Giro d'Italia Ride Green Banca Mediolanum

Banca Mediolanum is the title sponsor of the Corsa Rosa’s green project in its sixth edition, together with BiciScuola, Giro-E and Regala un Albero.

The Giro d’Italia is the only stage race of worldwide importance to have sustainability at its heart. For the sixth year in a row, it will support the RIDE GREEN project. The initiative promotes the recycling, monitoring and tracing of all waste produced by the race in order to protect the areas that the Corsa Rosa crosses.

In 2020, despite the difficulties caused by the Covid-19 emergency, the Giro d’Italia managed to collect over 45,000 kg of race-related waste, 89% of which was recycled. This was a significant result, in line with what has been achieved in the past few editions of the race, and one that places the Corsa Rosa among the most sustainable events worldwide.

This wouldn’t be possible without the cooperation and active participation of all stage cities and municipalities involved in the Giro. Stage Committees facilitate the Giro’s collaboration with companies and local consortia in order to recruit volunteers from all over Italy that will help promote the RIDE GREEN initiative during the event, as well as manage waste collection and recycling.

Among RIDE GREEN’s top objectives are waste sorting, recycling, upcycling, performance measurement and raising public awareness around the impact waste has on the environment.

But RIDE GREEN is not only about waste collection and recycling. It’s an initiative that grows year by year, through the promotion of sister projects and collaboration with communities.

The last two editions of RIDE GREEN have seen a collaboration with the BiciScuola project – a 20-year-old educational program that brings younger generations closer to the world of cycling and the Giro d’Italia, by teaching them all the positive values that come with the sport. The project also fosters discussion on ever-urgent themes like sustainable mobility and environmental protection.

This year’s Corsa Rosa will also promote experiences like Giro-E, an e-bike stage event, now in its fourth edition, that brings amateur cyclists onto the Giro’s roads to enable them to experience the pro-cycling atmosphere. The mobile initiative promotes a new way for people to get around, encouraging the switch to sustainable mobility. The Giro-E is indeed a project that truly shares the core values of RIDE GREEN.

A new initiative that’s part of the Giro’s green journey is “Regala un Albero” (gift a tree). The project has been conceived this very year together with Banca Mediolanum, Title sponsor of RIDE GREEN 2021 – and already the sponsor of the Maglia Azzurra at the Giro d’Italia – who have always focused on economic, social and behavioural initiatives that have people’s welfare and wellbeing as their core objectives.

“Regala un Albero” aims to compensate for CO2 emissions produced by the Corsa Rosa in 2021 by planting 1,600 trees across 300 hectares of land, in the Sila National Park. Located in the Calabria region (South of Italy), the Sila is one of the biggest green areas in Europe. In 2014, UNESCO listed it as the tenth MaB (Man and the Biosphere) Biosphere in Italy, for its impressive biodiversity heritage, which is certainly worth protecting.

Banca Mediolanum will donate a tree for each Giro d’Italia rider (176 trees), plus 21 trees for every Maglia Azzurra awarded, and 1,000 trees for the overall winner of the Giro d’Italia.