Marinedi Villasimius wins the “Virtuous Port” Award 2015

On 5th June the marina of Villasimius won the award for “the most ecologically virtuous port” 2015. The award ceremony was in conjunction with the “5 Vele” event, promoted by Legambiente and Touring Club, in the sala dei 100 of the Cascina Triulza of Milan during the Expo 2015. There were 136 tourist structures who took part, all participants of the “COBAT e il mare” project, promoted by Leonardo Multimedia in collaboration with the National Union for recycling (COBAT) and Legambiente Association.

The project “COBAT e il mare” (COBAT and the sea) is the only Italian project focused on the ecologic sustainability of tourist ports, and serves both as a way to save the weak marine environment and to provide incentives for the creation of growth and development projects that follow an environmentally sustainable model.

The marinas are judged on rigorous criteria, like the management and disposal of waste in the port, the services offered by the marina and the promotion of the area and its typical activities. The importance of the award can be seen by the experts who made up the judging panel, like Leonardo Marotta (Expert on Estimating Environmental Impact, Urban Ecology, Integrated Management of coasts and Director of the Scientific Board of the Italian Association of Environmental Sciences), Jacopo Aguzzi (Marine Biology at the Institute of Ciències del Mar di Barcellona), Corrado Costa, Vittorio Cogliati Dezza (National President of Legambiente), Franco Iseppi (President of Italian Touring Club), Rossella Muroni (National Manager of Legambiente), Giancarlo Morandi (President of COBAT) and Enzo Biassoni (President of the board).

The award was presented to Eng. Renato Marconi, CEO of the Villasimus marina, and to Amedeo Ferrigno, director of the Marina and Paolo Casertano, with the participation of the national and industry press and by the undersecretary for environment Barbara Degani and the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, who personally congratulated the winners of this prestigious prize.

The marina of Villasimius, one of the few marinas in the world located inside in a marine protected area (Capo Carbonara), was able to beat off fierce competition thanks to the careful management of business, that finds a balance between development of the tourist area and respect for the environment. The success of the marina is attributed to the competence and the experience of Renato Marconi and Amedeo Ferrigno, who have managed the marina for many years with the values of innovation and environmental sustainability, that characterise the whole Marinedi Group, which the marina of Villasimius is one of the principle members. Eng. Marconi spoke about how the Group draws inspiration from the Villasimius marina and how it is an excellent example of satisfaction of the customers and of environmental safety.

In the next years these ports will be examined to check for areas of improvement, to incentivise the growth and the development of the ports with the support of the COBAT Consortium and Legambiente and with the new ideas and projects of the students and researchers of Italian Universities.

To learn more about the winner of the award you can read the article about the Marinedi Group in this link.