“The power of limits - The environmental challenge as a social innovation driver” was the leading theme of the press conference held by Novamont in Milan on September 10, 2015. During the event, Novamont’s CEO Catia Bastioli introduced the new corporate image of the company and of the Mater-Bi range of products, which led Novamont to become a global leader in the bioplastics and biomaterials industry. Bastioli also explained how the limit of environmental resources can turn out to stimulate the realisation of new ideas.

Since its earliest days, Novamont has always encouraged a new model of sustainable development, and has promoted the transition from a product-based to a system-based economy, from a dissipative to a conservative approach to resources, through the use of renewable sources for producing bioplastics for specific applications with a low environmental impact. The goal is to develop biomaterials by integrating chemicals and agriculture. Established in 1989 by Montedison as a research centre, Novamont has now become a group of companies including Matrica, Sincro and Mater Biopolymers.

In the same vein, Lorenzo Marini has designed the new logo, consisting of a blue-green ribbon which wraps around itself in an upward circular movement, representing the idea of a perpetual drive towards excellence in research, planet Earth and regeneration. A perfect synthesis of the systemic approach with which Novamont is revisiting the traditional production-consumption-disposal economic model from a different standpoint, that of circular economy and supply-chains, with undoubted advantages for the environment and for local areas.

Turned through 90°, the ribbon becomes the letter M, standing for Mater-Bi, the family of products developed through the integration of chemistry, the environment and agriculture. The result of over 25 years of research and innovation and of around 1,000 patents, Mater-Bi can provide solutions to specific environmental problems, that of organic waste for example, marking the present and the future of a truly sustainable development for both the environment and for society. Though different, the two symbols can transmute into each other, signifying the strength of the bond between the original development model that Novamont strives towards and the concreteness of demonstration, made possible by the case studies and the integrated supply chains pioneered by Mater-Bi over the years.

“Today we greet the world with a new corporate image, that reflects the DNA of our values, celebrates our evolution over the years into today’s Novamont, and demonstrates our desire to be promoters of change”, Catia Bastioli declared at the presentation of the new visual identity for Novamont and Mater-Bi.

“We are now no longer a single company. After significant investments, we have become a group of companies, a network of production and research sites, a sales network that stretches out across the globe and a major joint venture. We are now a group that has its roots firmly in the local areas but its head in the world. Our new corporate image confirms our drive towards continuous innovation, which has always been the driving force behind our development”.