December 31st has come and gone: it’s when we reflect on whether our ideals coincided with our actions over the past year. Really though, there’s little difference between personal reflection, entrusted to a blank diary page for example, and the reflections of a business. It is usually a time for everyone to make a list of their so-called good deeds.
Should good deeds be listed?
For Il Bisonte, the last items on this list are donations to charity events, Christmas markets and auctions in Florence and Milan, with big fashion names supplying products, and the proceeds going to various causes. In our case these are: the ANT Foundation and the Tuscan Cancer Foundation – which promote prevention and provide home care for cancer patients; the Sorriso nel Mondo (Smile in the World) project and Amnesty International – which both operate on a global scale and are respectively committed to treating specific pathologies and craniofacial malformations, and to protecting human rights in conflict zones. But Il Bisonte also participated in the annual Ment’or BKB Foundation auction in San Diego which focuses on a completely different aspect of sustainability, that of culinary excellence.
ANT Foundation
Tuscan Cancer Foundation
Sorriso nel Mondo project
Amnesty International
Ment’or BKB Foundation.
Even if such a list demonstrates activism in the field of commercial sustainability (by recirculating our high-quality artisanal products on the market), it is still somewhat risky. The risk is looking like a Tabula gratulatoria, or rather a ‘page of compliments’, where a publication features accolades from friends honoring the recipient. The risk is to put the donor company at center stage, and to reap praise from those who received the help.
Fashion should thank Sustainability: not vice versa.
Il Bisonte Journal wants to uphold a different idea. May these sustainable gestures serve to reverse the flow of gratitude: with Fashion thanking Sustainability. From Art to Nature. The goal for 2022, the very same goal the brand has had these past fifty-one years, is that Fashion and Sustainability no longer have to thank each other, rather that their goals are one and the same. In a certain sense, this is what we wish for all our readers.