A company was set up in Ferrara twenty years ago
that, right from the beginning, strived to achieve a lower environmental
impact. The profile of Iperwood, a company that produces and commercializes
Novowood - an eco-friendly composite material born from an idea focused on the
search for products with a low environmental impact and reduced maintenance.
For FARE INSIEME Giampaolo Colletti interviews Andrea Pizzardi , CEO of
Iperwood
of Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
Photocredit: Giacomo Maestri e Francesca Aufiero
They thought outside the box. Or even
further. They anticipated the environmental emergencies and decided to opt for
sustainable innovation before others. While the best organizations always
wonder about the world to come, there is a company from Ferrara that was born
already projected into the future. That future bears the date of 2002, when
talking about environmental impact was still pioneering. Yet there were those
who wanted to change things. This is how Iperwood was born, following over
thirty years of experience in the exotic wood market, especially when it came
to the search and commercialization of durable species for various
applications.
The sustainable idea This
green-hearted company was set up by Andrea Pizzardi, born in 1979
and CEO of Iperwood. From a young age, he started working in his father’s
business linked to the building of marinas and floating jetties. “Almost three trees were needed to
create twelve metres of linear walkway. It was too wasteful. We needed to think
about and, most of all, do something
different. Indoor furnishing wood lasts a lifetime, but cutting down trees to
walk on them made me think about this”,
recalls Pizzardi. The challenging objective was to
research, analyse and commercialize wood species boasting high durability and
suitable for applications that require or need low maintenance. The range
includes river and maritime signal poles that cannot be attacked by water
micro-organisms and sheet piles made with exotic species that last one hundred
years used as banks for rivers and canals.
From this we came up with the idea for a composite material for
horizontal and vertical cladding for outdoor floors, ventilated façades,
sunshades and privacy screens. Over the years, Iperwood has stood out on the
market with the commercialization of Novowood, a new material fruit of a lot of
research and experimentation and available in 33 countries worldwide. Today,
Iperwood covers an area of approximately 8000 sq m, 5000 of which are
warehouses, boasts 23 employees and 16 agents on the Italian market, and
registers a turnover of €4.5 million with a 20-25% growth. The foreign market
is being extended and is currently linked to 15% of the projects. “We are
expanding. We started off as a research company and now have four extrusion
lines, an internal laboratory and a technical-commercial office of ten people.
The growth requires more resources and we keep hiring personnel,” explains
Pizzardi.
The history. Research, we said. A lot of it and
varied. This is how a product is born that guarantees durability and a
production that enables the use of recycled raw materials as well as the
possibility of being regenerated multiple times at the end of its life
cycle. The development of Novowood started in 2004, in collaboration with
the faculty of material engineering of the University of Ferrara. It is a
composite material obtained from salvaged wood-meal and polymers. Research aims
at achieving low maintenance and a resistance to marine climates, which are the
most aggressive for all kinds of materials. After many years of studies and laboratory
tests, the first Novowood extruded stave was produced. The product was
immediately launched on the marina and floating jetty market and, thanks to its
success, it started being used in 2008 in the building market as well. “For the
production of Novowood, we use wood-meal deriving from the waste of wood
factory processing, such as sawing and planing. No trees are cut down to obtain
the product, which is made up of polymers also obtained from plastic production
waste. Everything is blended with a 10% of additives that convey the colour and
make it last over time,” stresses Pizzardi.
In addition to coming
from recharged materials - i.e. secondary raw materials - Novowood can be
re-milled at the end of its life cycle and regenerated up to twenty times. “We
have therefore created a product with a useful life that exceeds three hundred years.
That is why we can afford to say it is an excellency. The study was based on the will to remove the common defects of
wood, avoiding maintenance and discolouration,” says Pizzardi. Iperwood is
therefore capable of supplying innovative systems and solutions for decking,
cladding, shutters and sliding panels, offering its clients special
under-structure systems too suitable for multiple scopes of application. There
is also a state-of-the-art technical office that supports designers in the
creation of high-visual impact cladding. The evolution of Novowood and its
increasing attention to the environment enabled it to acquire the ReMade in
Italy certification in 2021 attesting to its production origin as well as the
percentage of recycled material inside it, which is considerable at 81.5%. “We
are increasingly oriented towards the innovation of the products, profiles and
finish range, as well as of the integrated systems, i.e. the tools that enable
an easy application of the product itself. We are also focused on new sectors
as we also listen to the needs of clients and markets,” concludes Pizzardi.
When talking about sustainability, facts make the difference, not just the
slogans.
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