A jury of experts from 13 nations has awarded AKU the prestigious ISPO AWARD GOLD for its new lifestyle footwear style for the AW ‘20 season, MINIMA – Designed to Reduce. This new winter model designed for leisure time and outdoor journeys was awarded for its low environmental impact design solutions.
“We have always been focused on product research and development to guarantee the market a high quality standard, with a responsible approach to the issue of environmental impact, with respect to which we claim a position as leader in the outdoor footwear industry,” states Paolo Bordin, CEO of AKU.
AKU is among the first companies to calculate and certify the degree of environmental impact of a shoe according to the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) protocol, obtaining an absolute record. This project has allowed AKU to better understand how their way of producing footwear relates to the ecosystem of which we are a part, and therefore undertake further initiatives in order to truly contain the effects on the environment, said the company.
“Today, with MINIMA – Designed to Reduce, we see this commitment rewarded, thanks also to the fundamental contribution of supply chain partners such as the DANI Sustainable Leather tannery in Italy. We’ve had a strategic agreement for years in pursuit of the common goal to reduce environmental impact. But we don’t stop there. We are already working on a new project that concerns the calculation of CO2 emissions in the production of each of our models, with the aim of compensating through reforestation and environmental protection initiatives,” continued Bordin.
