Throughout the project's development, public events are organized during various holiday periods (winter and summer), using different formats and languages (workshops, laboratories, talks, and shows, etc.) to discuss:
• importance and knowledge of biodiversity;
• the role of the Alps in people's daily lives, even hundreds of kilometers away from the mountains;
• plastic pollution (spread, scale, and dynamics of the phenomenon, consequences, etc.);
• where and how pollution begins;
• prevention;
• citizen science;
• cleaning schedule/opportunities
The project's flagship event is entitled 'Of mountains, wonders, and underwear', takes various forms (conference, show/talk, etc.) and follows this central theme:
The Alps are the concrete, physical, biological, chemical, and ecological reason why the entire central-southern area of Europe is among the richest in the world. Northern Italy, southeastern France, southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia have enjoyed the benefits produced by the Alps: water, raw materials, food, energy, health, and high-quality agriculture in the plains are the result of the presence of the Alps in this area. But culture in all its forms, as well as physical and psychological well-being, owe a great deal, perhaps everything, to the 'peri-alpine' environment.
Plastic pollution is normally associated with the sea and urban areas, while very little research has been done on mountain areas, and what little there is has been limited to microplastics: it is generally believed that these areas are free of plastic pollution. This is incorrect.
After conducting research in the Arctic, at sea, and along rivers, Franco Borgogno has spent the last five years coordinating research on microplastics in snow and the world's first project—CleanAlp—on plastics dispersed in mountain environments, working with over a thousand people on approximately 600 km of trails in the northwestern Alps.
His story, using photographs, videos, and objects, unfolds between the perception and, in some cases, the discovery of such beauty, the understanding of the connection with our lives and the quality of existence, and the incredible objects, in terms of type and quantity, found in every corner of our mountains.
Fortunately, prevention here is quite simple and feasible: it will be the final soothing drop of this meeting.
Contact us if you would like to host one or more events!
Another very important communication event will take the form of an exhibition, possibly combined with workshops and performances. The most interesting materials we have collected over time and will continue to collect will be featured in an exhibition illustrating the issues associated with the beauty and extraordinary value of the Alpine environment: a contrast that should encourage us to appreciate the Alps even more and protect them in the best possible way.
Media. We will use social media, this website, and press releases as additional means of disseminating information about the project's objectives and actions in the coming years.
Information materials. Information materials, both online and in shelters or info points, will be available to visitors to the area even when the project leaders are not on site.
Videos and photographs will be a powerful 'engagement tool', as well as an extraordinary means of communicating with immediate impact the significance of the work carried out, the beauty and delicacy of the environment, and the urgency of the situation.
