Using the knowledge, know-how and tools of a large industrial group to help the government of a city better understand the needs of its citizens and satisfy them efficiently. In concrete terms: rewriting the urban mobility plan of a metropolitan area of two million people. It is the project created by Pirelli in Campinas, a Brazilian city, and presented in Milan at the CSR and Social Innovation Show. “A project – explains Lorenzo Cella, from the Sustainability and Risk Governance division of the Pirelli group – which took three years to develop. We have succeeded through the local community and the public authority in encouraging the use of public transport and active mobility such as bicycles”.
The project is part of the "Sustainable Mobility Project 2.0" promoted by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the association that brings together over 200 automotive multinationals from 30 countries. The Sustainable Mobility Project 2.0 involved as sample cities, in addition to Campinas, also Hamburg, Bangkok, Chengdu, Indore and Lisbon. Pirelli has contributed, in fact, with experimentation in the Brazilian city where one of its factories is located. "The biggest improvement we brought was in fact breaking the very strong and evident silos between the various departments - explained Cella - We brought a holistic vision of mobility that went beyond the specific transport infrastructure and came to embrace greater road safety and on the other hand also greater inclusiveness of the suburbs and more disadvantaged areas”. At the basis of some malfunctions in the transport system in the Brazilian city was therefore the fragmented view of individual problems. Vision outdated thanks to the approach and method proposed by Pirelli.
“For the first time we put the various departments around a common table, and brought evidence of the surveys carried out with the population - said the manager of Pirelli - We then brought them to discuss together on how to have an integrated view of the mobility that is declined in a development of bus lanes, an expansion of cycle paths, and a greater inclusion of people with disabilities especially in terms of improvement of floors or sidewalks”. That of Campinas and the other cities involved is only the first step, demanding and important, towards a future that wants and must involve municipalities more to improve the city's road system and make it more sustainable, in every sense. But the "Sustainable Mobility Project 2.0" does not stop there: the goal for 2020 is to get to involve many more cities than those involved up to now, from all over the world, increase dialogue with the related public administrations and increase the network of companies and institutions involved for the success of the project.
