Enel, Edileco, Caviro, Ecoplasteam, Waste to Methane are the five winning companies of the VIII edition of the Premio Impresa Ambiente. This is the highest Italian recognition for private and public companies that have distinguished themselves in a perspective of Sustainable Development, Environmental Respect and Social Responsibility. Together with them also Francesco Gasperi of Habitech - Trentino Technological District who won the special Young Entrepreneur Award.
Furthermore, the five winning companies of this edition of the award, held in the year of the Covid-19, together with CAP Holding Spa deemed worthy by the Jury, will compete for the prestigious European Business Awards for the Environment (EBAE) 2022-2023 of the European Commission (DG Environment).
The jury selected the winners among 125 applications arrived from 17 regions of Italy and awarded the prize according to the four categories: Best Management, Best Product, Best Process/Technology, Best International Cooperation, plus a "Special Young Entrepreneur Award", reserved for under 40 business owners or managers (already competing for one of four categories).
For the category "Better international cooperation” the award went to Enel SpA of Rome for the ENEL-LITER OF LIGHT Partnership project through which, making use of local partners and associations, ENEL carried out workshops aimed at the construction and maintenance of small solar generation units that use plastic bottles and other recycled materials, realizing a sustainability initiative both for the use of renewable sources and – with a view to the circular economy – for the reuse of materials that would otherwise have become waste.
All projects Construction – cooperative society of environmentally compatible construction and renovation of Nus (AO), the prize was awarded for the category "Best Management” (micro and small enterprises) thanks to the project “Edileco: designing, inhabiting, experiencing the territory”. For the medium and large companies item in the same category, the award went to Caviro Sca of Faenza (RA) for the project "From the vine to advanced biocarburation, with Caviro it is possible".
Instead, the winner for the category "Best Product” is the Milanese company Ecoplastem Spa which has responded to the problem of the growing amount of packaging waste, in particular those made up of polylaminate materials, by developing a new product which is obtained using the aluminum waste and the plastic it contains. Still in the category, the Jury deemed the Earthfront Srl, a company from Rome that has developed a technology that allows the recovery and treatment of macroplastics and microplastics, floating and suspended, transported by watercourses.
Waste to Methane Srl company from Rende (CS) was awarded the prize for the category "Best Process – Technology” with the Superdry Italian Management System – SIMS project, a technology for anaerobic biodigestion plants which allows the treatment of the organic fraction of the differentiated collection of municipal waste (FORSU) and the subsequent production of biomethane to be used for automotive purposes, and of composted soil improver top quality. For the same category, the Jury also deemed worthy of mention the CAP Holding Spa, a public company that manages the integrated water service in the provinces of Milan, Monza and Brianza, Pavia, Varese, Como.
Finally, the "Special Young Entrepreneur Award” has been assigned to Francesco Gasperi (Trentino Sca rl Technological District) of Trento (TN) for the Habitech project - sustainability and innovation in the Energy Environment District, in which he stood out for his contribution to green construction and global sustainability in design, engineering and development of projects in the field of sustainable construction, the core business of Habitech's activities
The Award ceremony, promoted in Italy by the Chamber of Commerce of Venice Rovigo, with the collaboration of Unioncamere and the patronage of the Ministry of the Environment and the protection of the territory and the sea, was held on Friday 19 February live from Venice with the home-based businesses.
"It is truly an honor for the Organization to have been able to renew the Award, six years after the last edition, in such a delicate and difficult moment for the business system - he declared Massimo Zanon, president of the Venice Rovigo Chamber of Commerce – The awarded projects give us an important cross-section of the Italian entrepreneurial fabric that believes optimistically in the country's economic future. These are projects that tell of a different, sustainable Italy, attentive to the environment and society. Projects created by aware companies that have understood how a better future can be built only through sustainable and intelligent innovation”.
“Environmental sustainability is a great new challenge that affects both the old and the new generations – underlined the president of Unioncamere, Carlo Sangalli -. Sustainability for a company means obtaining new advantages: increasing efficiency, reducing costs, using the resources available in a more rational way”.
