Garda Uno promotes innovative projects and initiatives concerning energy and the environment, through the energy sector. Being a matter of utmost importance, over the last few years Garda Uno has been actively dedicating a lot of time and effort in the development of the following issues:

The energetic valorisation of sludge biomasses deriving from waste collected across the territory and from transforming and composting plants have been object of experimentation in a gasification plant with a power capacity of 500kWte.

The positive outcome of the experiments, which concluded in 2010 has lead to the elaboration of two possible industrial plants, each having a capacity of 500kWel with the following features:

• biomass homogenisation pre-treatment;
• partial drying;
• gasification;
• thermal energy production
• turbine;
• heat restoration.

The development of sustainable building criteria according to international models and standards, increasing the utilisation of new building components deriving from separate waste material collected over the territory, obtaining the Energy Certification using the LEED classification system as a model.

Mobility, intended as a way of promoting a sustainable viability model in a highly touristic territory of extraordinary beauty, Garda Uno SpA has always been deeply involved in this issue from the initial stages of a project, (eg. bike sharing: solar power driven bicycles powered by photovoltaic stations and the development and optimisation of existing infrastructures that connect small towns and villages to urban centres) and coming to the actual project 100% Urban Green Mobility which is now in the phase of development.

To continue this “vocation” for research and development, which is often hindered by a lack of economic resources, Garda Uno is continually seeking funding from individuals, partnerships with renowned research centres and local institutions or by providing assistance to other nearby municipalities. Calls for funding have been carried out up to now on a regional, national and international level. (Calls for funding LIFE).

Italian to english translation by Alice Bazzoli and Debora Gonthier of the Liceo Scientifico Statale Enrico Fermi , Salò (BS) - for the Garda Uno Lab project