Just about 30 minutes from the tourist hotspot of Venice lies a quieter escape with plenty of Italian charm. Treviso is the first Italian city to win the European Green Leaf Award for its environmental efforts, the BBC recently reported.
"We are very proud of our city," deputy mayor Alessandro Manera told the outlet. "It was something of a challenge to show that an Italian city could win this award … It's about showing who is improving."
And improving, they are.
Treviso began a mission to boost sustainability in 2018. It created new bike lanes to support cleaner transportation options, introduced recycling programs in schools, and planted 6,000 trees in the area.
The city went on to update its aging wastewater infrastructure, which is essential to a city surrounded by water and intersected by waterways. The canals and walls that protect Treviso from extreme weather events reportedly date back to the early 16th century.
Water quality in canals and fountains has improved, and there is even an app that allows locals and visitors to see which fountains can be used to fill their water bottles. In fact, in an effort to help the city go plastic-free, officials now provide aluminum water bottles to all schoolchildren.
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Hundreds of years ago, Treviso's water mills were used to process grain. Now they've been revitalized, and one even powers the lights at the fish market, according to the BBC, in a step toward enhancing clean energy usage. Another step has been the installation of a solar park where an abandoned landfill once stood.
The city also plans to replace all public lights with LED bulbs, a change the deputy mayor estimates will save 70 percent on energy use.
Though Treviso does not want to follow in Venice's footsteps, it does encourage tourism and offer biking tours along the canals, rivers, and countryside, introducing visitors to the landscape and local food via emissions-free travel.
Some have suggested that Treviso might be an alternative for tourists looking to enjoy Italy while avoiding high-impact globetrotting. But it's also possible that high-traffic destinations worldwide might learn from Treviso's success and roll out their own sustainability projects.
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Manera is pleased with all the city has accomplished and looks forward to continued progress, telling the BBC, "It's really a green revolution."
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