Can a piece of bread turn into a beer to share with friends? Can a tree branch broken by the wind amplify the music from our smartphones? It might sound impossible, but with a bit of creativity and the desire to give a second life to what we’ve always considered waste, anything is possible. This is the idea behind “Gifts for the Planet”, the Christmas box by Cortilia that celebrates this holiday season with a blend of creativity and sustainability.
For this Christmas, Cortilia aims to surprise us with products that feel almost magical, as they embody incredible transformations.
Let’s start with the backpacks from REDO, a company based in Trento that creates fashion accessories and design items using scrap fabrics and materials from other industries. Then there’s the smartphone amplifier made by VAIA, a company born in the aftermath of the 2018 Vaia storm in the Dolomites. Since then, VAIA has been committed not only to rebuilding storm-hit areas but also to repurposing wood from trees felled by the wind, giving it a new lease on life.
The “Gifts for the Planet” box also has space for skincare, a booming trend in recent years. Cortilia selected Naste Beauty, a brand that uses agro-industrial by-products in its creams and treatments. In this case, the box includes their apple-based cream, made through an upcycling process.
And what’s Christmas without something sweet and a toast to celebrate? Completing the Cortilia offering are Foreverland’s chocolate bars, which swap cocoa beans for Choruba—a new ingredient derived from carob—and Birra Ibrida, a beer made from unsold bread recovered from bakeries in Milan.
Cortilia’s ingenuity doesn’t stop at the box’s contents but extends to how it’s being presented. For the occasion—and in collaboration with Collater.al Studio—Cortilia enlisted the animator and plasticine artist Stefano Colferai. Through his signature clay creations, Colferai recreated in his studio the almost magical transformations behind the five products.
With “Gifts for the Planet”, Cortilia invites everyone to rediscover the potential of discarded materials, showing that change is not only necessary but can also inspire beauty, creativity, and wonder. A gift that rewrites the rules and shapes a brighter future for our planet.
