The first in-person meeting after the pandemic was a really important moment for Ipsento engage its employees in Italy, allowing them to re-connect, communicate, share ideas and find solutions for future projects. The company also wanted to find a way for the teams to give back to the community and produce a positive legacy. AIM Group International, which is collaborating with the company already on several projects, helped conceptualize and organize their Re-Connect Meeting in Salerno, Southern Italy, leaving a positive legacy.
“We helped identify the most suitable local partners: the Giffoni Film Festival, a famous film festival dedicated to young people which is held annually near Salerno – Ipsen sponsored this year’s the first edition of the ‘Giffoni Green Festival’ dedicated to sustainability -; and Legambiente Campania, the local chapter of a national ecologist association. We chose a simple, engaging and impactful activity in the area which involved cleaning the beach of the protected natural oasis and pine forest in Marina di Eboli,” explains Alessandro Capasso, Project Manager of AIM Group.
“For more than 50 years the Giffoni Film Festival has inspired new generations with responsive and sustainability topics. This festival would not be possible without the support of public and private donors. On this occasion, we were delighted to collaborate with Ipsen, a company which guarantees Italian excellence in biopharmaceutical research,” comments Alessandro Avagliano, Business Development, Giffoni Innovation Hub.
Maria Lucia Burriesci, Communication & Patient Advocacy Manager Ipsen, explains, “We chose to support this unique project to pursue a common goal, namely, to have a positive impact on the environment.”
Ipsen involved more than 130 employees who headed to the beach to collect rubbish and plastic debris (small items like bottles and wastepaper as well as big ones like tires, PCs, TVs) that was hidden in the sand and among the trees. 214 kilos of rubbish were collected overall, of which 79kg was plastics, 41Kg end-of-life tires, 36kg of glass, 28 kg of iron and 11 kg of organic waste.
On the beach, the volunteers and experts in environmental welfare from Legambiente, made a speech about how plastics pollute the beaches and the sea and how they affect on the natural environment and wildlife. Ipsen employees were shocked by the large amount of rubbish they found on the beach in a protected natural oasis. They felt at times that there was simply no end to the amount of rubbish. One employee remarked: “Looking at what we collected I think that by paying a bit of attention and changing our habits, we could really do a lot for our planet and our environment”.
“On the positive side, the fact is that we have done this clean-up with hundreds of people whom we talked with; in addition to making the beach cleaner, from today these people will be more aware and sensitive to the fact that small, but non negligible actions matter” said Michele Buonomo, national delegate, Legambiente.
“Responsible business is a must for every organization, and we look at it as a great source of inspiration and transformation. Making events more sustainable or creating positive legacy on local communities and environment must be seen not as a challenge or a duty, but as a starting point to devise new initiatives, that foster engagement, sense of belonging, awareness, as this brilliant project demonstrates” explains Patrizia Semprebene Buongiorno, vice president AIM Group International.
