For FITT, safeguarding the planet means reducing its environmental impact and fully offsetting CO2 emissions – a priority in line with its Vision. The FITT’s strategy towards carbon neutrality is based on four actions: measure, know, reduce and offset.
Measurement: Through the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), FITT identifies, measures and reports the CO2 emissions of its products throughout their life cycles.
This empirical tool makes it possible to map the environmental impacts of products, from the sourcing of their raw materials to their disposal.
Awareness: Thanks to the measurement of CO2 emissions, FITT gains awareness of its operations and the effects generated on the Planet and on people’s lives, and communicates them transparently to all stakeholders.
Reduction: For FITT, limiting CO2 emissions is a concrete objective that is pursued on several fronts: the research into new materials, the improvement of the efficiency of production lines, the use of energy from renewable sources, the improvement of logistic activities and the reduction of the space required by our packages.
FITT’s innovation capabilities have brought to the development of FITT Force, the hose that throughout its whole life cycle produces 43% less CO2 emissions than a conventional PVC hose from FITT.
Compensation: Having reduced the environmental impact of FITT Force by 43%, FITT offsets the remaining CO2 emissions by purchasing carbon credits from the Water is Life project.
FITT Force is a lightweight, compact and extremely durable garden hose for intensive use in large vegetable and ornamental gardens, capable of withstanding abrasive surfaces with high risk of punctures.
FITT Force is now also the world’s first carbon neutral watering product.
What does it mean to be carbon neutral?
It means removing from the atmosphere the same amount of CO2 that is produced during the whole life cycle of the product, in order to achieve the zero emission objective.
Scientific mapping of the impact of FITT Force
FITT Force has undergone a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), the empirical tool that measures impact throughout the entire life cycle of a product, from the extraction of the raw materials to disposal.
Each FITT Force carbon neutral offsets 8 kg of CO2 and brings 10 litres of drinking water to Madagascar.
FITT has chosen to offset all CO2 emissions (2,541 tonnes) generated by the life cycle of the entire FITT Force range by purchasing Gold Standard certified carbon credits generated by the Water is Life project
The mission of Water is Life is to take safe, clean and drinking water to families living in the village of Betsingilo, one of the poorest areas in the whole of Madagascar.
Even today, in some areas of Madagascar 80% of the population has no direct access to drinking water and is forced to make long daily journeys to reach water sources in semi-desert areas.
FITT designs and manufactures pipes and hoses for transporting fluids, the main one being water. It therefore chose to support the Water is Life project, in order to ensure access to such a vital resource also in areas where it is not easily available.
- SANITARY ASPECT - Bringing clean water to the village means giving its inhabitants safe water, reducing the risk of infectious diseases such as diarrhoea, intestinal infections and parasitosis. Water pollution is, in fact, the leading cause of infant mortality in Africa.
- ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECT - To make water drinkable, villagers burns any materials at their disposal (tyres, plastics, woods, etc.). Bringing drinking water to the village means avoiding additional CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.
- SOCIAL ASPECT - Children and women are forced to make long daily journeys to collect drinking water and take it back to their villages. Bringing clean water to their villages means that children can go to the school and their mothers can actively support their families .
