The group OSMO-HTF has launched the new marketing campaign in defense of the tanning sector: it has always been an international reference point on environmental sustainability.
“Vivo Nella Pelle” is the innovative marketing campaign through which the group OSMO-HTF based in Arzignano (Vicenza province), one of the most important districts in the world for leather processing. wishes to enhance the tanning sector. Since their foundation, the two companies, OSMO, founded in 2006 and HTF, in 2012, made pioneering “green” choices, becoming a reference point in Italy and in the world for environmental sustainability. The group has been able, very often, to beat their competitors: this is the case of biodegradable solutions, whose first studies and field trials date back to several years ago and were launched on the market shortly after.
The OSMO-HTF group, is specialized in the manufacturing and sale of technical chemicals and dyestuffs for the tanning sector, yet its strategic role goes well beyond the entrepreneurial and production contexts. As a matter of fact, it is an enterprise that is steadily evolving, on the lookout for the perfect combination between qualified human resources (fairly young and motivated), technologies and processes aimed at keeping up the pace with the new global economy to avoid losing competitiveness. OSMO focuses on the early stages, from raw
Materials namely freshly skinned hides, up to dyed crust, thanks to its wellestablished experience in the dyestuff sector. HTF was established six years after so as to complete the range of services, since it deals with the final phase of the processing cycle, that is, finishing, thus resulting in high-quality products, much sought-after worldwide.
“The tanning sector – explain the owners Andrea Piazza, Ludovico Massignan, Fabrizio Nicoletti and Paolo Armelli, whom we met at the Arzignano headquarters – is often demonized when it comes to environmental impact. Actually, it is thanks to the tanneries that every year, globally, about 8 million tons of raw hides coming from the food industry are recovered and enhanced. The destruction of this material, rather than its use, would result in the release of about 5 million tons of greenhouse gases. Even during the first lockdown, in spring 2020, the Prefect ordered tanneries to continue working, on reduced shifts, to avoid that the cycle of meat could be interrupted.”
Thanks to upgrades aimed at improving process technologies and treating polluting effluents, in the last decade the tanning sector has achieved a drastic reduction in the most glaring negative effects on the environment. “The new regulations – add the owners of the OSMO-HTF group – have increasingly stringent specifications regarding the environment and the finished product. The big manufacturers of leather goods want hypoallergenic, metal-free products, but still they want them to have the same features and performance that only chrome leather has been able to give in decades of history of leather processing. Something is changing, but we hope that it is not only the big names that require the use of eco-sustainable products, far from the oil philosophy and made with a reduced environmental impact processes.”
OSMO-HTF wishes it to be a common desire, beyond mere economic and propaganda interests. COSMOWHITE (biodegradable leather), presented in 2016, was the first step towards an eco-sustainable future. But the group, leader in chemical products for the tanning industry, did not stop. Products made with a high percentage of renewable sources, process systems based on the use of enzymes (to the detriment of common surfactants), almost totally biodegradable finishing auxiliaries, are just some of the innovations to be launched in the coming weeks.
“This challenge – state Piazza, Massignan, Nicoletti and Armelli – requires efforts and perseverance, our brands aim at shorten the time to reach this goal. ZenZero, which is a registered trademark, is the cover of this new “book” that our chemical group has decided to write, it stands for the idea of environmental zero impact, for the use of products made with a high content of bio-derived substance and it also stands for a process balance in harmony with the ecosystem. It is an exploration trip and at the same time it represents a precise path towards a shared goal.”
OSMO-HTF group has always been at the forefront of metal-free practices, now an obligatory choice for those working in the tanning sector. “Our first studies and experiments began in 2014, after a few years we were already producing a range that widened over time. We started when it was an idea of a few, so we were among the very first. It is now clear that this is a winning system, to the point that a large number of companies are undertaking this path, but few are really working on it. As a matter of fact, one thing is to prepare a sample and another, as we do, is starting a real production, developing different articles and guaranteeing the final product the same performance as a chrome leather, if not even better: a customer cannot accept a metal-free leather that is poorer than the one he used to purchase, and rightly demands more.”
