The Giro d’Italia of Sustainability

Every year the Giro d’Italia plans a different route, winding through the wonders of the Bel Paese, and for some time now Enel has been partnering this extraordinary sporting event. This year, Enel Green Power – once again an Official Partner – travels up the boot of Italy from south to north, from Sicily to the Veneto region, alongside the peloton of cyclists. This partnership also offers us an opportunity to present some of the initiatives that we’ve launched across Italy to promote environmental and social sustainability thanks to sustainable construction and plant models that we implement wherever we operate. Just as the stages of the Giro d’Italia pass through extremely varied natural scenery, from the Mediterranean to the Alps, the fire of Mount Etna to the spectacular arrival at the Arena in Verona, so too do the ‘stages’ of our own ‘Giro d’Italia’ encounter a diverse range of geographical and sustainability scenarios, with a constant focus on local communities, from supporting ill children to protecting the land, from quality education to energy-efficient artistic lighting. Solar panels at accommodations for child cancer patients and their families The first Italian stages of the Giro d’Italia, following the prologue in Hungary, tackled the roads of eastern Sicily. So we begin our ‘Giro’ in Catania, where we’ve taken part in a project of great importance developed by LAD Onlus, a non-profit association involved in pediatric oncology that supports families through the difficult experience of diagnosis and treatment. LAD Onlus is constructing a large modern building immersed in a park in the metropolitan area of Catania to enable children and their parents to face their illness and treatments in a comfortable and healthy environment equipped with facilities for art therapy workshops. We’ve donated more than 200 photovoltaic panels, each with a capacity of 345 W, that are currently being installed on the roof of the structure, which has been given the name WonderLAD. The PV panels will not only reduce the energy costs of the building, it will also cut emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The panels are produced by 3SUN, EGP’s photovoltaic module factory which, thanks to a substantial financial grant from the European Union, is set to become the largest such facility in Europe. This development promises to reduce imports of PV modules and also, at the same time, consolidate the hugely important role of the innovation technology hub in Catania, which already attracts scientific talents from central and northern Europe and boosts local employment as well. Plants, roads and charging stations Our second ‘stage’ is in Castelmauro, in Molise, a pivotal region connecting southern and central Italy. Here we’re building a wind farm that will satisfy the electricity needs of around 30,000 households. As is the case at all of our construction sites, here too we are committed to supporting our activities with initiatives to create shared value. One particular aspect we’re focusing on, which benefits both our work and the local area, concerns the use of local land. By treating it with lime, an environmentally friendly material, we’re making the land suitable for our construction sites but also for the construction of roads. We’re also experimenting with an innovative technique to plant a mix of deep-rooted vegetation capable of reducing soil erosion and at the same time increasing the absorption of carbon dioxide. Other initiatives concern the municipality of Castelmauro, where we have donated a total of 250 kW of photovoltaic panels to be installed on the roofs of public buildings. We’re also renovating the public lighting, replacing lighting units with high-efficiency substitutes – for example, in the municipal playground, making it safer and more accessible for the local community. Moreover, we’ve restored a municipal road that was previously unusable and we’ll install an EV charging station in all of the municipalities affected by the works. Finally, here too we wanted to give a boost to local employment by insisting on the involvement of qualified local subcontractors, encouraging the creation of jobs and boosting local income. When a power plant is a monument worth appreciating The decisive stages of the Giro d’Italia are undoubtedly those in the Alps, where many of our hydroelectric plants are located. One of the most significant is the Crego plant in Piedmont, which today is considered a historical and architectural monument and is still active in the production of clean electricity. Designed by the architect Piero Portaluppi at the beginning of the 1900s, it is a remarkable example of the Art Deco style with its geometrical precision, interplay of volumes and interesting pictorial decorations, all set against the magical backdrop of the Alpine peaks. To showcase the beauty of the plant, we’ve installed a new artistic lighting system that emphasizes the stylistic features of individual elements: the façades are bathed in neutral light to avoid unwanted shadows, while a warm light envelops the moldings at the top of the structure; we’ve chosen a vibrant red-toned light for the turbines and blue – a color traditionally associated with hydroelectric energy – for the upper windows. This attention to our historical and artistic heritage is complemented by a similar focus on efficiency: the entire system is composed of 123 latest-generation LED lighting units, which reduce consumption and offer significantly increased durability, while also minimizing the need for maintenance. A centralized digital control system will enable the precise and targeted management of switching the lights on and off. The new lighting system will be followed by the installation of charging infrastructure for electric bicycles in order to help promote sustainable tourism in the area. Cultivating responsible citizens Just as the cycling competition reaches its final finish line in Veneto, we too would like to conclude our Giro d’Italia of Sustainability in Venice – or to be more precise, in Mestre, the large residential center on the shores of the celebrated Venice lagoon. It’s here that we’ve launched the “È viva la scuola Labs” project in partnership with Helpcode, a non-profit organization set up to create innovative solutions in teaching, training and children’s education. At the Viale San Marco School in Mestre, in 2021 we launched three multidisciplinary workshop courses designed to supplement the traditional school curriculum and help the young participants grow into active, responsible citizens aware of the world around them. The first workshop is an introduction to computer programming and the use of some software applications: the goal is to enable children to move beyond the passive use of digital devices and take advantage of this technology to express their own creativity. Information Technology is also being harnessed to benefit civic education in the second workshop, which is dedicated to human rights with particular reference to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: in this case too the teaching takes place in an innovative way, with hands-on learning and simulations. Finally, to cultivate citizens who are sensitive to environmental issues, the third workshop focuses on the impacts of plastic on natural ecosystems and in particular, on marine ecology. This educational experience encourages the children to look for creative solutions: a dual experiment in sustainability in which quality learning is combined with care for the environment. The success of the project in Mestre has convinced us to export the pilot model to other Italian schools as well. The final stage of this wonderful Giro d’Italia, therefore, thus becomes the first step on a new journey of sustainability.

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The Giro d’Italia of Sustainability

The Giro d’Italia of Sustainability

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