The five winning companies of this edition of the award, held in the year of Covid-19, together with CAP Holding Spa considered deserving by the Jury, will compete for the prestigious
European Business Awards for the Environment (EBAE) 2022-2023 of the European Commission (DG Environment).
The ceremony of the Award, promoted in Italy by the Chamber of Commerce of Venice Rovigo, with the collaboration of Unioncamere and the patronage of the Ministry of
Environment and the protection of land and sea, was held today live from Venice with the companies connected from home. To open the event the greetings of Massimo Zanon,
president of the CCIAA of Venice Rovigo, Carlo Sangalli, president of Unioncamere, Massimo Gaudina, representative and spokesman of the European Commission in Milan, and the
interventions of Marco Frey, president of the jury of the Premio Impresa Ambiente and professor at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa and Claudia Fusco, Head of Unit European
Commission – Directorate General Environment, who focused on the theme of the Green Deal.
It is truly an honor for the Authority to have been able to renew the Award, after six years since the last edition, in such a delicate and difficult moment for the business system – says
Massimo Zanon, president of CCIAA of Venice Rovigo -. The award-winning projects give us back an important cross-section of the Italian entrepreneurial fabric that believes
optimistically in the economic future of the country. These are projects that tell a different Italy, sustainable, attentive to the environment and society. Projects carried out by conscious
companies that have understood that only through sustainable and intelligent innovation it is possible to build a better future.
Environmental sustainability is a great new challenge that affects both the old and the new generations – underlines the president of Unioncamere, Carlo Sangalli –
Sustainability for a company means obtaining new advantages: increasing efficiency, reducing costs, and using available resources in a more rational way. For the Chambers of Commerce,
environment and sustainability are themes to which we have been committed for some time, with innovative environmental services to support businesses aimed at accelerating the dual transition
of green and digital.
The jury selected the winners from 125 applications received from 17 regions of Italy and awarded the prize according to four categories: 1) Best Management, 2) Best Product, 3)
Best Process/Technology, 4) Best International Cooperation, plus a “Special Young Entrepreneur Award”, reserved for business owners or managers under 40 (already competing for one of the four
categories).
Edileco, a cooperative company that works in the field of ecocompatible construction and restructuring in Nus (AO), was awarded the prize in the “Best Management” category
(micro and small businesses) thanks to the Edileco project: designing, living, experiencing the territory. Founded in 2005 by a group of young operators in the construction
industry, Edileco has always worked to promote a new model of building, based on green building and the creation of environmentally friendly homes, starting with the qualification of human
capital, which has been adequately trained and has acquired all the skills necessary to work in a close-knit team motivated to pursue sustainability. The offer and realization of homes for
families characterized by ‘guaranteed zero-cost heating’ using only renewable energy testifies to the success of this commitment.
For the medium and large enterprises in the “Best Management” category, the prize went to Caviro S.c.a. of Faenza (RA) for the project From the vine to advanced
biofueling, with Caviro it is possible. With 29 members, 27 of which are wineries, the Romagna-based cooperative makes the most of the work of 12,400 wine-growing members in seven regions
of Italy and represents one of the most significant examples of an integrated supply chain in the wine sector and circular economy. Know-how and equipment allow Caviro to produce not only
quality wine in its own facilities, but also to transform all the by-products of winemaking, giving the “waste” the dignity of a resource that is regenerated and re-enters a production cycle.
For the “Best Product” category, the winner is Ecoplasteam S.p.A., a company from Milan, which with the EcoAllene® project has responded to the problem of the growing
quantity of packaging waste, in the specific case of those made up of polycoupled materials, by developing a new product which is obtained by using the waste aluminum and plastic contained in
them. The innovation lies in the production process of the treatment of these scraps, which no longer provides for the separation of the two or more components (plastic film + aluminium film),
which are instead kept together. EcoAllene®’s main characteristic is that it is infinitely recyclable, as well as being colorable and suitable for multiple uses.
Also in the category “Best Product“, the Jury considered worthy of mention Earthfront Srl, a company based in Rome, which developed the Adaptive Guardian Technology
project, a technology that allows the recovery and treatment of macroplastics and microplastics, floating and suspended, transported by waterways. The machine is designed to operate on any type
of watercourse regardless of depth, flow rate and size, without damaging the local fauna and flora; its operation is guaranteed by renewable energy sources (hydroelectric and solar).
Waste to Methane Srl company of Rende (CS) won the award for the category “Best Process – Technology” with the project Superdry Italian Management System – SIMS, a
technology for anaerobic biodigestion plants that allows the treatment of the organic fraction of the separate collection of municipal waste (F.O.R.S.U.) and the subsequent production of
biomethane for automotive use, and composted soil improver of the highest quality. The innovative technology, developed and already implemented, allows the introduction of pre-treated matrices
in a “dry” environment, without additives from process water and with a high density. The adoption of such a system allows the total elimination of the problem related to the treatment of
process water, as well as the total elimination of plastics from the process upstream and downstream in the treatment phase of digestate, with a consequent increase in biogas productivity.
For the same category “Best Process – Technology” the Jury has considered worthy of mention, moreover, the CAP Holding Spa, a public company based in Assago (MI) that manages the
integrated water service in the province of Milan, Monza and Brianza, Pavia, Varese, Como. The project that received the mention is that of the Bioplate – Core, a platform that applies
the principle of circularity -based on the reuse of matter-, and in a perspective of industrial symbiosis, as it makes use of existing structures, consisting of a waste-to-energy plant and a
purifier. Their transformation into a carbon-neutral bio-platform, with zero CO2 emissions of fossil origin, will allow the use of sewage sludge and the wet fraction of waste to produce
biomethane and eco-fertilizers. The Jury also considered the project worthy of being included among the Italian candidates for the next edition of the EBAE.
For the category “Best international cooperation” the prize went to Enel S.p.A. of Rome for the project Partnership ENEL-LITER OF LIGHT through which, making use of local
partners and associations, ENEL carried out workshops aimed at the construction and maintenance of small solar generation units using plastic bottles and other recycled materials, realizing an
initiative of sustainability both for the use of renewable sources, and – in a perspective of circular economy – for the reuse of materials that otherwise would have become waste. The
initiative, which took place in Peru, Chile, Argentina, Romania, South Africa, Brazil and Italy, saw the distribution of over 2,500 solar kits.
The “Young Entrepreneur Special Prize” was awarded to Francesco Gasperi (Distretto Tecnologico Trentino S.c.a r.l.) of Trento (TN) for the Habitech project – sustainability and
innovation in the Distretto Energia Ambiente, in which he distinguished himself for his contribution to green building and sustainability at a global level in the design, engineering and
development of projects in the field of sustainable building, the core business of Habitech’s activities. Always attentive to issues of innovation and development, and thanks to roles of
increasing responsibility, he has been able to manage the path of innovation and sustainability of the company since its inception, working in first person to enhance the sustainable aspects of
Habitech’s work, pursuing the objectives of quality and efficiency that have always characterized this company.
