Professor Andrea Segré awarded the Giovanni Borghi 2013 prize

 Today at 6 p.m. in Milan (Cascina Cuccagna), the Giovanni Borghi 2013 prize will be awarded to professor Andrea Segré during the presentation  of the report “The green paper on waste in Italy”. The prize, created by Whirlpool, has come to its second edition and it bears the name of the head of Ignis, the white goods firm that merged with the American multinational. It awards innovation in making business. In this case the prize is given for Segré’s innovative intuition, who  created Last  Minute Market, a spin-off company out of Bologna University, first conceived as a research activity and afterwards evolving in a business reality which operates on the Italian territory, developing recycling projects of food and unsold (or unmarketable)assets for charities. Andrea Segré, as well as the president of Last Minute Market, is also the manager of the Agricultural and Food Technology Department  of Bologna University, and creator of the initiative “One year against waste”  of which Whirlpool is one of the supporters. Whirlpool’s short documentary came about as the result of the challenge for food sustainability and the fight against waste, one of the Expo 2015 subjects, on the way of sustainability of Bologna University, the Food Institute Whirlpool of Cassinetta in Biandronno (Varese) and the Leaf House Loccioni of Angela of Rosora (Marche Region).

The short documentary, called “Zero Impact”, that will be presented tonight in Cascina Cuccagna by Pierre Ley, the Media Relations Manager of Whirpool EMEA, shows how much happens in the world of research to deal with the global challenge of food sustainability. The trip, undertaken by who has the task to describe Whirlpool to the media with the intent of “getting an idea” and of living in first person the “zero impact” concept. Starting in Bologna with the academic perspective of Andrea Segrè that describes the outlines of this global emergency and of how the food waste challenge is being tackled.

The second stopover is the Food Institute Whirlpool on the shores of Varese’s Lake, where Mauro Piloni, vice president Advanced Research at Whirlpool Corporation, and researcher Enrica Monticelli talk about their strategic role that, in the food production chain, plays a multinational producer of white goods. Therefore, strategies, means, and ideology as well, are needed for this particular mission, that of Open Innovation combined with collaboration that involves network knowledge and research partners of a different nature such as enterprises, institutes and universities, to take advantage of diversified competences with a synergistic approach in view of the objective they have in common.

The third stopover of the trip is the Leaf House in Angeli in the municipality of Rosora, Ancona, where Enrico Loccioni, high-tech visionary entrepreneur, created an out-and-out community, that produces all the energy it uses on its own and from renewable sources. In the LEAF (Life Energy And Future) House we face a brief but surprising experiment of a zero impact lifestyle, real and not in the least unattainable. Ley illustrates how the technology of latest generation white goods can help with the right preservation of food.