/ Green Pea, the new retail park in Turin, is intended to change the relationship between consumers and their buys /

“90% of scientists have no doubts. Global warming is an emergency, not a debate. Should we stop consuming? Or should we begin to consume with respect?” This realization and these questions were the seeds that gave rise to Green Pea, a shopping center that opened in Turin at the end of 2020. The initiative is a brain child of Oscar Farinetti, the brilliant businessman with a soft spot for Slow Food themes who has already brought to success the Italian food distribution and tasting chain Eataly and the FICO farming theme park in Bologna.

Described as “the first Green Retail Park in the world,” Green Pea is a 5-story, 15,000sqm building in the center of Turin, “the Italian town that has always invented.” Inside, the company’s intention is to change the way that the goods that make up the most substantial part of consumer activities are sold: energy, movement, clothing, home and leisure. “We intend to demonstrate that it is possible, immediately, to buy products and services of great quality and beauty, built in harmony with Nature and functional to a form of responsible use,” reads the Manifesto.

And the Green Pea Manifesto comes to life from the very building that was designed and built for it, with an investment of 50 million Euros. Based on the idea of a building that was as beautiful and as sustainable as possible, architects Cristiana Catino and Carlo Grometto have created a place with the characteristics of a natural organism, a building that is the first of its kind and that invites people to discover the world of sustainability while enjoying its beauty. Construction was done using exclusively recyclable materials (steel, iron, glass) and upcycled wood; similarly, the building deploys the most advanced solutions to generate and save energy: geothermal wells, photovoltaic and solar panels, wind power generators and systems to recapture kinetic energy. All these solutions are also channeled into a storytelling effort to raise awareness: this happens throughout the building and more specifically inside the Green Pea Discovery Museum, where guests are welcomed with visiting paths suitable for all ages and hands-on examples to discover how these technologies work. “Visiting Green Pea is like walking through our Manifesto, surrounded by 2.000 trees and plants,” explained the company.

Across five floors, visitors will find products…

Continue reading Games & Parks Industry June 2021, page 56

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