From tree to barrique and finally to artificial nests built by the inmates of the prison of Alexandria. It is the virtuous cycle of wood in the name of the recovery of people and materials at the center of the path “The Three Lives of the Tree”, the first chapter of the project “The Nest of Sustainability” that the Ricci Curbastro Company in Franciacorta will develop over the course of next years.
The inmates of the Piedmontese prison were in fact entrusted with the task of transforming the staves of barrels and barriques into boxes for artificial nests destined for the company vineyards to house Cinciallegre, Codirossi and other insectivores useful for the natural balance of the vineyards themselves.
“Everything we use in the cellar follows a logic of natural recovery”, explains Riccardo Ricci Curbastro of the company certified sustainable with the Equalitas standard since 2017, “like the cork in the corks used for the production of sound-absorbing and insulating panels or on some wines stoppers in polymer produced from sugar cane, with neutral production impact and entirely recyclable ».
The wood of barrels and barriques that comes from French state-owned forests managed in a sustainable way, is not always easy to recycle, because the classic uses such as tables or planters discount the reduced spaces in homes, as well as in public places. “We offer these oak staves a third life – highlights Ricci Curbastro – after growing in the forest and being used for several years as a container for the aging of our wines.” At this point, the concept of environmental and economic sustainability was added the third pillar of ethical sustainability thanks to processing in the carpentry department of the prison in Alessandria. (ANSA).
The concept of environmental and economic sustainability has been joined by that of ethical sustainability. The disused staves, expertly worked in the carpentry department of the Alessandria prison institute, are transformed into artificial nests, thus closing a cycle, that of wood, in the most natural way. «The Cooperative Ideas in Fugue, which operates in the prisons of Alessandria – explains Andrea Ferrari (president of ISES) – has enthusiastically welcomed this beautiful proposal. We strive to involve prisoners in activities that offer them a second chance, starting right from work, because only work guarantees dignity and the possibility of real redemption. In this sense, the artificial nest project perfectly matches our mission: to recover people and materials starting from something new, beautiful, useful and respectful for the environment ».
The Ricci Curbastro Farm, led by the eighteenth generation of the homonymous family with Gualberto and Filippo, together with their father Riccardo, guarantees not only the historical memory of the ancient production traditions – the Ricci Agricultural and Wine Museum is contained in a single reality. Curbastro, the Ricci Curbastro Archive and the Ricci Curbastro Library – but also offers continuous innovation in every sector of its wine business. In the environmental field, after the abandonment of every herbicide in 1980, the path led the company to complete self-sufficiency for electricity in 2005, to organic in 2015 and finally to be one of the first 9 Italian companies certified sustainable with the Equalitas standard in 2017.
Sustainability, touching both the environmental and social pillars, is at the heart of this new project.
Social Cooperative Ideas in Flight, promoted by ISES, was created with the aim of making the time of the prisoners of the Cantiello and Gaeta Penitentiary in Alessandria productive. A new carpentry was created inside the prison to allow inmates to acquire new skills capable of offering job opportunities once their sentence is over. The inmates work six days a week, supported by the Penitentiary Police and by expert volunteer carpenters with the aim of fulfilling orders from all over Italy by recovering materials and promoting a circular economy that uses recycled or discarded wood for defects. (breaking latest news)