Environmental and Social Sustainability at Mugello Circuit
By KiSS Mugelo
7th edition for KiSS Mugello, the sustainability programme of the Italian Motorcycle Grand Prix. The goal: raising spectators and operators awareness of the importance of sustainability issues in sport events, as in everyday life.
Scarperia e San Piero (FI), May 28th, 2019 – As is traditional since 2013, sustainability will be once again in "pole position" at the Italian Motorcycle Grand Prix, sixth round of the 2019 World Motorcycling Championship to be held at Mugello Circuit on May 31 and June 1-3. In fact, KISS Mugello-Keep It Shiny and Sustainable, the environmental and social sustainability programme of Mugello Circuit, will be running for the seventh year in a row. The programme aims to raise awareness of the importance of sustainable ways to behave within large sport events, also by showing numerous best practices in the environmental and social space that people can bring in their everyday life.
ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVESSince its first edition, KiSS Mugello focused on waste sorting in order to reduce the environmental impact of the event. The programme aims to provide fans and spectators - most of them are used to camping all the week-end long on the Tuscan hills surrounding the circuit - with the appropriate informations and tools, and to create the conditions for them to better collect and separate waste. That means: distribution of waste sortingguides to circuit operators; distribution of about 20,000 recycling bags kits to fans and spectators; recycling area in the paddock; cooking oil collection service provided free of charge for hospitalities in the paddock; more than 100 free drinking water fountains for spectators across the circuit. To that extent, four KiSS Mugello info-desks will be placed, both in the paddock and in the spectators area, each of which equipped with mini-recycling areas.
Further initiatives this year will regard: coffee waste collection will allow to cultivate good edible mushrooms at home; cigarette butts waste awareness campaign with distribution of portable hashtrays; glass recycling awareness campaign, carried out in collaboration with CoReVe (Italian National Consortium for the management, collection and treatment of glass); distribution of information leaflets about correct waste sorting also to food stands along located around the circuit; and in the paddock area the placement of a very special waste compactor, a "reverse vending machine" (in cooperation with Corepla - Italian National Consortium for the management, collection and treatment of plastic), whose aim is to encourage the "incentive recycling" of plastic bottles (PET).
A relaxing “green area” in the paddock area will be properly set up with some benches made by recycled plastic and steel in cooperation with Corepla and Ricrea (Italian National Consortium for the management, collection and treatment of steel) to demonstrate concretely the potential of circular economy.CiAl (Italian National Consortium for the management, collection and treatment of aluminum) will support an ad-hoc campaign and contest for the recycling of aluminum cans.Some “Green Riders” will walk inside the circuit inviting people to bring cans to the KiSS Mugello info desk placed at VR 46 Fan Club area and win some recycle aluminum items. Sustainable sourcing of paper printed materials has been ensure by the cooperation with Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®)Italia: waste sorting guidelines, information leaflets, office waste bins and communication materials are only printed on FSC® certified paper.SOCIAL INITIATIVESAlong with environmental initiatives, KiSS Mugello promotes social initiatives as well, where various non profit organizations and social enterprises are involved.As in the past, one of the most heartfelt initiatives (included in the official Grand Prix time schedule, on Thursday) is the solidarity Pit Walk dedicated to boys and girls with disabilities, coming from local non profits, that will have the chance to walk along the pit lane and visit the box of the racing Teams.
On Saturday and Sunday, a collection of food surplus will be carried out in collaboration with the hospitalities of the circuit and teams that will join the initiative. The initiative is organized together with Fondazione Banco Alimentare (non profit partner) and Cuki Cofresco (technical partner providing the "food boxes kit", in aluminum and fully recyclable) and aims to contribute to the fight against food waste (according to FAO estimates, food waste amounts to about 1.3 billion tons every year, roughly 1/3 of the global food production for human consumption).RECORD FIGURES FOR KISS MUGELLOIn 2013 KiSS Mugello set a precedent as the first programme of its kind in the world. More recently the programme was honoured to be included in the report "Playing Our Planet. How Sports Win from Being Sustainable" published by UEFA, WWF and GREEN SPORT ALLIANCE, an overview of the world's best practices with regard to environmental and social sustainability initiatives in the sport industry (downloadable from kissmugello.com/it/playing-for-our-planet).
Moreover, the Tuscan circuit in 2015 was the first one globally to obtain the recognition of “Achievement of Excellence”, the highest level of accreditation in the environmental sustainability programme launched by FIA (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile).In 2019 KiSS Mugello will seek once again to overcome the results of past editions. In 2018 waste sorted passed 50% (66,840 of waste were sorted and recovered, out of a total of 133,000 Kg of waste collected, with 150,000 spectators attending the Grand Prix along the week-end), thus confirming improvements over time (when KiSS Mugello started in 2013, waste sorting reached 20%).
The collection of food surplus in 2018 counted more than 2.000 meals equivalents (a meal equivalent corresponding to 0.5 Kg of food).