By joining the 2019 international BikeUP festival dedicated to electric bikes – taking place this year in central Bergamo from 29 to 31 March –, Geogreen and RadiciGroup aim to promote a healthy lifestyle and, at the same time, to raise awareness of environmentally related issues, such as sustainable mobility, renewable energy and respect for the environment.
In conjunction with the event, the Group is offering its employees the chance to participate in an "e-bike experience": an excursion on an electric bicycle to discover Bergamo under the supervision of experienced guides – a rigorously zero-environmental-impact activity.
"We'd like to make our first steps, or better yet, our first pedal strokes, in the world of sustainable mobility," said Carlo Paganessi, corporate HR manager of RadiciGroup. "In this regard, it seemed appropriate to take advantage of the opportunity afforded by this event to promote the use of bicycles by our employees as a mean of transport for local travelling. (RadiciGroup has over a thousand workers just in the province of Bergamo.) Moreover, we want to emphasize the strong commitment of the Group to environmental protection through its many concrete actions."
Reducing the environmental impact of its industrial activities has always been at the core of Geogreen and RadiciGroup's strategy, as highlighted in the Group's annual Sustainability Report. Besides improving production processes, the Group is committed to bringing to market sustainable high-performance products in step with the latest trends and able to meet the demand of numerous application sectors. The automotive industry, for instance, is moving towards hybrid and all-electric vehicles. Thus RadiciGroup has already developed engineering polymers for this industrial segment, which growing at an annual rate of 3 to 4% and striving to meet the target of reducing CO2 emissions to 95 g/km. This objective can be achieved by lightening the vehicles, yet keeping their performance and safety standards unchanged, through the replacement of metal components by parts made of innovative polyamide materials, such as the ones produced by RadiciGroup.
The e-bike world is relatively new for Geogreen and RadiciGroup. "During the past few years," Mr. Paganessi continued, "as part of the Workplace Health Promotion (WHP) Project, which we joined in 2015, we have already promoted initiatives for our employees on road safety and sustainable mobility. Bike Up will help us become familiar with electric bikes and offer exciting insights and ideas for new projects for our companies to work on."
The e-bike experience will be shared by the employees of Geogreen, a Group partner of RadiciGroup for the supply of renewable source electric power. Recently, on the occasion of World Water Day, Geogreen organized an Open Doors event at its hydroelectric power plant in Campignano, in the province of Bergamo. Visitors had the opportunity to see how green energy is generated to power up nearby production facilities, RadiciGroup's, in particular, and how it contributes to local sustainable development.