In 2010 the contagio plan concluded, which had started in November 2008 by the Cooperative A2A Cauto, with the contribution of Cariplo Foundation, aimed at making students and families aware of the sustainable use of resources. It covered a pilot area including ten Brescia Municipalities: Roe Volciano, Sabbio Chiese, Vestone, Vobarno, Nuvolera, Bedizzole, Botticino, Bovezzo, Prevelly and Rezzato.

A2A in 2009 had organized a postgraduate course for tutors on energy savings (110 hours), making use of academics, external experts, technicians and Cooperative Cauto. The course was open for free to all graduates and university students residing in the province of Brescia. Ten of the young participants were instructed to man the information counters for energy efficiency set up in December 2009 by the A2A at the municipal premises in collaboration with the Administrations.

The experiment ended in March 2010.

 

In 2010, A2A continued collaboration with the Lombardy Region in the pilot area of Brescia the experiment with the Action Plan for Waste Reduction (PARR), planning tool with which the Regional Administration wants to involve different territorial realities in the challenging goal of reversing the upward trend of waste, reducing regional production by more than one hundred thousand tons per year. Starting from January the first five actions selected by the promoters have been initiated in Brescia:

•  Reduction of packaging
• Distribution of unsold products
•  Home Composting
• Adoption of washable nappies
• Reuse Days

The project, launched a year ago in Via Padova, is being carried on with great conviction by the City of Milan and AMSA. The street cleaner in the Zone, that is rapidly entering into the collective imagination of the Milanese, is appreciated for the delicate role that he covers: ensuring constant monitoring of the territory, particularly in the more sensitive areas, greater cleanliness and is a reference point in the neighbourhoods.

On the occasion of the initiatives of the Fuori Salone in Tortona area, AMSA has entrusted twenty street cleaners of the zone with special street cleaning activities, and in collaboration with the AMSA Foundation for the Environment have created direct communication measures, aimed at citizens and visitors. The company also has created for the occasion, many differentiated collection points dedicated to organisers and exhibitors both citizens and visitors. For the awareness-raising activities a group of university students was also involved. The initiative was supported by an intensive communication campaign based on innovative tools, "ilgiornale.it", as media partner, has experimented with an unprecedented formula of real-time journalism, recounting the event by messages "posted" on Facebook and Twitter.

The news was also transmitted on the big screen in Piazza Duomo. Thanks to Fuori Salone it was possible to inaugurate the testing of new more sustainable models for events in Milan. Visitors and exhibitors increasingly engaged in more careful and responsible use of resources, construction materials, respecting and improving the collective care of the public spaces.
 

Along with the EPCG participant, A2A sponsored the exhibition "Caravaggio in Montenegro, Narcissus at the source," a major cultural initiative, within the ambit of the diplomatic and cultural relations between Italy and Montenegro, and promoted by the Ministry of Heritage and Culture, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture of Montenegro. The painting "Narcissus at the source," preserved in the halls of the National Gallery of Ancient Art in Palazzo Barberini, Rome, was displayed from 3 to 16 June 2010 at the Museum of Contemporary Art "Dvorac Petrovica" in Podgorica. Huge public success, with 20,000 visitors in 13 days.
 

2010 was the centennial year of AEM. For activities relating to this important anniversary, A2A has put its trust in the AEM Foundation. The initiatives were aimed at asking the Milanese to reclaim the history of their city, also through the history of the places that bear witness to the construction, over the decades, of technological and economic pre-eminence. Attention has been directed not only to the past, but also the future and the challenges of the EXPO 2015, whose ambition is to take a fresh look at the world also represents the tag-line that goes together with: "energy for life ".

Among the events are: the exhibition "Energy of Milan, 100 years of AEM for the development of the city" ;  the permanent lighting of the windows of the Duomo of Milan and the Milan Central Station. 

In April 2010, at the prestigious auditorium of Santa Giulia in Brescia, the centenary of ASM was celebrated. During this event the fundamental events that have marked the history of the company were retraced through a video produced for the occasion, that through pictures and videos, historical and more recent, conveyed to the public a sense of succession of events. The book "a century of ASM" by Marcello Zane and the Borsoni Studio AS was also presented. An important moment of the meeting was the awarding of former Presidents of ASM and employees with thirty years of seniority in the company that were feted by many speakers.

For that same evening the ASM Foundation sponsored the concert of the Orchestre des Champs Elysees. The days following major facilities were opened in A2A, the district heating plant, Fonte di Mompiano and the Verziano purifier, to allow a visit to all citizens.

Aimed at primary and secondary schools of Bergamo, this was launched in November 2010 and concluded in May 2011. Ten schools joined, for a total of twenty-four classes with over 500 pupils.

This is the first initiative of its kind realised in Bergamo on the theme of waste. The programme includes a presentation meeting with teachers to explain the aims of the project and two educational sessions, each lasting an hour, in the classroom. At the end of the proceedings classes were invited to participate in a contest, devising an operational plan for the management of waste in their schools, including a communication plan. Among the proposals submitted, the top eight were rewarded with prize money for the purchase of educational materials. The award ceremony was held in May 2011.

 

Since environmental issues, and civil education are increasingly included as fixed modules in the curriculum, AMSA, in collaboration with the Department of Family, School and Social Policy of the City of Milan, has published its proposals in the 'brochure "educational initiatives 2010/2011", which each year is distributed to teachers

AMSA, thanks to differing routes depending on the age group, can reach a very broad target: elementary schools, who go to visit to the company headquarters in Via Olgettina, up to middle school students, colleges and universities for whom meetings are held at the Silla 2 waste to energy plant.

Among other activities:

• Experimental meetings organized in schools along with the GEV (Voluntary Ecological Guards), regarding the city cleaning and differentiated collection;
• Promotion in schools of the recently introduced corporate image, the "Road sweeper", involving about 300 students;
• •The www.fondazioneAmsa.it site, which offers ample space in the"educate" section, dedicated to the School Project;
• Events in the area, such as "P for Play", "It's' the right thing", moments that which constitute a fundamental opportunity to distribute information material on collection and to remove any doubts related to proper waste management.

In February 2009 A2A launched the “Energy in Common” magazine that is used for communicating with municipal councils and local authority entities and sharing and circulating information on best practice in environmental matters and sustainable growth.

The magazine gives ample space to updates of a technical and regulatory nature and to the most significant initiatives for protecting the environment and improving the quality of the services introduced by local councils on their own or with the support of A2A.

The solidarity of A2A has also been taken to distant lands. The “More water, more life” project has been launched through the Ecodeco joint venture Bergamo Pulita to build artesian wells and distribute drinking water in densely populated areas in the territory of the Maxixe mission in Mozambique.

Recruited more than 5,000 snow shovelers in 2009 under a capillary campaign in which all residents were informed of the possibility of making use of additional staff on extraordinary occasions.

The Region of Lombardy and A2A, together with Aprica, have put forward a study for identifying the most useful measures that can be taken to reduce waste, choosing Brescia as the pilot city, Thanks to the support of the municipal council too.

The project is divided into six steps: reduction of packaging, distribution of unsold foodstuffs, washable nappies, domestic compost Shopping using cases , re-use days.

A mass energy saving awareness campaign distributing ecokits free of charge to households and selling low energy consumption products at reduced prices to the public through agreements with large-scale retail chains.

The ContAgio project was started up in November 2008 by A2A and the Cauto Cooperation with the contribution of the Cariplo Foundation The project concentrates on a pilot area that consists of ten Brescia municipalities with the aim to sensitize students and families sustainable use of resources.

Amsa has set up a project on environmental education addressed to Milanese schools that is divided into initiatives in the city and initiatives in the schools and aimed at pupils of all kinds and levels and their teachers. The objective of this project is to create an initial collaboration relationship with “tomorrow citizens”.

With the patronage of the Environment and Ecology and Public Education Departments of the Municipality of Bergamo, A2A contributed to the production of the Get to Know Energy programme shown on Bergamo TV. The aim of this programme is informative and to make people aware of environmental matters, in particular energy saving and district heating
 

Aprica S.p.A with the Protection and Preservation of the Environment and Public Education Departments of the Municipality has made a competition that was conceived as a means of stimulating the children and making them reflect on environmental issues at home as well as in their schools

The television news programme produced entirely by children from primary schools in the municipalities served by Aspem has arrived at its second edition, with reports, interviews and information on water and waste being presented that are useful not only for the smaller members of society but also for the grown-ups.

A2A has decided to support the work of the Italian Glaciological Committee, the EVK2CNR Committee and the Lombardy Association of Regional Councillors, in order to undertake a study on the evolution of the climate and the response of the glaciers, with specific attention being given to the situation in Lombardy

At the Energy House in September in collaboration with the Consumers 'Association, Adiconsum and University of Milan Bicocca the initiative "The Sunflower" was held, an important information and education campaign on patterns of consumption and sustainable production. The project, financed by the Cariplo Foundation, was aimed at students, citizens and businesses on issues of sustainable consumption, rational use of energy sources and ecological disposal of waste.
 

The project is part of a broader program to reopen and return to navigability of the canals of Milan, as was the case once: to reach Venice and the Adriatic Sea through the canals starting from the Lake of Lugano.

A2A, which has been financially supporting this programme for some time, wished to be present as active partners in this project being carried out by the Institute for the Navigli / Association of Friends of the Navigli which provides for the restoration and insertion of a tank located at the concrete base of the Conca delle Gabelle, supplied by an adjacent well.

The basin will be illuminated by a lighting system that will highlight the most significant aspects of the artefact. A series of photovoltaic panels will supply the lighting together with the energy required to ensure the water flow in the tanks.
 

The Water Park in Brescia is spread over an area of about 10 000 square meters of the old plant, and is a project that already in 2002, saw the commitment of the ASM then, now A2A to help recovery and redevelopment of the buildings and area, with the aim of creating an innovative multi-purpose structure of a recreational and cultural type.

The reconstruction of the lake inside the park has been undertaken by the Museum of Natural Sciences, which, with the collaboration of the Aquarium of Milan, has provided the necessary expertise and guidelines for the setting, with the introduction of plants and fish species. The intent that has been respected was to build a park, the "water park" that could echo the historical memory of the old "Fish Factory" and even before, the "Royal Ittioculture Station ". Christmas 2008 was the first occasion that gave Brescia citizens the opportunity to visit the water park: on the lake floor an underwater nativity scene was set up, and the park.
 

On the occasion of World Environment Day, celebrated each year on 5 June in more than 100 countries around the world to draw attention to environmental issues, ECODECO has supported the creation of "The villages of eco children”, environmental education initiatives aimed at children so that they can adopt, from an early age, a correct approach to the environment around them.

 
The method chosen to address the children is playing games and the form of 'learning fun'. In the Pavia Municipalities of Giussago and San Martino Siccomario the "Villages of Eco children" have been created, a sort of eco-friendly theme park with games and items of urban furniture deriving from recycled material. Recreational laboratories have also been set up for environmental education and entertainment of animated storytelling, the drawing corner, a series of animations of ecological theme, theatrical plays about the protection of the environment and finally a tasty eco snack.

On October 19, 2008 the second Green Race Event took place, not only a sports event but also festive, open to all families and organized by AMSA in cooperation with FIDAS - Supplementary Welfare Fund of AMSA employees - and sponsored by the City of Milan and the Lombardy Region. For the second time Milan has hosted an event in the national calendar Ecorunning, which combines the themes of outdoor sports, welfare and ecology.

Also in 2008 the city of Milan took part in the competition of Cartoniadi organized by Comieco. Zone 4 competed for Milan, drawn by lot at the press conference presenting the initiative at Palazzo Marino. The competition stipulated that the city that had increased the collection of paper and cardboard the most, would receive a prize of €50.000, to be invested to carry out projects and improvements for the quarter.

In order to strengthen the commitment and involve citizens more in the collection of paper and cardboard AMSA, in collaboration with the Municipality of Milan, Zone 4 and Comieco Council sponsored a photo contest theme entitled "A world of paper and cardboard ", which was an opportunity to capture, through a" click ", an occasion linked to the recovery of paper. It was possible, for example, to point out correct or incorrect behaviour, reporting waste, abuse and use of these materials.

 

In December, the Museum of Science and Technology "Leonardo da Vinci" in Milan opened its new permanent section dedicated to the "product life cycle", created in partnership with AMSA. The exhibition is divided into four areas: production, distribution, use and disposal of materials.

It is a highly interactive exhibition where you can look at the history and life of a series of everyday objects in their journey from the moment they are designed and manufactured to the one in which people who use them decide to discard them. Starting point are the everyday objects like a television, a can, a flashlight and other objects, placed before the visitor, involving him in an interactive journey where, from time to time, he must decide where to throw the object and follow the path. It is also possible to choose another path, to know not only the physical and chemical properties of the objects, but also their economic, ecological and social ones. The area has many interactive multimedia stations and sections, where movies are shown that illustrate the recycling process of the individual materials (plastic, aluminium, paper and glass) and a movie "history" interviews with former AMSA operators, illustrating their old tools of the trade, recounting the different stages of their work thanks to the contribution of the cultural association "La Gerla", there is space in this exhibition for a collection of old instruments once used for waste collection and cleaning in the city. The area dedicated specifically to the disposal of the products was achieved by illustrating the Milanese model of integrated waste management developed by AMSA and is used as part of Project School of AMSA.