Milan, 26 March 2018
Funding and implementation projects for the redevelopment and social, environmental, and cultural re-utilisation of around 450 unmanned stations and abandoned railway lines of Rete Ferroviaria Italiana.
This is the objective of the Memorandum of Understanding signed today in Milan by Renato Mazzoncini, Managing Director and General Manager of FS Italiane, and by Alessandro Messina, General Manager of Banca Etica.
“In recent years, the FS Italiane Group has begun important actions to redevelop and reorganise the no longer functional spaces and areas of the main Italian stations. In fact, railway stations are no longer just places where journeys begin or end. It is therefore essential to improve the efficiency, value, and integration of these with their city, large and medium/small, to make them an attraction and service pole for the territory and not just efficient transport hubs. And by developing social and environmental sustainability projects, the FS Italiane Group wants to facilitate and encourage, also through usage loans, associative activities of the Third sector and non-profits,” underlined Renato Mazzoncini, Managing Director and General Manager of FS Italiane.
«Banca Etica was founded to manage the financial resources of families, people, organisations, companies and institutions, directing their savings towards the realisation of the common good of the community. The agreement with FS Italiane is an opportunity to put initiatives of territorial regeneration into practice according to the principles of ethical finance: with equal attention paid to economic and financial sustainability and socio-environmental sustainability. At this time, the challenge of redeveloping buildings and common goods in the urban outskirts and in the internal areas of the country is at the centre of our activities," stated Alessandro Messina, General Manager of Banca Etica.
With the collaboration agreement, FS Italiane and Banca Etica undertake to promote and support integrated projects.
In particular, FS Italiane will involve Banca Etica in the selection of recipients for the areas subject to redevelopment and will communicate to the selected subjects the guidelines necessary to avail of Banca Etica's services.
Banca Etica, on the other hand, will promote, through specific announcements on its crowdfunding network, fundraising to support redevelopment projects, promote cultural events to present projects and offer integrated credit and banking services.