ROME – “Every drop counts. A sea of small actions to give strength to the Planet” is the new 2024 campaign of the Green Week of Ambiente Mare Italia created with the contribution of Anas (Società del Polo Infrastrutture of the FS Italiane Group). It will take place from 10 to 22 April coinciding with the National Sea Day (11 April) and World Earth Day (22 April): it will celebrate Nature and the commitment to respecting the environment, biodiversity and the territory.
The Green Week, sponsored by the MASE (Ministry of the Environment and Energy Safety), by the European Commission, by the Coast Guard, by the Naval League and by the FIV (Italian Sailing Federation), and this year carried out in collaboration with Anas, will have as testimonial is maestro Beppe Vessicchio, who has always been committed to protecting the environment and a friend of AMI. It is an event that starts from the bottom, a container of local and national initiatives, all aimed at the growth of a culture of personal and collective commitment in favor of the protection of the territory. Last year the initiatives carried out by Ambiente Mare Italia as part of Green Week reached three million Italians with 65 thousand citizens involved with actions on the field. The drop is the action, even a small one, that each of us can do in defense of the Planet.
“In 2023 our Environment Week actively involved hundreds of schools and thousands of citizens in concrete actions in favor of our Planet – declares Alessandro Botti, National President of Ambiente Mare Italia – AMI ETS. “Green Week is increasingly a national celebration of the environment and the participation of people that we are recording in recent days is proof of this. The conspicuous participation of civil society in the 2024 edition of Green Week once again attests to the strong desire of Italians to roll up their sleeves and take concrete actions in favor of the protection of our beautiful Italy. Thanks also go to all the local associations that are collaborating with us and to FIDAPA BPW Italy which this year too celebrates the environment with AMI”.
“Anas has chosen to embrace the Ambiente Mare Italia Green Week as it believes in the importance of growing the culture of sustainability and individual and collective civic commitment – declared the President of Anas, Edoardo Valente -. For years we have undertaken a series of energy efficiency initiatives, in order to contain consumption and carry out our work with maximum respect for the environment. Thanks to numerous initiatives, Anas will anticipate the decarbonisation process envisaged by the EU for 2050 by 10 years”.
The commitment of Ambiente Mare Italia along the coasts and seabeds
The green week will be an opportunity to raise awareness of the commitment of the individual and turn the spotlight on erroneous or illegitimate behavior and the phenomenon of abandonment of plastic and waste. In 2023 Ambiente Mare Italia collected 53 tons of waste in our seas, along the coasts of our country and in city parks, a figure that demonstrates the serious risk to marine flora and fauna. In Green Week 2023 alone, AMI monitored 1000 km of coasts, verifying the presence of pollutants washed up on a surface of 240 thousand square metres, monitored over 120 thousand square meters of seabed, equal to 18 football fields, removed approximately 250 quintals of waste. In this action he was able to detect how 72% of the waste is made up of plastic material, 10% of cardboard and paper, 6% of glass, 5% of building material, 3% of aluminium, 3% of wood and 1% from rubber.
Anas: sustainable initiatives
Anas' ever-growing commitment to sustainability has also focused on a series of energy efficiency initiatives. In 2017, the Green Light Project was launched on an experimental basis with the aim of replacing the obsolete lighting fixtures in the tunnels with new, more efficient LED luminaires. The operation allowed electricity savings equal to 40% of consumption and the reduction of emissions into the atmosphere by approximately 5,000 tons of CO2 per year. The Green Light 2.0 Plan will continue with the aim of reaching 18,500 tonnes of CO2 less per year by 2028.
Anas uses energy produced almost exclusively from renewable source plants, equal to approximately 85% of total consumption. The Company has also started construction sites for the construction of photovoltaic systems to produce energy autonomously, located mainly in the Central-Southern regions, for a total financing of approximately 7.6 million euros. The systems will be installed during 2024. To encourage the circulation of vehicles with low environmental impact, Anas has also promoted a project that will lead to the installation of columns for fast charging of electric cars along our motorway network: there are currently 40 charging stations in 12 service areas.
Also on this topic is the initiative, in the pilot phase, “Anas Green Road – Boost to electrification”: it provides a network of charging services distributed on sites identified along the routes with the greatest traffic and those involved in the next Olympic Games and Paralympics of Milan-Cortina 2026. The drop is the action, even small, that each of us will do during Green Week to safeguard and protect the roads, the coasts and our seas. Every single drop represents our civic, concrete and daily commitment to respecting the territory. Each of us can do our part to defend and safeguard our habitats, both on the road and at home.
