Francesco Farinetti, the eldest of Oscar Farinetti’s three children has recently followed in his father’s step and taken the mantle of delegate for the sustainability-oriented italian supermarket Green Pea. With experience from his family owned chain mall Eataly where he had been the CEO until 2019, Farinetti boasts an impressive trail of experience in the food retail industry. A graduate of the University of Turin, Farinetti has been dedicating himself to developing and popularising a sustainable shopping experience, helping his father conceive Green Pea in a manner that reflect the Farinettis’ enterprise and courage to innovate. Green Pea is a five-storey building powered by renewable energy that invites the discovery and economic contribution of environmentally sustainable products. The project is the culmination of the Farinettis’ efforts to bring about accessible sustainability in the food industry and beyond.
Inspired by a walk in New York’s City West Village where the family was struck by fashion stores’ transition to clean and fair product offerings, Farinetti and his father decided to take their sustainable ways out of the confines of Eataly to a bigger context. What the Italian businessman is truly interested in is a new way to do commerce, where buying ecological and environmentally friendly products are a status symbol to be proud of.
In fact, Farinetti has placed at the heart of his endeavours an emphasis on Nature. In a 2021 conversation with designwanted, he mentions wanting to create spaces where consumer choices lead allow them to regain the lost balance with nature. His goal for the future is simply-stated but deep in impact: “to bring ‘green’ quality to the widest possible audience.” With the latest project bringing 100 partners working together under the same roof with one mission, selling sustainable products, Farinetti brings himself, and all of us, closer to his green future.
His vision was last year recognized by the prestigious Canadian magazine Azure magazine. Selected by both professional architects and ordinary folks, the AZ Awards picked the Green Pea project as winner for the environmental leadership category, hailing the mall as a step forward in democratizing sustainability.
In response to the award, Francesco Farinetti said: “Green Pea was born with the idea of retail education. It’s not just about selling, but about offering content and values along with the products. We, with our family and our investors, have always tried to create physical places of sale, where the purchase becomes an experience, accompanied by scents, voices and stories”.
A courageous message at a time when shopping has moved online for many Italians and Turinese and when investing in physical spaces has been seen as less important in the digital era. We can’t wait to see Francesco Farinetti’s next move to popularize sustainable shopping!