The Forest of San Gregorio. A heat island management experience to Spoleto

It was inaugurated today, Sunday, June 30, 2024 at at 10 a.m. in Piazza Garibaldi to Spoleto, the Bosco di San Gregorio, an experimental project of environmental sustainability that was born from the collaboration between the Municipal Administration and the Foundation Festival dei Due Mondi, from always attentive to the ESG issues of Agenda 2030, under the supervision of scientist Stefano Mancuso, full professor at the Department of Agricultural Science and Technology at the University of Florence. The project, carried out with the support of Bocci Vivai and the participation of Echo Labs by FERCAM & DACHSER as Sustainability Partner, envisages the installation in Piazza Garibaldi - in the space in front of the Cathedral of San Gregorio now designated to parking - of an Italian-style Garden, made with native plant individuals.

The project involves the encroachment of two parallel rows of 10-12 m high Cypress trees with the presence of box hedge, flanked from an internal area of 5 m high mulberry trees with canopy diameters from 4.5 -5 m. provided from Bocci Nurseries.

With the support of Pnat (Project Nature), an emerging think tank of designers and plant scientists founded from Stefano Mancuso, thermal imaging cameras will be installed to show the contribution of trees to heat island mitigation and the cooling effect in the plaza. On special displays it will be possible to visualize temperature changes in a scene, highlighting warmer or cooler areas through different shades of color.

The benches and planters placed in Piazza Garibaldi were made by reusing wood from materials from packaging to disposable from the logistics chain of DACHSER & FERCAM Italia, reworked in upcycling logic by the carpentry of Echo Labs, the group's social enterprise that employs asylum seekers and that also this year was awarded the "Welcome. Working for Refugee Integration" by UNHCR Italy, the UN Refugee Agency. For the duration of Festival dei Due Mondi the square will be animated by Echo Labs' carpentry workshops, in which adults and children can contribute to create new furniture for the square itself, guided by carpenter artisans in an experience of eco-design and responsible consumption.

The participation of the Foundation Festival dei Due Mondi in the realization of the Bosco di San Gregorio is one of the many initiatives that from four years the Festival dedicates to the themes of Environmental Sustainability with the aim of raising awareness and implementing actions consistent with the national strategy of adaptation to climate change, characterizing the city of Spoleto as a place of scientific attractiveness. Just yesterday Prof. Mancuso, after last year's highly applauded lectio magistralis, returned to Spoleto as part of the Festival's official program with another packed lecture on the state of the Planet and possible remedies to save it.

Says Paola Macchi, administrative and general organization director of the Festival, "I am very pleased that the partnership with Prof. Mancuso, a world-renowned scientist and defined by the New Yorker as one of the men who will change the world, and the sensitivity of the City Administration have made it possible to carry out such a significant project as the creation of an urban forest to combat heat islands. The project has a scientific value, thanks to the collection of a lot of data on the effect of the presence of plants on the microclimate, but also a goal of raising public awareness of the need to rethink the urban ecosystem and, finally, it allows the citizens of Spoleto and tourists to enjoy a place to meet and socialize, where there is now a parking lot. The Festival dei Due Mondi confirms itself as an Italian reference point for the debate on ESG issues and seeks each year to raise awareness that, as a community, we need to evolve toward a new model of behavior that solves the many challenges we face. A cultural institution as important as ours has a responsibility to bring to the attention of the public and all stakeholders these issues that are decisive for our future and that of the next generations. I hope that the experience of the Bosco di San Gregorio can be an inspiration for other cities and be replicated again and again."

Mayor Andrea Sisti commented, "Spoleto is historically characterized from an environmental and landscape richness of great value and value, so it has in itself a profound awareness of how indispensable and fundamental is the relationship between man, urban settlement and nature. The collaboration between the Foundation Festival dei Due Mondi and Comune di Spoleto, combined with the scientific expertise of Professor Stefano Mancuso, has made it possible to carry out such an experimental and cutting-edge project as the Bosco di San Gregorio. To be able to monitor how plants are able to mitigate heat islands, to contribute effectively to provide data and information on consequent changes, to allow citizens and tourists to measure themselves against a new livability in a meeting place such as Piazza Garibaldi are all aspects that help us to also consider feasible to local level, of territorial government, an action aimed at both to providing additional and new elements of knowledge on climate change, and to raising public awareness about the need to rethink our urban spaces."

Dino Menichetti, President of Echo Labs, added, "this of the Bosco di San Gregorio is a valuable project that enriches a Festival whose prestige is known to globally and to to which it is wonderful to be able to contribute again as a Sustainability Partner. We are proud to participate to this initiative that not only enhances our natural heritage, but also actively involves the local community in an active participation project for urban regeneration. The goal is to build together a tangible example of how eco-design and responsible consumption can make a difference in people's daily lives and the environment in which they live."