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After Terni and Naples, the innovation tour reaches the Capital to promote a debate on the new frontiers of technological development and to illustrate Acea’s pragmatic innovation through concrete projects which contribute to the ecological transition in our country

Today, Rome hosted the Acea Innovation Day 2022 - which took place in three stages this year - dedicated to the themes of technological innovation combined with sustainability to orient the transformation of our cities towards an increasingly green future.
The leitmotif of this day - object of the debate conducted by representatives of institutions and companies - was the connection between ecological and digital transition. The slogan of this 2022 edition, 'People, Territories, Innovation', conveys a principle of open innovation aimed at creating innovative solutions for territories and their urban ecosystems, in line with the UN sustainability goals and with the European Framework 2022 Programme, dedicated to investments in innovation.
The tour was opened by the Ministry for Technological Innovation and Digital Transition Vittorio Colao, followed by speeches by Deputy-Minister for Economic Development Alessandra Todde, Assessor for Economic Development of Regione Lazio, Paolo Orneli, Assessor for Decentralisation, Participation and Service to the Territory of the Municipality of Roma Capitale, Andrea Catarci, and by Director of 'MSc in Law, Digital Innovation & Sustainability', at Luiss Guido Carli, Christian Iaione. Acea Group was represented by Chairperson Michaela Castelli and CEO Giuseppe Gola.
In the course of the first panel, 'Open Innovation without borders', CEO Giuseppe Gola presented a new system of self-driving drones for monitoring photovoltaic plants (M.I.D.A. Project - Monitoring Autonomous Drone Systems) designed in collaboration with the Italian start-up Wesii. It is an ultra-technological drone model equipped with a thermal camera capable of flying 25 meters high above the plants for a real-time monitoring of the integrity of the panels and to optimise maintenance operations and costs.
In the second panel, 'Acea for ecology transition: results and new challenges', the results of the 'inno-sustainable' working tables launched last February were presented. An initiative that can be summarised in these numbers: 3 months of work, 10 technology and university partners - Atos, Citrix, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce, Polytechnic University of Milan, Polytechnic University of Marche, CNR (National Research Council), CNR STEMS (Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie per l'Energia e la Mobilità Sostenibili), - 9 SDGs met, 14 projects presented to fulfil the goals of the 2030 Agenda and to achieve a 'net zero' society. Among the issues: protection of water resources, hydrogeological instability and sea protection, decarbonisation, sustainable mobility and coworking hubs, infrastructures and networks, biodiversity and circular economy.
During the third panel, 'Innovation without borders from Rome to San Francisco', some of the leading Italian companies (Eni, Enel, Terna, Pelliconi, Mind the Bridge but also Ania and Regione Sardegna), which have a research outpost in Silicon Valley, discussed the role of start-ups and new national and international innovation models.
The final stage concluded with the 'Call4Startup al femminile', created in collaboration with the network 'La carica delle 101' and dedicated to the themes of welfare and work-life balance to support women entrepreneurship.
'Acea is among the Italian companies which developed a model based on open innovation,' said CEO Giuseppe Gola. 'In 2022 alone, Acea launched more than 100 training initiatives, more than 50 national and international partnerships and more than 50 experiments. From these collaborations, investment projects were developed in the sectors of decarbonisation, protection of water resources, circular economy, biodiversity, infrastructures and networks, sustainable mobility. The goal for the future is to develop this model more and more effectively to intercept the main market novelties to be transferred to our business and give a contribution to the evolution of services in a smart perspective and to the digital transformation of the city.'
'This travelling edition of the Acea Innovation Day,' said Michaela Castelli, Chairperson of Acea – 'we wanted to involve the territories where we operate to share a common development model and to reaffirm that the push for innovation is primarily a mindset, a mental approach necessary to respond to the challenges of the future and the new socio-economic scenarios. This innovation model, based on active involvement and the diffusion of a cultural paradigm, is part of our Group’s growth strategy, with the aim of offering increasingly efficient services, also in terms of sustainability, from the water and energy sectors to waste treatment and valorisation.'