Protecting and enhancing Italy's historical, artistic and landscape heritage, promoting excellence and making it sustainable at 360°: these are the objectives of FAI – Fondo per l'Ambiente Italiano, a non-profit foundation established in 1975. Since 2018, Edison has been working alongside FAI, through the Edison Next platform, to develop projects concerning the environmental sustainability of its historic and listed properties. Edison and FAI promote initiatives for the human and non-human communities that inhabit and cross protected historical properties.

The collaboration between the two concerns mainly the energy efficiency of structures. Italy's historical heritage is often very 'energy-intensive' and, in some cases, power costs account for 70% of an organisation's total budget. The first experiment resulting from this meeting is an important efficiency work for the Foundation's headquarters – the Cavallerizza in Milan – which has saved 25 tonnes of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere already in the first year. The cooperation between the two organisations then involved other FAI properties in Lombardy, Veneto and Piedmont: Villa Necchi Campiglio, Villa dei Vescovi, Masino Castle and Park and Villa and Collection Panza. The partnership took the form of a smart audit, i.e. a continuous and predictive monitoring and analysis service of energy consumption that identifies useful interventions for a more efficient use of resources with a lower environmental impact.

These make it possible to increase the value of the rooms and works on display and to reduce energy consumption by over 40% for the Cavallerizza building and 90% for Villa Panza, respectively avoiding the emission into the atmosphere of 1.8 tons of CO2 and 13.2 tons of CO2 per year. In addition, in order to encourage green mobility, recharging stations for electric cars were installed in the surrounding open spaces.

It is important for Edison to co-design activities and initiatives to make communities aware of the importance of protecting the environment, and as of this year, the energy operator is not only providing the FAI properties with energy services, but is also supporting them in projects to protect biodiversity. Fourteen properties, spread across the country, have been equipped with beehives, bug hotels, high meadows and nectar essences to encourage seasonal inflorescence and the valuable activity of various species of pollinating insects. Favourable habitats were created and flowering species rich in nectar and pollen were planted. In addition, swifts have been restored and calls and webcams installed in some properties, and a colony of badgers is being protected in the orangery of Palazzo and Giardini Moroni in Bergamo.

"For us, creating value for the territory in which we operate means adopting an approach geared towards stimulating shared solutions with the actors that inhabit it, which is why we make our expertise available by supporting cultural institutions in managing energy and their processes more efficiently. Our goal is to generate a positive environmental and social impact on the communities we serve and to contribute to the protection and enhancement of historical and artistic heritage. To achieve this, cultural convergence between those who deal with energy and those who deal with culture is fundamental: these are two worlds each characterised by its own specific idiom, but which today more than ever must open up to each other and start 'speaking a common language'," says Giovanni Brianza, CEO of Edison Next.