The Giro d’Italia will start in a few hours in Sicilia and SAUNIER DUVAL SCOTT is ready to fight for victory and to offer the biggest show to the public. The fans will have the chance to follow the performances of the yellow squad but also to talk again about the Saunier Duval’s ecological mission in Africa. The bus will be decorated with a big image of Leonardo Piepoli planting a tree during the last trip of the team in Mali. On the Italian roads, Ricco, Piepoli and their team mates will motivate everybody to take part in the “Recycling the World” project.

RECYCLING THE WORLD
In 2007, the team has fight for victories but also to collect a maximum of trees for Mali, one of the poorest countries in the world. In deed, Saunier Duval celebrated its 100th anniversary and launched therefore a humanitarian initiative: “100 Years for a Million Trees”, in collaboration with the ONG Planète Urgence.

Each kilometre raced represented a tree, was worth double for breakaways and went up five times in the case of victories. The motivation for this project was great and many celebrities joined the team to help the planet. 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, Al Gore presented his film “An Inconvenient Truth” and for every copy sold in France a tree was planted in Mali. Cycling legends like Eddy Merckx, Miguel Indurain, Vittorio Adorni and many others have also helped the yellow squad to reach its goal. At the end of the season, 1 million of kilometres were ridden and 1 million of trees were collected to fight desertification.

Saunier Duval and its cycling team’s action favour 1,000 families, each one in charge of 1,000 trees. Schools have been involved, wells have been dug and a big friendship has been established between Mauro Gianetti’s team and this country.

The first goal has been achieved. Saunier Duval and its cycling team have decided to continue to work hard over the next months. In 2008, you will have the chance to take part in the project of reforestation by compensating your CO2 production thanks a donation of trees! For each tree donated by the public, Saunier Duval will plant a second one.

Discover more about “Recycling the World” on: www.saunierduval.es/mali.