Milan, 8 November 2024 – During the 12th World Urban Forum/WUF12, BAM - Biblioteca degli Alberi Milano, a Fondazione Riccardo Catella project, was given the LivCom Award for SDGs. This prestigious international award is promoted by the LivCom Committee – a non-profit organisation backed by the UN, various UN agencies and international organisations – and is dedicated to best practices in managing the environment and local development to create smart, liveable and sustainable cities.
Selected from a list of 267 candidates coming from 53 countries, BAM, the only Italian project to become a finalist, was recognised in the Environmentally Sustainable Project Award category for its ability to create liveable communities as a public park endowed with rich biodiversity and an innovative cultural programme that rose up within a large project to upgrade the Portanuova area. The city’s “green heart”, BAM is a driver of social, environmental and cultural impact that goes beyond the park’s borders to reach the entire city by contributing to creating a more sustainable and inclusive Milan. This is also due to the Nature-Culture combination that distinguishes its cultural programme.
The criteria based on which the LivCom Award for SDGs panel made its selection of finalists are: upgrading of the landscape and public areas; promotion of art, culture and cultural heritage; adoption of practices aimed at protecting the environment and in line with green economy goals; involvement, participation and empowerment of the community; attention paid to citizens’ well-being; and sustainability of the project’s planning and management policies.
The final stage of the 22nd LivCom Awards took place in Cairo, Egypt 4-7 November 2024 in conjunction with the 12th World Urban Forum/WUF12, the main global sustainable urbanisation conference of the United Nations. Heads of state, international organisations and leaders of the private sector took part to identify innovative solutions that would improve the quality of citizens’ lives through the creation of liveable communities. Furthermore, LivCom organised the “International Forum on Smart and Liveable Cities” and “International Training on Active Ageing and Age-Appropriate Cities” in collaboration with the United Nations agency during the final days of the conference. International delegates were asked to network to exchange ideas and best practices. The only participants representing Italy and Milan were Kelly Russell Catella, Director General of Fondazione Riccardo Catella and Head of Sustainability & Communications at COIMA, and Francesca Colombo, General Cultural Director of BAM - Biblioteca degli Alberi Milano, Fondazione Riccardo Catella.
“This recognition reconfirms once again the enormous commitment of Fondazione Riccardo Catella to the virtuous management of the public park and development of the territory by setting in motion projects aimed at improving the citizens’ quality of life. We are honoured to be here in Cairo to receive an award that confirms, at an international level, the BAM project in Milan’s Portanuova district as a best practice in sustainable development, activation of the community and social inclusion”. – Kelly Russell Catella, Director General of Fondazione Riccardo Catella and Head of Sustainability & Communications at COIMA.
“It is a great honour to receive the LivCom Award for SDGs, being one of 267 candidates coming from 53 countries around the world. I wish to share this prestigious international award with all those who have, together with us, believed in an innovative model able to place culture in the centre of urban regeneration and the creation of liveable communities. And in particular the Municipality of Milan, which has always been at our side with the mutual goal of fostering actions addressed to the citizens’ well-being; the many companies and institutions, essential for us and with whom we collaborate through scrupulous co-design work; the artists who take up the challenge of proposing contents aimed at interpreting contemporaneity; my team of professionals who look after every detail of the planning; and last, but not least, the lively communities that every day participate in the park’s life and our cultural offering, returning the sense of this enormous collective work”. – Francesca Colombo, General Cultural Director of BAM - Biblioteca degli Alberi Milano, Fondazione Riccardo Catella.
Following the Dubai International Award for Best Practices, promoted by UN-Habitat and the Municipality of Dubai and given to BAM in early 2024, this new international recognition confirms once again that the innovative cultural programme that livens up the park is able to generate a positive impact on community life by inspiring new individual and collective practices for a more sustainable future and helping everyone to access quality cultural and educational experiences.
All cultural programming and park activities are supported by the BAM Park Ambassadors Volvo Car Italia and Howden, and also have the sponsorship of Lombardy Region and the Municipality of Milan.
For more info on BAM and its cultural programme www.bam.milano.it.