In an effort to promote growth, the textile industry is looking towards new production models and efficient processes from an energy standpoint, with a reduced environmental impact. Italian textile machinery sector is working to provide technology solutions that place reduced consumption in energy, water and chemical products at the center of the production process, for a manufacturing cycle that is more responsible and mindful of consumption, while respecting the environment.
Within this context, ACIMIT, the Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers, has realised the ¨Sustainable Technologies¨ project, in cooperation with the engineering firm D´APPOLONIA (www.dappolonia.it), with the aim of developing and promoting some key issues for the textile industry.
This initiative testifies the commitment of Italian textile machinery manufacturers to research and advanced solutions that respond to sustainability criteria. This commitment translates into environmentally efficient technology solutions that provide significant benefits to users, in terms of reduced production costs. The transparency of the technical information provided is the first step taken to make visible the attention placed by Italian machinery manufacturers on issues involving sustainability.
ACIMIT´s Sustainable Technologies project are supported by the Ministry for Economic Development and Italian Trade Commission, convinced of the crucial role of Italy´s textile machinery sector in re-launching the Country´s economy.
ACIMIT Green label
At the center of the ¨Sustainable Technologies¨ project is the ACIMIT green label, designed by ACIMIT and used by its members.
It is a document that aims to identify the energy and environmental performances of textile machinery and make them easily recognisable and comprehensible, using a process designated by the manufacturer as an evaluation parameter.
Specifically, the quantity of equivalent emissions of carbon dioxide (Carbon Footprint – CFP) produced during the machine´s operation, is the parameter that has been chosen to provide an environmental efficiency value to the machinery being labelled.
An international certification organism, RINA (www.rina.org), has validated the green label issuing process and the evaluations it contains. Based on a standardised and certified procedure, RINA verifies (for some manufacturers, drawn from those participating in the project every year and representing about 20 per cent of the joined companies) both the evaluation criteria and operating conditions of the machinery being assessed for the labeling process.
Supplier of sustainable technologies
Italian textile machinery manufacturers who wish to use the ACIMIT green label must comply with the ¨Sustainable Technologiesö project by adhering to and respecting a memorandum of understanding, as well as a rigorous compliance standard defined by ACIMIT.
By underwriting and complying to this standard, Italian machinery manufacturers who use the ACIMIT green label formalise in writing their commitment to respect the procedures and tests defined by the implementation regulation deliberated by ACIMIT. The ACIMIT Supplier of Sustainable Technologies registered trademark is the symbol that identifies Italian textile machinery manufacturers who comply with the ¨Sustainable Technologies¨ project, and thus use of the ACIMIT green label.