This summer, Humana Italia inaugurated the opening of its fifth store in Milan. It is a store that allows the responsible purchase of used clothing, through which the organization supports various initiatives and social projects to defend the environment in Italy and around the world. This last aspect integrates the broader one of the circular economy and its implementation, which seems to be finding more and more space in the Italian productive fabric. This is what the 6th report on the circular economy in Italy states, which however recalls that various factors still tend to slow down its adoption by many companies.
Humana Italia in brief
Humana Italy is a humanitarian organization that arrived in Italy in 1998, which promotes social sustainability through activities focused on solidarity and sustainable development. It is part of the international Humana People to People network, whose origins date back to Denmark in the 1970s.
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Humana finance e carries out projects in the South of the world and contributes to environmental protection through the collection, sale and donation of used clothing. In Italy, it also employs three hundred people of twenty-nine different nationalities, organizes Italian courses for foreigners and social inclusion initiatives. Humana is an example of how it is possible to achieve social goals by investing in sustainable development.
Environmental sustainability and solidarity at the heart of Humana
The concept of circular economy refers to a set of actions that can be adopted in production processes. In particular, the actions that best represent it, according to 87.4% of Italian entrepreneurs, are the reuse and repairability of goods. To which must be added the reduction of waste production and recycling. These data are recorded in the 6th report on the circular economy in Italy published in May this year by the Foundation for Sustainable Development. The same report highlights that 65% of Italian companies declare that they have implemented at least one of the processes attributable to the circular economy. An increase compared to two years ago and which seems to testify to an awareness that is increasingly anchored in the country's productive fabric.
A sensitivity that is very present at Humana, whose main activity, through which it finances its initiatives, is precisely that aimed at recovery of used clothing that is no longer wornin order to protect the environment. Through approximately 5,000 containers distributed in 1,200 municipalities, it encourages citizens to virtuously dispose of old or worn clothing. Indeed, Humana gives a second life to these, thanks to their reuse and recycling, thus generating environmental and social benefits.
Circularity between sustainability and solidarity
What is most striking about this reality is the ability to have created a perfect circularity between sustainability (environmental and economic) and solidarity. Once the used clothes are refurbished, they are marketed in the Humana Vintage and Humana People stores present in almost all the main Italian cities.
But the most interesting aspect is that the proceeds from sales are then used for international cooperation projects. As its website shows, the humanitarian organization is currently carrying out projects in Brazil, in various countries in Central and South Africa, in India, Laos and China. Not to mention the initiatives it is carrying out here in Italy, where in addition to promoting Italian courses and encouraging integration paths, it employs people of different nationalities.
A proposal for the future
The Humana case not only represents an interesting case to study, but could constitute a model for the future. There circularity between solidarity and sustainability that he lived constitutes the key factor in looking at the future with human eyes. Yet, as often happens, we do not hear about models like the one represented by Humana.
An aspect that gives us the opportunity to highlight the importance of doing constructive journalism. The latter, rather than describing a reality that does not exist, focuses on finding facts and information that are too often ignored by the world of information. In this way, the damage you suffer is twofold: not only do you not know the reality that revolves around you, but above all you end up convincing yourself that only the generally negative news that you read or listen to is the ultimate truth of a phenomenon. However, it is more appropriate to change your tone and turn resolutely to an alternative way of doing journalism.
