REGUSTO AND LEROY MERLIN STAR IN THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE ANTI-WASTE LAW
On September 14, 2021, a press conference was held at the Chamber of Deputies in Rome, during which Regusto and the multinational Leroy Merlin presented, in the presence of the Honorable Maria Chiara Gadda signatory of the anti-waste law, the results of the synergy of the two companies, which has made it possible to make the objectives of the law, which turned five years old on September 14, real and concrete.
Thanks to the “anti-waste” law, more and more Italian companies are deciding to donate unsold products and surplus stock to nonprofits, in the name of sustainability andcircular economy, not only in the food sector. Thanks to the spread of increasingly innovative technologies, donations are also a key tool in other sectors, such as the home. Leroy Merlin Italia, in fact, is the first in the non-food retail sector to join the digital platform, marking an important step forward in the Gadda Law.
Leroy Merlin Italia, through Regusto, has been able to donate furniture and all building materials to non-profit organizations, reaching 129 donations in the first 3 months of collaboration alone. The large project, which initially started from the store in Baranzate (MI), has been extended to more than 50 stores throughout Italy that have been put in contact with 20 associations and have donated a total of more than 38,600 kg of material.
One of the main success stories of the project between Leroy Merlin Italy and Regusto is the one related to the Centro Educativo di Accoglienza e Solidarietà (C.E.A.S.), a reference institution in the Rome area that has a long-standing relationship with Leroy Merlin Italy. From May 2021 to date, C.E.A.S. has recovered substantial stocks of donated products from Leroy Merlin stores in Rome Fiumicino and the Leroy Merlin logistics center by taking advantage of the management optimization and digitization of flows made possible by Regusto. More than 10 tons of products were recovered and transited through the platform, generating positive social and environmental impact.
The partnership of the two realities was presented at the Chamber of Deputies, during the press conference several personalities active in the whole project intervened: Marco Raspati, CEO of Recuperiamo Srl to which Regusto belongs, Mauro Carchidio, Real Estate and Sustainable Development Director of Leroy Merlin Italy, Mauro Giardini, President of the Social Cooperative C.E.A.S., Gabriele Bellocchi, Innovation Manager Red Cross Italy and theHonorable Maria Chiara Gadda. The Honorable participated in this important event because the collaboration between the two realities marked a fundamental step in the 166/2016 law, defined as “anti-waste,” thanks to the donation and redistribution of surplus products for solidarity purposes and waste reduction, even in the non-food sphere.
Leroy Merlin Italia, through Regusto, has the possibility to upload on the platform, in complete autonomy, all the product stocks that can be donated and booked by all the nonprofit organizations on the Italian territory and not only by the associations registered on the platform that are located near the store that provides the surpluses.
Regusto is a platform based on blockchain technology that can track every donation completed within it, also makes useful documents available to members such as: reports and statistics and environmental impact indices, such as CO₂ emissions, water waste and land consumption that are avoided by donating. Thanks to the donations made since the beginning of the collaboration between Regusto and Leroy Merlin Italy to June 2021, more than 20 thousand kg of CO₂ and 116 thousand m₃ of water have been saved; 55% of the total donations are household products, while the remaining 44% are building and furniture materials.
Leroy Merlin Italia embarked on the path of sustainability and support for nonprofit entities back in 2016 when it established the Fai da Noi Empori, places for sharing materials and tools from surplus and unsold items made available, through the loan formula, to people and families in distress. Thanks to the initiative carried out with Regusto from this year, the 35 empori that already collaborated with Leroy Merlin Italy will be able to join the platform, managing their reservations in a very intuitive way and getting in touch with different companies dedicated to food donations to meet all the needs of economically fragile people.
Law 166/2016, to date, has made it possible to prevent the waste of thousands of tons of food and medicines, but this new collaboration, in the words of the Honorable, “already makes it possible to recover many other non-food products that are surplus in the commercial supply chain and at the same time can meet the needs of citizens in need.”
Regusto constantly strives to find concrete solutions to real problems,
always pursuing goals related to sustainability and aimed at supporting the most fragile people.
