Even for companies characterised by a natural inclination towards ethical conduct and respect for socio-environmental parameters, a sustainability report is a crucial step. Because it means rising to the challenge of demonstrating one's commitment with the support of figures, not just good intentions. With its first 2020 Sustainability Report, produced in collaboration with LifeGate, Pasta Garofalo has taken the leap, becoming the first in the premium pasta sector to communicate to all its stakeholders what it has achieved in the area of sustainability. We asked the company's CEO, Massimo Menna, to comment on this debut.

What reflections led to the decision to report on your socio-environmental performance in the sustainability report?
For us, this is a very important milestone in a company journey we began back in 2019, with the aim of showing how sustainability accompanies our activity day by day. The report we have just published is actually the second, but we chose to treat the 2019 edition as a moment of internal awareness of our strengths and weaknesses, before making the 2020 report public, once we had addressed the most significant issues that emerged from the first assessment.

What are the main results that emerged?
The three main areas of action for sustainability that we identified are as follows: first and foremost, the safety and quality of our products, thanks to raw materials that are selected with the utmost care and monitored and checked at every stage of processing, according to a production process that draws on centuries-old experience, the results of ongoing research, and an original interpretation of flavour.
Secondly, the centrality of people — both in terms of a constant dedication to our employees, who each day make it possible, through their commitment, for activities to be carried out in keeping with our company values, and in terms of great attention to our local area and its community. Last, but certainly not least, respect for the environment from which we draw our essential resources, through a major commitment to reducing our environmental impact — both in terms of energy consumption and emissions, as well as the materials we use and virtuous waste management.

What concrete sustainability objectives has your company set itself in the medium term?
2020 was an extraordinary year that left its mark on all our lives. And it was precisely in this exceptional year that we decided to publish our first sustainability report, which in some ways represents a challenge to ourselves: in keeping with the values that have distinguished us since our origins — quality, innovation, transparency, respect for diversity and passion — we wanted to respond with concrete actions to the demands of consumers, who are increasingly aware of and attentive to what they put on the table. But we are aware that what we have done so far is only the beginning of a journey of continuous development and improvement, and we want to embrace this challenge as an opportunity, in the knowledge that we can contribute, through simple everyday actions, to building a better future for the generations to come — always and in every way consistent with our daily commitment to bringing a unique and unmistakable pasta to consumers' tables. In this sense, our medium-term journey moves in three fundamental directions: progressively increasing the sustainability of our factory, with the goal of zeroing our environmental impact; working jointly with consumers to reduce our environmental impact, through concrete actions on products and communication and awareness campaigns directed at them; and improving year on year the welfare of the people who, through their work every day, contribute to achieving our goals.

What were the main changes you had to implement to deal with the pandemic? Was your approach to sustainability affected in any way?
Like every challenge, we at Garofalo responded with resolve, drawing on our capacity for resilience to continue offering consumers a unique and unmistakable product. First of all, we increased production to meet a significant rise in demand for essential goods such as pasta. Thanks to the trust of consumers and our customers, in 2020 we achieved revenues of 219 million euros, an increase of 36 per cent compared to 2019. With regard to safety, even before the virus we had already put in place a series of safety measures in the factory that subsequently became mandatory: for example, we immediately reduced the length of work shifts to minimise the number of people in the changing rooms. In addition, we had recently begun our first sustainability assessment within the company and we pressed ahead, despite everything, to reach the point today of announcing our first sustainability report.

Has the pandemic also changed purchasing and consumption habits in the food sector?
The restrictions imposed by the emergency situation have had significant social impacts, influencing the way we relate to one another and work, but also our purchasing behaviour. Having rediscovered old traditions, such as the family lunch, consumers now feel the need to return to their roots, to continue putting safe, quality products on the table while also keeping an eye on the environment.

You are part of an international group and you export Garofalo to many countries around the world: what sustainability trends seem to you to be emerging most strongly at an international level, and what is your approach?
Among sustainability-conscious consumers at an international level, we can observe a growing and increasingly widespread attention to the quality and origin of raw materials. We at Pasta Garofalo have always been attentive to listening to and meeting the needs of consumers, and in addition to using high-quality raw materials that guarantee a unique flavour in all our products, we work every day to offer, through our work, adherence to high sustainability standards that protect the quality of the environment, the local area and people. Especially abroad — where we are now present in more than 80 countries around the world and where over the past year we have recorded a strong increase — we will continue to communicate the quality of our products through communication and awareness campaigns focused on the most important topics in sustainability.

With the 'Grandi Minuti' campaign, you took up the challenge of highlighting pasta cooking times on your packaging. If you were to do the same with a sustainability plus point, what would you highlight in bold letters?
Without a doubt, transparency. It's our calling card, starting from the packaging. We are the first company to have made its entire supply chain fully transparent: for every packet of Pasta Garofalo, our website shows not only the origin of the raw material, but also bacteriological and quality analyses, so that everyone can verify that our pasta meets the highest standards of quality and food safety. For us, transparent communication is a form of responsibility towards the consumer. And we wanted to go even further by replacing the generic wording "EU/non-EU" on Pasta Garofalo packaging with an indication of the country of origin of the wheat, enhancing and making the quality of the raw material even more transparent.