After ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, another medal has been added to the Bernardini Srl company's Palmarès, testifying to an increasingly pronounced focus not only on chemical product quality, but also on safeguarding the environment and human health.
"Standing still to see how the market evolves has never been in our DNA," says Ivano Bernardini, owner of Bernardini Srl, a tannery chemicals company soon to celebrate 50 years in business. Our pay-off, Ecological Leather Chemicals, sums up well our mission, which is to offer customers excellence not only in terms of production, but also at the level of certifications. Among our goals is to improve our management and business organization more and more, putting the issue of global sustainability at the center. This is one of the reasons why, in 2005, we began a path toward the company's ecological transition, a path that continues to this day and has led us to another important achievement, by obtaining ICEC ZDHC Level 3 certification."
ZDHC - Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals - is an international protocol aimed at reducing the chemical footprint of the apparel and footwear industry and eliminating the use of hazardous chemicals throughout the production chain. Its operation is based on the MRSL - Manufacturing Restricted Substances List -, a list of chemicals that are banned or can be used within very narrow limits. The ZDHC's compliance levels range from 1 to 3. Bernardini Srl obtained ZDHC certification with ICEC and achieved level 3, the highest, which guarantees that each of its products meets all the requirements related to the parameters of the MRSL list and is therefore safe.
"We have 200 formulations already registered in the ZDHC Gateway," the owner continues. The certification involved chemical analysis of all the products we entered in the portal. Level 3, in particular, also required an audit at our production site by ICEC technicians. This was challenging, but in my opinion necessary, not only because the Gateway provides all companies in the supply chain with a simplifying tool to find safer chemical alternatives that comply with MSRL, but also for the purpose of our company's growth. In fact, the ZDHC, along with ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, has been instrumental in empowering and sensitizing all staff on good corporate sustainability conduct at the level of processes and methods, as well as simplifying and speeding up our organization, thus enabling us to find new solutions quickly to all kinds of customer problems."
