The great challenge: to become “climate positive” by 2030

“We have always cared about people’s well-being. Many of our choices, such as only purchasing Italian durum wheat of which we know the origin or focusing on organic foods, are specifically aimed in this direction. People’s well-being is also deeply linked to the health of our planet and as a company we feel the responsibility to do our part, placing the environment at the centre of all our decisions”.

Pierantonio Sgambaro

Environmental responsibility has always been a pillar of our history, therefore today we are ready for a new, beautiful challenge: to become a climate positive organisation by 2030, that is a company that generates a positive impact on the environment, capable of removing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it releases with its own activity. Leaving future generations a better world than the one we found is not a utopia, as long as all – large, medium and small companies – take part in the change.

A path taken 20 years ago.

For over 20 years we have chosen 100% Italian durum wheat: a decision that, in addition to ensuring direct control of the supply chain, removes the impact of international transport of the raw material. Combining our mill with the pasta factory in a single plant, powered only with energy from renewable sources, eliminates the movements between production sites and specific agreements with the logistics companies always guarantee us full load deliveries.

Carbon-offsetting initiatives to date.

Since 2011 we have been a partner of WOWnature, an initiative that promotes the growth of new trees in urban areas and areas subject to desertification or affected by natural disasters and the support of old-growth forests. We have participated in the creation of 2.5 hectares of perpetual forest, FSC certified, in Carmignano di Brenta (Padua): today Bosco Limite hosts 2,300 trees of 15 different species, selected to recreate the typical environment of the Po Valley forest. We have also adopted 600 hectares of woods, between the provinces of Vicenza and Belluno, and we contribute to the Blue Valley project for the protection of the precious ecosystem of the Venetian lagoon.

 Raise the bar and give more than we take.

Bosco Limite’s experience marked the start of our cooperation with ETIFOR, which resulted in “The Climate Positive Pasta” project. ETIFOR is a spin-off of the University of Padua and provides consulting, research and training services to manage and enhance forest and natural resources. It supports organisations and companies that are not satisfied with minimising CO2 emissions and compensating their production – thus achieving “climate neutrality” – but are willing to raise the bar and create a positive impact on the environment, counteracting the effects of what scientists call the “climate crisis”.

Becoming a climate positive organisation is a demanding process and requires a structured and long-term plan, with clear steps and objectives to be achieved each year. ETIFOR has developed the MARC approach that optimises every single step of the environmental responsibility path. The MARC applies to all of our business processes along the life cycle of our pasta: it measures its impacts in terms of carbon dioxide (Measure); identifies actions to avoid or reduce them (Avoid); identifies climate risks and practices to limit them (Risks). It also assists us in choosing the best projects to join in order to capture and store more CO2 than what we emit, making its own channels available to provide visibility to the objectives achieved (Communicate).

Our company boasts a low environmental impact and therefore achieving complete carbon offsetting will be the first step. “To measure Sgambaro’s ecological footprint we used the LCA method – Life Cycle Assistance – which, in addition to CO2 emissions, also takes other impacts into account such as the use of water resources or the creation of PM10”, explains Lucio Brotto, founding partner of ETIFOR. “We have estimated that in order to produce and distribute its own pasta, Sgambaro generates 4,500 tons of carbon dioxide every year, equal to the annual emissions of 900 Italian citizens: a figure that reflects the noble actions taken by the pasta factory over the last ten years and represents a good starting point for the climate positive path”.

The next steps.

The 2020 goal is to capture and store 2,500 tons of CO2, joining three of the WOWnature projects that will be completed in the second half of the year: two for the planting of 1,000 trees at the Parco Nord in Milan and along the new Treviso-Vicenza Cycle route, and one for improving and restoring the Enego forests affected by the Vaia storm in 2018.

It would then be magnificent to reach and overcome zero impact and start giving our planet more oxygen than what it grants us every day.

Our goal is to be the first good and healthy pasta for both people and the planet.