Teknoleather, a company headquartered in Arzignano (Vicenza), working in the tanning chemistry sector, achieved two important and relevant international certifications in the first half of 2024
2024 is an important year for Teknoleather, a chemical company based in Arzignano (Vicenza) operating in the tanning sector, which offers cutting-edge solutions, service flexibility, know-how and high-quality chemical products, to guarantee the best possible performance in all processing phases.
Even by making huge investments, the Vicenza-based company has always made sustainability the main cornerstone of its strategy, mostly aiming at being competitive on the market, making attention to the customer and to detail the flagship of its business.
In the first half of 2024, two certifications were made official to the owners of Teknoleather, the president Santino Mecenero and his daughter Lucrezia Maria, who works in the family business and who personally followed the long processes that led to the great, sought-after results: in January the ISO 14001:2015 environmental certification was achieved for the first time. This was an addiction to the ISO 9001:2015, that the company already had for several years and essential in terms of quality and unceasing improvement. In the first days of May the company also obtained the renewal of the 3rd level of the ZDHC certification by the relevant bodies, a feather in the cap for Teknoleather, which has long made sustainability one of its pillars.
“We had achieved the 3rd level of ZDHC compliance for the first time back in 2022 – specifies Lucrezia Mecenero – resulting as one of the first chemical companies to get it in our territory. However last year, after the update of the MRSL to version 3.1, the compliance requirements needed to obtain level 3 changed. As a matter of fact, what was previously level 3 became level 2, and to obtain the third level a series of requests were added. At this point we immediately got back to work, because our goal was to guarantee the highest rung of the ZDHC (Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals, ed.), and we tried to meet all the new requests in the best possible way; fortunately, our efforts have been paid off. We believe that joining the ZDHC protocol is an important added value for our customers, who have always appreciated us, especially for the environmental attention we have implemented since the very beginning, given that we are a young company. In the range we offer, there are almost 200 products certified according to level 3 and compliant with MRSL 3.1, and this allows us to boast at trade fairs and events around the world a prestigious card in terms of quality, safety and environmental attention.”
More than ten years after its establishment, Teknoleather, founded in 2013, can therefore include all the best certifications in terms of sustainability that meet and exceed market requirements. That’s precisely why the owner wants to say “public thanks to the entire company staff for the work carried out in recent years, but also for the ability to have always shared all the choices to guarantee utmost sustainability, which, with regards to the future, are now a forced choice, also by virtue of regulations that have become increasingly stringent over time”.
“For us, certifications have always been fundamental – confirms Santino Mecenero – because they allow us to rationally evaluate our performances, and above all they always push us to improve. Also thanks to this approach we have always tried to forecast, fortunately often managing to do so, the requests of the tanneries and other partners with whom we work, who in turn are pressured by important high fashion brands. Working in this direction certainly imposes a series of limitations, which force a surplus of work, and indeed are an additional cost for chemical companies, but they are also the only viable path that will allow us Europeans to be competitive on a global level. We will keep on guaranteeing customers a certified product to meet the needs that the international leather market requires, ensuring transparency and sustainability and traceability, which over the years proves to be an increasingly essential aspect”.
Teknoleather, which in recent times has carried out important structural upgrades on its headquarters in Arzignano, boasts a satisfying ten-year business report. “In the company – concludes Santino Mecenero – we are equipped with a photovoltaic panel system which, in addition to reiterate our green choices, guarantees important savings as it allows us to be self-sufficient in terms of energy. In recent years, the workshop and offices have been rebuilt, as well as a small showroom where we display leathers processed in our workshop. We will keep on investing in R&D activities, we always will, even in difficult market situations, like the current one, because proposing innovative products is the best way to consolidate the markets we work with and enter in new countries. It is complicated to make a calculation, but I can say for sure, that every year we will allocate a significant percentage of our turnover to this department. Over the past ten years, we have pursued the experimentation of several projects in order to forecast market needs; I believe it is essential, so as to already have solutions available before requests come from the customer.”
Santino e Lucrezia Maria Mecenero
