outline a future for this irreplaceable element in line with consumers’ expectations.
We at Cavanna had confirmation of this when, upon its sixtieth anniversary, we understood that our history – which we wanted to celebrate with a proto-museum and other initiatives aimed at illustrating our cultural identity – took on a clearer value when looking at the evolution of a specific type of flexible packaging: the flowpack. Essential and light, it performs the task of protecting products, with reduced environmental impact and in an optimal manner. This was recently confirmed also by the technical-scientific project carried out by Turin Polytechnic on our behalf (see https://www.flowpack.it, Editor), and which researched the story of the flowpack and its possible future evolutions.
In other words, we can say that it is the most “democratic” packaging in the world.

We are what we have developed

If, therefore, we use this type of packaging today, it is because it fits in with our consumption needs, for our lifestyles.
Packaging changes on the basis of the historical context, and to be convinced of this we need only to refer to the 10 values of the Ethical Charter, many of which indicate the direction to follow today and tomorrow.
If we know how to comprehend the evolution of the context in which we are living – of products, distribution, lifestyles – we will be better able to understand what we are doing and what it is necessary to do, and this is true also for us manufactures of machines.
Today, in Italy, we have a collection, selection and recycling service that works, thanks to far-sighted policy choices that have given rise to Sistema Conai, but also thanks to the fact that we have all the technologies and expertise necessary to develop an efficient circular economy model: it’s an example of excellence which, instead of being taken advantage of at European level, has been put in the shade by the draft of the new European directive on packaging.

A virtuous cycle

It’s a challenge that imposes dialogue and collaboration in the value chain. Producers of materials, converters, manufacturers of automatic machines, e-commerce operators… all, in fact, need to make maximum possible use of skills and expertise in order to respond to consumer expectations.
For us manufacturers of automatic machines for packing and packaging, this means offering state-of-the-art technology, but also the research of new materials to make them “machinable” and to achieve performance levels similar to those currently in use.
Our company’s strategy aims, therefore, at engineering dedicated and complete solutions for medium and high speeds, able to manage every type of product, with particular attention towards efficiency (savings) and sustainability (reduction of waste and packaging materials, use of eco-compatible materials).
Penalising efficiency in the production lines, increasing the non-conformity of packaging, corresponds to an “unsustainable” waste from an economic point of view for the company and ultimately for consumers, besides for the environment.
It’s an ethical problem, which has nothing to do with plastic, which is an optimal solution with an infinite number of applications.

Machines that function well, which produce less waste, are not only able to guarantee the consumer the integrity of the product – something which, otherwise, in many cases could represent also a danger for their health – but also to save a significant quantity of resources. We are talking about millions of packages, also only with reference to the high-efficiency lines installed by us in a year.
Widening the horizon, one higher or lower percentage of waste can mean, at global level, being able to plan and sustain access to our consumption model on the part of millions of people.
If we want to pass to a real circular economy, we need increasingly higher-performing and reliable machines in line with expectations, and which don’t waste packaging material or product.
The fact remains that the world around seems to be aiming at the development of a consumption model that is hard to sustain in the medium or long-term. This is not only for the repercussions in terms of climate change (and this would already be sufficient), but also from the point of view of the availability of resources and for the worsening of pollution caused by waste in certain areas of the world.
There are populations that live literally submerged by shoddy products and their packaging, and which struggle to set up serious recovery and recycling policies.

From frustration to virtue

In Cavanna we are constantly committed to disseminating inside the Group a culture of safety, protection of the environment and of the territory.
We recognise the importance of ethics and corporate social responsibility, and this leads us to being a company committed to social themes, attentive to new scenarios and ready to accommodate changes, at times also in advance.
Aware of the difference between wanting and being able to do something, between an ethical approach and good practice, we believe that our education and training system, about which industry in general continues to complain, is emblematic.
The flaws that we attribute to the public sphere, especially with regards to technical schools can, however, be at least partially remedied, paying attention to the present and developing a vision for the future (as well as a bit more money).

This is what we are doing in the Confindustria (Chamber of Commerce) of Novara Vercelli Valsesia, where we have raised through crowdfunding 150,000 euros to finance three-year development projects in a number of schools.
In this way, we have worked alongside the institutions, indicating the professional profiles that we need, and contributed in a concrete way to improving the image and effectiveness of a training programme of this kind.
The most difficult thing has not been to raise funds, which companies already allocate to social activities, but to convince entrepreneurs that, regardless of market competition, it is necessary to learn to work together to construct a future for everyone».