Final Press Release

Final Press Release

AT RIMINI FIERA THE BEST EDITION OF THE EXPO ON THE GREEN ECONOMY THE PLANNED RISE OF THE INTERNATIONAL PROFILE CONFIRMED

103,514 VISITORS (1.68% up on 2014)

1,200 companies the key players at Ecomondo, Key Energy, Key Wind, Key Energy White Evolution, SA.LVE, H2R Mobility for Sustainability, Cooperambiente and Condominio Eco.

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Rimini, 6th November 2015– Italy is focusing on the green economy to boost its upswing.This is the message from the expo days at Rimini Fiera, where the innovative proposals of the 1,200 companies and the contents of 200 seminars with over 1,000 speakers showed the importance of an industrial and scientific system up to the most advanced standards, as well as providing a model for other nations’ economies.The presence at the expos of industry and trade members from all over the world ensured the days a really international dimension.

103,514 (1.68% more than 2014) professional visitors attended over the four days, a figure that stabilizes the European ranking of Ecomondo and the expos held simultaneously with it.This figure also contains the planned rise of the foreign component, with almost 11,000 industry/trade members and 500 buyers from all over the world.Also worthy of mention were the numerous representatives from Iran and China, whose visits were organized along with the Ministry for Environment.

Precisely Minister Gian Luca Galletti, inaugurating the expo days along with the President of Emilia Romagna Stefano Bonaccini and the President of the Province of Rimini Andrea Gnassi, emphasized how economy and environment is a winning combination for real development.

The fourth edition of the States General of the Green Economy was held during the expo days and gave an insight on companies’ “green orientation”, now found in over 40% of them, but there were also proposals from organizations of enterprises for “cooling the climate”, communicated to the Government prior to the world conference in Paris at the end of November.

As far are contents were concerned, as well as the international profile, the scientific program, coordinated by Fabio Fava for Ecomondo and Gianni Silvestrini for Key Energy, also fully highlighted the prospect of a circular economy that is already possible now, and will increasingly characterize all industrial sectors.

Rimini Fiera chairman Lorenzo Cagnoni comments, “From these days at Rimini Fiera, clear signs arrive from the industrial world:in fact, the distinction between the green economy and the rest of the manufacturing/production system must be overcome.Being “sustainable’ is now a must for enterprises, but sets a new challenge, that of considering waste as a material and then reorganizing manufacture and production taking this into consideration.The 1,200 enterprises at the expo showed that all this is possible immediately for the various products chains.”

Business unit manager Simone Castelli comments, “The growth of Ecomondo and the expos held simultaneously with it is the result of the great work carried out with the aim of raising the international profile further, with over 50 events held all over the world in recent months, as well as the push towards new frontiers of development for the expos, which will increasingly involve all the industrial sectors in a process of integration under the banner of circular economy.”

The expo is fully perceived as an international level business appointment, a perception that takes the form of business and relations with new markets.

This is also thanks to the format of contacts between enterprises and foreign trade/industry members by means of Ecomondo’s online platform, which plans the business meeting agenda.As well as the delegations announced, in collaboration with the ICE delegations also arrived in Rimini from Algeria, Qatar, Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, South Africa and Malaysia whereas, in collaboration with the Ministry for the Environment, delegations of 120 buyers also came from Iran and China.

Ecomondo is now going to Brazil, where in a few days (11-13 November) Rimini Fiera will be the key player of the new expo in San Paolo, with FIMAI -ECOMONDO Brasil, the result of Rimini Fiera’s acquisition of FIMAI along with Gruppo Tecniche Nuove.

Media coverage was also extremely successful.Over 500 accredited journalists and wide coverage by all the daily and periodical press at both national and local level, as well as by television and radio networks, plus enormous attention on the Web.As far as media contacts are concerned, while awaiting reports from the periodicals, at the moment the total is 165 million.

This result was further increased by the Web, with which the sector is traditionally familiar.This was seen by the involvement of the social networks on the official profiles:on Twitter, there was a total of 5,424,458 impressions with an overall reach of 1,743,654. On the expos’ Facebook pages, the number of “likes” increased by 164.35% during the week of the expos compared to the previous week, whereas the Rimini Fiera corporate page had 332,381 contacts.Thirteen top bloggers from the environment sector attended the expo.

Numerous authoritative international contents were covered during ECOMONDO expo days.

Fabio Fava, coordinator of the scientific committee, comments, “This year, we introduced new areas for networking, such as food, the world of biorefineries, sea and other valuable new sectors considered under the banner of circular economy.This was greatly appreciated and in 2016 we shall continue in a direction that integrates the various industrial sectors.The other aspect to be emphasized is that of internationality, with extremely high level events, starting with the one promoted by the OECD and the one on the European Public Private Partnership and BioBased Industry.Foreign contributions from all over the world characterized this edition of Ecomondo and indicated the perspective to be worked on in the future.”

The great events at Ecomondo 2015 took off with the States General of the Green Economy, opened by Minister Galletti and held on the first two expo days.From the report presented, it emerged that 42% of all the enterprises in Italy are green.The largest number are in the industry sector (440,000 enterprises and a workforce of 4.2 million in 2014), where they represent 61.2%, with over 248,000 enterprises.This is followed by the construction sector (with an overall total of more than 500,000 enterprises and 1.56 employees in 2014); then comes agriculture (1.4 million enterprises and a workforce of 907,000 in 2014) where they account for no less than 56.1%.

Ecomondo also hosted the signing of a Program Agreementbetween the Minister for the Environment Gian Luca Galletti and the President of the Emilia Romagna Region Stefano Bonaccini, to launch an important plan for the replenishment of the entire Romagna coast, from Comacchio to Cattolica.The Agreement, which has a value of 20 million euros, is part of more extensive action for the reduction of hydrogeological risks for metropolitan areas.

It is worth emphasizing the contribution that (as always) Conai made to Ecomondo, along with the chains’ consortia, precisely on the issue of circular economy.The conferences must me remembered, such as the one organized by Consorzio Corepla and the participation of Philippe Daverio, the one on the ANCI-Coreve agreement, on the use of paper sacks in source-segregated collection of Biodegradable Municipal Waste and on steel packaging and raw material with the Italian Institute of Packaging andRICREA, Siderweb and SSICA.

Ecomondo also hosted the launch of the Sprecozero.net online platform, a Web project supported by the Ministry for the Environment and the ANCI, which intends gathering and spreading good practices throughout Italy on the issue of fighting waste (from that involving food, to energy, water and pharmaceutical products), to contribute to the spread of these practices in a “contagious” manner by the more virtuous municipalities and organizations.

The issues of waste in the Food chain attracted a great deal of attention, for example in the conference “Towards a zero-waste food chain: enabling technologies for the sustainability of the food industry and waste management in a perspective of circulareconomy”, organized by Unibo, Confagricoltura, Atia-Iswa ITALIA, NationalAgro-FoodTechnological Cluster, Italian Consortium of Composters and the Ecomondo Technical ScientificCommittee. The aim is to feed back into the chain a large amount of what is currently discarded as waste (there is talk of losses of around 40%), transforming it into new food chain products (e.g. feed), or into materials destined for the so-called green chemistry process (biorefineries).

Another top event at Ecomondo was organized by the OECD on the new frontier in organic waste recovery, i.e. its transformation into by-products (chemical product, biogas….) by means of the biorefinery system. The necessity for an insight on the opportunities and problems (from financial to legislative ones, not to mention logistics) connected with the development of biorefineries was one of the reasons that convinced the OECD to organize the event held at Rimini Fiera. In fact, in its work groups, the internationalorganization has been studying this important sector of the green economy for some time, with the aim of converting the results of its studies into political policies and recommendations.

In favour of enterprises and their prospects of development, Ecomondo hosted the presentation of the financing allocated by Horizon 2020 and the Public Private Partnership (PPP) “Biobased Industry”’ to support innovation and industrial revival in the context of the green economy.Horizon 2020 finances research and innovation with a foreseen overall balance of approximately 80 million euros; it provides the necessary means for carrying out research and innovation projects to encourage international cooperation and excellence, with the aim of favouring intelligent, sustainable and inclusive growth in Europe.

Over 50% of the 80 billion euros earmarked by Horizon 2020 for the 2014-2020 period will be destined to supporting priority aspects of research and innovation connected with the green economy, while the PPP will specifically support European biorefineries with a further 3.7 billion euros of public and private financing.

Ecomondo was also the opportunity for an insight on the various sector of material collection and re-use.As far as wet waste is concerned, the Italian Composters Consortium announced figures according to which Italians separated over 5.7 million tons of organic waste in a year, equal to almost 43% of the national total of source-segregated waste collection.From the recovery of organic waste in Italy, over 1.3 million tons of compost are obtained each year, with a saving of 1.4 Mt of CO2 equivalent compared to sending it to a landfill.

The Rimini event hosted the debut of Utilitalia, the federation established in June with the fusion of previous associations, whose members are 600 local public utilities in the environment, energy and water sectors.

Utilitalia presented its Report, which shows that Italy has become virtuous:at national level, from 2007 to the present day, the share of municipal waste collected separately has risen by over 45%, a trend that involves all areas of the country, even if not in a perfectly even manner.

The Undersecretary of the Ministry for the Environment, Barbara Degani visited Rimini Fiera to see the situation of the enterprises at the expo and key players in the green economy.She commented, “Ecomondo and the expos held simultaneously represent exactly the availability of technology that can help us build a future under the banner of sustainability.These values are now shared by both population and industries.Rimini Fiera ensures a complete overview that inspires confidence in the process that is taking us from a linear economy to a circular one.The fact that exhibitors and visitors increase constantly is another positive sign and shows how, apart from the fact that the system has been able to take advantage of incentives, the situation is based on a shared culture that is becoming established”.

On the electric and electronic waste front, the WEEE Forum organized by Assoraee (WEEE recovery association) highlighted the drop reported in recent months in the prices of raw materials obtained from WEEE treatment, which is undermining the foundations of recycling activities, putting the system in a critical position, with serious repercussions on achieving the European targets.The EU target of rising from today’s 3.8 kg per capita to 7.5 kg within 1st January 2016 and 10 kg by 2019 is at considerable risk. In 2014, 231,717 tons of WEEE were collected in Italy, a slight increase on 2013, but still down compared to 2011 and 2012.

The spotlight was on water purification, in the context of the Global Water Expo, a new entry among the proposals of the large international green economy and sustainable development expo, with stands and meetings dedicated to the topic of integrated water cycle management.The most important conference events included one entitled “Europe, environment and wastewater purification:policies, economy and ready-to-market innovations”, which ensured an insight on the current situation of challenges and problems regarding water cycle management in Europe.By 2017, investments for 37.6 billion euros are foreseen for the purification of municipal wastewater in Europe.In non-European countries, the scenario is even more impressive, starting with China, where it is estimated that in recent years over 3,500 large purification plants have been built.Significant figures also arrive from BRICS nations:in Brazil, for example, the water service market produced revenue for 362,700,000 dollars in 2012, whereas there is a forecast of 488,900,000 dollars in 2018.The Middle East also keeps up with the situation, driven by the necessity to re-use purified water.

In the Sustainable City section of Ecomondo dedicated to the network of “‘smart cities”, attention was focussed on urban mobility issues and the role played by collective transport systems, with the contribution of major associations such as ASSTRA (Transport Association) and ANAV (Italian Passenger Road Transport Association).

Positive signs also arrive from the Italian earth-moving machine market.The 1,906 machines sold or rented in the first months of 2015 exceeded sales in the third quarter of 2014 by 42.8%.The increase in sales, already reported in 2014, in the first nine months of 2015 continued an exponential manner; in fact, the 42.8% on an annual basis obtained in the last quarter analyzed, follows the 40.2% totalled in Q2 and 15.3% in Q1.

The figures on the foreign trade front (ISTAT report) confirm the positive trend, with the sector’s trade balance rising in the first half of the year by 5.0% on an annual basis (+24.1% imports, +9.0 exports).Comments were made on these figures at Ecomondo in the context of the events foreseen by the three-year agreementbetween Ascomac and Rimini Fiera to promote the sector of recycling and re-use of resources, energy, land and water.“Zero-impact worksite” was the name of the proposal, confirming the commitment of Ascomac’s activity for sustainability.

In 2016 the green economy expos will be at Rimini Fiera from Tuesday 8th to Friday 11th November.

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ECOMONDO AT A GLANCE:

Category: International exhibition; Patronages: Ministry for the Environment and the Protection of Land and Sea, Ministry for Economic Development, Emilia Romagna Region, Rimini Province and Municipality;frequency: annual; edition: 19th; admittance: trade members and general public; tickets: full-price 20 euros; free admission for children up to 12 years of age; reduced-rate ticket 8 euros; University students (who must show their record-book) 3 euros; hours: Hours: 9 am - 6 pm, last day 9 am - 5 pm; business unit manager: Simone Castelli; Ecomondo project manager: Alessandra Astolfi;visitor info:Tel. +39 0541.744111; e-mail: ; Web site: Facebook: twitter: official hashtag: #ecomondo

PRESS CONTACTS

Rimini Fiera SpA Communication and Media Relations Service +39 0541 744510 ;

manager: Elisabetta Vitali; press office coordinator: Marco Forcellini; press staff: Alessandro Caprio and Nicoletta Mancini Evangelisti;