L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 30 L'Italo-Americano T he environmental i m p a c t o f t h e f a s h i o n industry, due to the ever-growing world population and the consequent demand for prod- ucts, is a much-discussed issue in the textile industry. A solution for what is consid- ered one of the most pollut- ing sectors in the world could come from the introduction and use of vegetable leathers, in particular a new ecological and vegan leather derived from fungi called mycelium leather, a material that imi- tates the look and feel of ani- mal leather. I t a l i a n A n n a Sammarco, engineer, fash- ion strategist, and sustain- ability advocate, has been working in the field for years leading strategic initiatives, studying innovations, and teaming up with people who c a n p r o v i d e s u b s t a n t i a l change. After a career in the field of energy production, Sammarco moved on to the fashion industry where she continued to work on innova- tion and sustainable business strategies for world-famous L o n d o n f a s h i o n h o u s e Burberry. After 12 years in the UK, 34-year-old Anna, o r i g i n a l l y f r o m N a p l e s , moved with her family to Boston, MA, where she has been working for a year. In Boston, she wants to make the world of fashion more sustainable and responsible and, in this optic, mycelium l e a t h e r c o u l d b e a g a m e - changer. "Since we are well aware of our planet's current state of e m e r g e n c y a n d o f t h e urgency to act, sustainable practices and product inno- vation play a crucial role in addressing the challenges t h a t l i e a h e a d , " A n n a explains to us. "My mission is to help brands, start-up sup- pliers, manufacturers, and all fashion professionals and students understand how we can regenerate our world and our communities." Anna, tell us what you do now that you are in the US. I am currently in Boston and I am a consultant for a startup, Ecovative, which has been on the market for 15 years. We are launching this mushroom-based material, m y c e l i u m l e a t h e r , i n t h e fashion industry because it is very similar to leather. I am helping them develop a strat- egy and create a product that is vegan, 100% natural, and plastic-free. Something total- ly new in the fashion industry that can be used to make shoes, bags, belts, etc. Is mycelium leather used in other sectors? Yes. The company I work f o r h a s b e e n u s i n g i t f o r almost 15 years in the food a n d p a c k a g i n g s e c t o r s , respectively for the produc- tion of bacon and packaging. We also work with very well- k n o w n c o m p a n i e s i n t h e beauty sector such as Estée Lauder. My role now is to create a supply chain, thanks to my knowledge in the sec- tor. What kind of charac- teristics must mycelium leather have to be used? It must meet the proper- ties that allow it to perform in a c e r t a i n w a y , s u c h a s strength and elasticity, char- acteristics the material needs to meet the standards of most major brands. The interesting thing is that it is possible to m o d i f y t h e p r o p e r t i e s o f these mushrooms by chang- ing temperature, humidity, and light. Research is all car- ried out in a laboratory in Albany, Upstate New York, w h e r e t h e r e a r e m a n y biotechnology companies. What is the timeline for its commercialization in fashion? It will be ready in the next year, year and a half. H o w i s m y c e l i u m leather more sustainable than classic leather? The process to obtain ani- mal leather is as follows: the animal is cleaned, the skin prepared, and sent to the tan- nery which then transforms it f o r t h e f i n i s h e d p r o d u c t . Ecovative manages to pro- duce something that is com- parable to the leather that arrives at the tannery, but which is even better from an environmental point of view b e c a u s e t h e r e a r e f e w e r resources involved in the tan- ning process. What the tan- nery gets is something that doesn't have to be cleaned but is ready to be dyed. Now that you working in the US, what kind of differences do you see with Europe? In America, we started a little later but there are the same ambitions about sus- tainability as in Europe. The same can be said about inno- vation. The difference lies more in the roles, because being the USA larger, they can become the perfect pole, but Europe is where produc- tion is; so the idea can be developed here but the sub- sequent production phase will still have to be brought to Europe. W i l l I t a l i a n b r a n d s e m b r a c e t h i s p h i l o s o- phy? Yes, of course, we already w o r k w i t h s o m e I t a l i a n brands. The company is also trying to bring the production o f t h i s r a w m a t e r i a l t o Europe, including Italy, pre- cisely to reduce the environ- mental impact associated with transport. There are many tanneries here in the USA too, but the main ones for luxury brands are in Italy, France and, to a lesser extent, also in Spain. So the supply chain creation work aims to find partners in Italy who col- laborate with Ecovative to refine the material so that it can be presented to luxury brands. On the one hand, work is being done to make partnerships with brands, and on the other to create partnerships with tanneries. In this way, the brands make it clear to the tanneries that there is interest and demand, and the tanneries are encour- aged to invest in terms of time and research to obtain this new material. After your experience a t t h e C e n t e r f o r S u s t a i n a b l e F a s h i o n , L o n d o n C o l l e g e o f F a s h i o n , y o u a r e n o w also collaborating with the prestigious MIT in Boston. In what terms? The MIT has a sustainabil- ity center that is part of the Sloan School of Management, whose MBA is carried out in partnership with a number of companies from various sec- tors. I am Advisor & Mentor of the Sustainability Lab class in which the MIT partner companies present students with a problem related to sustainability, a problem that students must solve. I sup- port students in finding the solution to these problems. W h a t i s y o u r d r e a m for the future? More than a dream, mine is a mission. I hope to have an impact on several levels, to help collaboration not only within one sector but also between different sectors. If we think of the idea of circu- lar production, therefore, of the recycling of a finished product, the fashion industry has a limitation, because it insists on considering only the idea of recycling materi- als to make them re-usable. This is achievable in some cases but not achievable in o t h e r s b e c a u s e t h e r e a r e technical limitations. On the other hand, if a partnership was made between the fash- ion and the aerospace sector, or between the fashion and the automotive sector, what cannot be recycled in the fashion world could be used to produce elements of the engine of a car or other com- ponents inside and outside the car. What may have no value in the fashion world may have value in another, but the connections between the various sectors are lack- ing. My goal is precisely to create them and generate n e w p a t h s a n d n e w exchanges. Anna Sammarco at work (Photo courtesy of Loughborough University) Boston, Italian engineer leading a sustainability change in the fashion industry SILVIA GIUDICI LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE TRADITIONS

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