“I had the chance to touch with my very hands the concept of “Made in Italy” and it felt amazing.”
My name is Edoardo Ruvolo and I’m a third-year student, following a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Management at the University of Trento. This semester, willing to broaden my horizon, I discover the School of Innovation. The school is hub powered by the University of Trento where students, coming from every background, can learn about Innovative subjects and deepen their soft skills. As this is not enough, they offer in partnership with local or national intuitions, challenges to involve students into real companies’ scenarios.
I had the pleasure to engaged in the challenge proposed by UNIC, Unione Nazionale Industria Conciaria, that asked for student’s help for finding new solution to communicate innovation in the Italian tanning industry.
I must start by saying that I had an outstanding experience and that my perception of the tanning industry changed completely. The project started off in Trento where I joined students coming from all over the world, to start understanding the sector. Giacomo Zorzi, on behalf of UNIC, gave us the right tools to comprehend the current structure of the Italian tanning industry and how, over the years, the industry has increased their level of innovation, reduced pollution and created a real circular economy.
Our journey proceeded in the Vicenza area, where we visited, starting from a tannery, the production chain of this district. Each of the 4 firms we visited, actively contribute along the value chain, and strive daily to increase the level of sustainability of the whole sector.
The quality of the outputs is high and the technological innovation behind it is even higher.
The winning group, my team, proposed a solution that implement an online tool, accessible with a QR code, that helps UNIC to arrive to final consumers and so educate them about the sustainability of their project. Our motto was simple, “Make every hide count” and thanks to school of Innovation I must say that we really did make every hide count.
Edoardo Ruvolo