Enhancing marine protected areas through waste recovery During the Re-think event held in Naples in July, Carmine Esposito, Head of Mare Vivo Campania region, presented Mare Vivo, an environmental association that has been working nationally and internationally for more than 40 years to protect the sea and the environment. It consists of its own scientific technical committee of University professors, researchers, and professionals who are experts in the various issues the association deals with. The association is divided into territorial delegations and divisions, such as the diving division, the marine protected areas division, the rivers division, and, most recently, the naval league division. The latter arose from a memorandum of understanding with the Italian Naval League as part of a project having as its object pollution, which aims to reduce marine pollution by microplastics. This battle has been carried on for some time now. All activities carried out by the association aim to increase the attention of public opinion and relevant institutions toward the sea. Among the activities carried out are environmental education, scientific research, sustainable development, training, information campaigns, and shoreline and seabed cleanup activities. In recent years, Esposito continued, environmental education programs have given much satisfaction. For example, the “Dolphin Guardians” project features children as protagonists. It aims to increase their awareness of the enormous environmental, landscape, and natural heritage that their territory possesses, as well as wanting to reverse the direction by trying to reduce the impact of pollution. At the end of the “Guardian Dolphins” course, the participating children will become true sentinels of the sea, able to carry out monitoring and reporting activities at the relevant maritime offices of the harbor master’s office. Numerous educational institutions throughout Italy have been reached with great satisfaction. Mare Vivo also, Esposito continued, schedules several educational visits with foundations...
Month: October 2022
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14 October 2022A2A Case study During the Re-think Circular Economy Forum event in Milan held last February, there were many speakers who brought their company’s conduct as a case study. In this case, Guglielmo Carra, Innovation Manager at A2A told us about how to manage waste to make it a resource. He started his speech by explaining that A2A is a life company that deals with the environment, water, energy, and all the necessary conditions for life. They take care of people’s well-being by providing them with those services to meet their daily needs. All this considers the principles of long-term sustainability. Looking at their investments they are planning a 10-year industrial plan with 18 billion euros in investment, of which about 60% will be focused on the energy transition, and 40% will be on Circular Economy (CE) projects and activities. In the company, they deal with different business sectors: from power generation to distribution and selling of energy, water, and gas, together with the waste collection as well. A2A business model is an integrated loop of services that allows maximizing the value of resources, such as energy, water, or materials, and for which, innovation, new technologies, and digitalization are all key enablers to accelerating the transition to a CE. On a yearly basis, the company serves about 4 million people, it collects and treats about 3.2 million tons of waste, and interestingly the recovery rate of waste as energy and materials is above 99.7%. This means that only 0.3% of the waste they manage goes to landfill, instead all the rest is processed in A2A plants with the end goal of creating a positive impact on the communities they operate in. To have a correct waste management system all the sorted waste goes into the selection plans which operate to create...
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7 October 2022Is a sustainable fashion industry possible? In the talk presented by Barbara Cimmino during the Re-think Naples event that took place last June, we could see how a company through constant efforts and collaborations with external partners can change its economic model from linear to circular. Barbara Cimmino, CSR Director of Yamamay, began her speech by starting precisely from the city of Naples, saying that it is a place that has proven time and again on different fronts and for all industries that it has been able to generate culture over the centuries, and, she says, it is precisely from a culture that we must start again. The change to a more sustainable reality must be carried forward together, by institutions and industry. The Yamamay project started in 2021, and a key theme for the company is biodiversity protection. The study begun last year on biodiversity had anticipated, at the time, the increasing attention to the issue: we do not have another Planet, and at this rate of growth it is not possible to preserve and protect the balance of biodiversity. Cimmino went on to emphasize how necessary it is for companies to change their approach and move from the linear economy system to the circular economy. The transition is possible through measurement and measuring means knowing the state of the problem. Yamamay’s goal is to unite the environmental and digital transition, and this is possible through knowledge. The company began its transition by starting with a focus on the sea, a natural element that covers 70 percent of the earth’s surface, which is also fundamental to the earth’s breathing cycle, can produce 50 percent of the globe’s oxygen and absorb 30 percent of the carbon dioxide produced. The speech continued by introducing the company with some figures: Yamamay ended...