1

the fridge

the fridgefoundation

n.3

TALENT GARDEN

Where talented minds blossom and grow

EINSTAIN REFRIGERATOR

Zero-emission refrigerator

MORE G.A.S., LESS CASH

Quality and saving around people and the

environment

22electrolux-rex.it

A volte i piani per la cena cambiano con una telefonata.Cogli tutte le opportunità, sapendo che il nuovo frigocongelatore Electrolux Rex FreshPlus conserverà i tuoi cibi freschi fino a 7 giorni più a lungo*, utilizzando la stessa tecnologia che trovi nei frigoriferi professionali.

Questa è solo una delle caratteristiche dei nuovi frigocongelatori Electrolux Rex, ispirate da più di 90 anni di esperienza come partner di riferimento dei migliori ristoranti d’Europa. Abbiamo unito la nostra competenza professionale ad un design d’eccezione per creare una gamma di elettrodomestici che ti consente di vivere al massimo ogni momento, ogni giorno.

La nuova collezione Electrolux Rex.

* C

onfro

ntat

o co

n fri

gorif

eri c

ombi

nati

Full

No

Fros

t. Te

st c

ondo

tto d

all’i

stitu

to in

dipe

nden

te S

GS

Inst

itut F

rese

nius

Gm

bH, G

erm

ania

3

the fridge

We believe that food is a culture in our society: it offers the ideal medium for people from diverse backgrounds to learn about each other and share experiences. Through food people can experien-ce new sensations and practices that stem from a need or desire to make it their own: from how it is acquired and its role to how we eat it. We aim to promote a real “fridge culture” by showcasing different stories from around the world.By showcasing photographs of fridges not only can we learn more about how to use them and store food, but we can also share other people’s culinary customs, lifestyles, and individual diets whatever they may be.Alessandro B. - Founder of TheFridgeFoundation.org

This issue of The Fridge offers ideas, advice and tips as it takes you on a journey into the world of savings and sustainable negative growth in which lifestyles promote thrifty living, environmental and social sustainability and interpersonal relations, cooperation and altrui-sm that damages individualism. On our first stop we meet Adiconsum, the Italian Consumer and Environmental Protection Association, which reminds us that we can save energy in the home by making a series of changes in our everyday lives that can have a significant impact on our energy consumption and how much we pay for our bills. Next on our journey we meet the solidarity purchasing groups that help with the family budget and propose a different and ethically correct relationship between producers and consumers. Sharing equals savings, and it also means creativity as they prove on a daily basis in the Talent Gardens, the low-cost of-fices that are springing up like mushrooms all over Italy. Even hostels are getting a new look nowadays and becoming an inexpensive yet comfortable alternative with a major focus on bio-compatibility and environmental impact. Entrepreneur Damiano Mazzarella tells us about his life experience with a difference: he moved from hot, sunny Rome to the cooler climes of Sweden where he now shops in markets that look like museums. Next up cold becomes art, saves lives during donor organ transportations, and becomes a wonderful children’s fairytale in the book “La Marcia dei Frigoriferi Verso il Polo Nord” (March of the Refrigerators to the North Pole). The Fridge Foundation magazine hasn’t forgotten about the environmental issues which are featured here with Giuseppe Onufrio, Director of Greenpeace Italia, and zero-emission refrigerators.

OUR MISSIONWe aim to promote

a real “fridge culture” by showcasing different

stories from around the world

2electrolux-rex.it

A volte i piani per la cena cambiano con una telefonata.Cogli tutte le opportunità, sapendo che il nuovo frigocongelatore Electrolux Rex FreshPlus conserverà i tuoi cibi freschi fino a 7 giorni più a lungo*, utilizzando la stessa tecnologia che trovi nei frigoriferi professionali.

Questa è solo una delle caratteristiche dei nuovi frigocongelatori Electrolux Rex, ispirate da più di 90 anni di esperienza come partner di riferimento dei migliori ristoranti d’Europa. Abbiamo unito la nostra competenza professionale ad un design d’eccezione per creare una gamma di elettrodomestici che ti consente di vivere al massimo ogni momento, ogni giorno.

La nuova collezione Electrolux Rex.

* C

onfro

ntat

o co

n fri

gorif

eri c

ombi

nati

Full

No

Fros

t. Te

st c

ondo

tto d

all’i

stitu

to in

dipe

nden

te S

GS

Inst

itut F

rese

nius

Gm

bH, G

erm

ania

Prenditi cura di ciò che ami. Dalle sfilate di moda ad un evento mondano a New York, Veronica è nota per il suo look. Il suo blog illustra tutte le ultime tendenze di stile: ogni giorno è una nuova occasione, naturalmente anche un nuovo outfit. Ma come riesce ad avere sempre un aspetto così luminoso e fresco? Forse è grazie alle vitamine perfettamente conservate nello scomparto frutta e verdura del suo frigorifero Panasonic NR-B32FX2. Lo scomparto Vitamin Safe è infatti dotato di luci a LED blu e verdi, che simulano la luce naturale del sole, per una conservazione ottimale e più duratura degli alimenti. Anche questo è il segreto del sorriso e della forma smagliante di Veronica!

Scopri tutto su Veronica sul sito panasonic.it/veronica-frigoriferi

Veronica Ferraro, Fashion Blogger, Milano

“UN RAGGIO DI SOLE NEL MIO FRIGO.”

PAN_IT_VF_Haushaltsgeraete_190x260_Bottom_fridge_The_Fridge_Foundation_39L300.indd 1 09.11.12 18:01

the fridgefoundation

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

COLOpHON

MANAGING EDITOR

EDITORIAL STAFF

ART DIRECTION & GRApHICS

FREELANCERS

pUbLISHER

The Fridge Foundation via E. Filiberto 7/A 20149 MilanoT + 39 02 396 115 26 +39 02 396 115 66 press@thefridgefoundation.org

Reproduction, even partial, of the contents and photographs is prohibited.

Andrea Canevese

Alessandra Fraschini

Antonella ArmigeroValeria Lodesani

Studiovix

Alessandro Boccolini Sara Carraresi

Contemporanea srlvia E. Filiberto 7/A 20149 Milano

MOvE yOUR FRIDGE FOR CHEApER bILLS… 6

QUALITy AND SAvINGS: MORE G.A.S., LESS CASH 8

WHERE TALENTED MINDS bLOSSOM AND GROW… 10

HOSTELS ON A pAR WITH HOTELS 12

MUSEUMS?NO, SWEDISH SUpERMARkETS 14

FRIGIDO. WHEN COLD bECOMES ART 16

THE FRIDGE’S WARM HEART 18

THE 0-EMISSION FRIDGE 20

WHEN COLD SAvES LIvES 22

THE FRIDGE ACCORDING TO GREENpEACE 24

FACEFRIDGE 26

Prenditi cura di ciò che ami. Dalle sfilate di moda ad un evento mondano a New York, Veronica è nota per il suo look. Il suo blog illustra tutte le ultime tendenze di stile: ogni giorno è una nuova occasione, naturalmente anche un nuovo outfit. Ma come riesce ad avere sempre un aspetto così luminoso e fresco? Forse è grazie alle vitamine perfettamente conservate nello scomparto frutta e verdura del suo frigorifero Panasonic NR-B32FX2. Lo scomparto Vitamin Safe è infatti dotato di luci a LED blu e verdi, che simulano la luce naturale del sole, per una conservazione ottimale e più duratura degli alimenti. Anche questo è il segreto del sorriso e della forma smagliante di Veronica!

Scopri tutto su Veronica sul sito panasonic.it/veronica-frigoriferi

Veronica Ferraro, Fashion Blogger, Milano

“UN RAGGIO DI SOLE NEL MIO FRIGO.”

PAN_IT_VF_Haushaltsgeraete_190x260_Bottom_fridge_The_Fridge_Foundation_39L300.indd 1 09.11.12 18:01

6

Pietro GiordanoPresident of

Adiconsum, the Italian Consumer

and Environmental Protection Association

A+++A++A+

AB

CD

7

the fridge

MOvE yOUR FRIDGE FOR CHEApER bILLS…We can save energy in the home by making a series of changes in our everyday lives that can have a significant impact on our energy consumption and how much we pay for our bills. Take Adiconsum’s word for it.

di Valeria Lodesani

The energy used by household appliances accounts for about 80% of our domestic electricity bills. If we want to save energy, first of all we need to learn to recognise the energy label on household appliances, which was renewed and extended to cover all products relating to energy consumption at the end of 2011. The new European energy label was designed to offer consu-mers more help when comparing and choosing the go-ods that enable them to use less energy (and therefore also save more money). It features 3 new classes on the energy scale that identify the most energy efficient products (A+, A++ and A+++), and new pictograms (explanatory icons) that give consumers more informa-tion about the products’ features and how they per-form. You need to check the energy label when you buy a refrigerator or a freezer, and you should also look for a quality label that is recognised throughout Europe, such as BSI in the United Kingdom or IMQ in Italy, which confirms that the appliance conforms to safe-ty standards. The EU ECOLABEL is another one to look for (a flower with stars for petals and the “E” for Europe in the middle). This label indicates an “envi-ronmentally-compatible” product that normally also

uses less electricity. Here are some simple yet important tips for saving energy and keeping your refrigerator and freezer in good condition: position the refrigerator in the coolest part of the kitchen (away from the oven and hob, ra-diators and windows), leave a space of at least 10 cm between the back of the appliance and the wall, and check that there is also space above and below the ap-pliance to ensure adequate ventilation, set the thermo-stat of the refrigerator to a position midway between minimum and halfway; if the temperature is too cold, it can increase energy consumption by 10-15%, and is no good for preserving food. Do not put too much in the refrigerator, and try to leave space between the food and the sides of the fridge to allow air to circulate. Make sure you open and close the door on your refri-gerator and freezer quickly and correctly: most energy is wasted by the dispersion of heat. Care and mainte-nance are also an essential part of prolonging the life of your refrigerator and freezer and saving energy: check that the rubber seals are in good condition (and repla-ce them if necessary), clean the condenser (switch off the electricity first though), and defrost the appliance if the layer of ice becomes thicker than 5 mm.

How many times have you opened the fridge and it’s empty, or you’ve only found a few things and none of them inspire you or get your creative culinary juices flowing? What’s in my fridge is the app that could solve your problems and simplify your life. Ideal for people who live on their own, the app is easy to use and suggests recipes based on what’s left in your fridge. With simple, intuitive and minimal graphics, the app lets you post your recipes on Facebook and photograph the results of your culinary endeavours to share with your friends.

8

9

the fridge

QUALITy AND SAvINGS: MORE G.A.S., LESS CASHSimple, direct, universal. Solidarity purchasing groups propose a different relationship between producers and consumers that revolves around people and the environment.

di Valeria Lodesani

G.A.S. is an acronym for “gruppi di acquisto solidale” or solidarity purchasing groups. These groups aim to give a new mea-ning to the chain of production pro-cesses by reorganising them with direct, stable relations between sellers and buyers. They hope to bring about major changes in our lifestyle, taking us in the direction of more critical and ethical con-sumption based on a new economy well away from the supermarket, the usual distribution channels, and from the excessive power wielded by multinatio-nal companies by placing people, relations and the environment at the centre of the equation. Within this new logic, they try to transform the elements judged by others to be diseconomies into resources: organic goods with their costs, saving disadvantaged organisations, the wa-ste of the standardised offer, safeguarding biodiversities and, last but not least, transparent pricing that guarantees savings for buyers and dignity for sellers.Who are G.A.S. groups?Solidarity purchasing groups are set up by people who have decided to come together to buy a range of different products in bulk; since these groups started the most commonly bou-ght goods are the ones we use every day, such as organic fo-ods, fruit, vegetables, and also bread, cleaning products and even electricity, telephony, travel and wellness products. But it’s not just about saving money. G.A.S. groups are not solely guided by the price: it’s about solidarity which “also” takes the form of goods at lower prices. Thinking that it is only a matter of saving money belittles the concept, G.A.S. groups undermine the foundations of our very economy; they are critical, effective and in some ways even “revolutionary”. All they need to do is collect the orders and satisfy demand by

starting with the small local producers, and it is essential that these are as close as

possible so you get the chance to ac-tually meet and get to know them. A direct relationship between the consumer and the producer that should also be “profitable” for both parties; not just for the consumer, but also for the seller as this rela-tionship is based shared interests.

Thanks to G.A.S. groups the goods are more than a product; they beco-

me a tool for establishing relations between people so long as the “groups” re-

main small, local and solidary. Each G.A.S. group has its own voice or speaks for a

mini network, which is formed by multiple G.A.S. groups in an area and coordinates their activities. There are no ru-les or charters, nor a minimum number of people needed to set up a G.A.S. group. The groups have no geographical boundaries, no president, secretary or representative; each one is organised independently and “lives” its own life. The groups (about 750 groups are actually registered but it is estimated that there are at least twice that figure) are con-nected by a “network” so that they can share and exchange information. Each G.A.S. group has its own criteria of how it selects suppliers, chooses how the goods are delivered, and establishes a fair price with the producer. These groups have no universal code but over the years they have put to-gether some guidelines that can be summed up as small, local and solidary and by the 3 “Ps” of Product, Process, and Project. Whether or not goods are organic is one criterion used when choosing what to buy, but it is not the only one: others include supporting social cooperatives, the quality of the packaging, proximity, whether the produce is in season, and the size of the producer.

But it’s not just about saving

money.G.A.S. groups are not solely

guided by the price: it’s about solidarity which “also” takes the form

of goods at lower prices.

10

They couldn’t have picked a better name to describe this hotbed of

flourishing talent

TAG

11

the fridge

WHERE TALENTED MINDS bLOSSOM AND GROW…TAG offers much more than just low-cost offices. Sharing workspaces, ideas and professional skills stimulates creativity: this is the secret behind the Talent Gardens.

di Alessandra Fraschini

In a garden the different plants all germinate and grow together to create a marvellous environment where they all simulta-neously collaborate and compete, influencing each other to establish a real ecosystem in a successful garden. This philosophy provided the genesis for the TAG phenomenon, otherwise known as Talent Gardens, the low-cost office space where people can cowork.Coworking first began in America and Northern Europe as a style of work that involves a shared working environment, often an office, and inde-pendent activity. Unlike in a typical office envi-ronment, those coworking are usually not emplo-yed by the same organisation. Some coworking spaces were developed by nomadic internet entre-preneurs seeking an alternative to working in cof-fee shops and cafes, or to the isolation that many freelancers experience while working in indepen-dent or home offices while at the same time letting them escape the distractions of home. Talent Garden is a low-cost office space where you can rent a desk, a meeting room or a workstation for brief or long periods of time, and be in tune with the new increasingly more rapid and flexible rhythms of professional life. But it is also an ecosy-stem that welcomes and “helps” creative minds to discuss and compare issues relating to the web and communication in a free and productive way, ma-king it easier to exchange ideas and projects. They can challenge each other and work together, natu-rally pitting themselves against each other while influencing and being influenced. This naturally

adds consistency and entrepreneurial humus to an environment in which new seedlings can blossom and grow from the buds of new ideas, and new companies can enjoy the best terrain in which to grow, develop and beco-me successfully established. TAG

becomes a social gathering of a group of people who although they are working

independently share the same values and en-joy the synergies that flourish when talented peo-ple get together. So, how much does this cost? It’s quite reasonable, about € 250 a month plus V.A.T.Where are the TAG?Several TAG have recently opened in Italy, in Brescia and Dalmine. But probably the most suc-cessful TAG can be found in a large office space on Via Merano, which is just outside Milan city centre. Open twenty-four hours a day, it covers 30,000 m2 over three floors and is furnished and decorated with cardboard tables and columns co-vered with moss to create a natural setting. This is the workplace for the guys from BadSeed, who are working on a new videogame project for smartpho-nes, the Tannico.it team, an e-commerce website that selects and sells bottles of the finest wine, and the creators of Wanderio.com, a portal that lets you plan your trips from doorstep to final destination by booking all your tickets in a click. And then the-re are also lots of freelancers: programmers, web designers, and even young photographers like Ali-ce Caputo, one of the winners of the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards. A powerful blend of pure talent!

The new look for

hostels Smaller rooms, with

en-suite facilities, rooms for families and for people with disabilities. A focus on biocompatibility and

minimum environmental impact

13

the fridge

AIG, the Italian Youth Hostels Association, curren-tly has more than one hundred hostels, making it the largest accommodation chain in Italy. The Italian Hostelling International ho-stels have kept pace with the global deve-lopment of the movement and adapted to cope with the growing demands for social and youth tourism. This has led to the accommodation being given a face-lift: smaller rooms, which always have en-suite facilities, rooms for families and for people with disabilities, a focus on biocom-patibility and minimum environmental impact. AIG’s hostels can also count on some Italian added value: 65% of the hostels are located in buildings of historical or architectural value that have been converted to fit their new purpose. Another plus point is that they offer many mainly cultural activities in addition to accommodation. How is the Milan hostel run?The youth hostel is a special type of accommodation originally designed for young people but is now open to people of all ages. The real advantage is that it is very economical and has many common areas that encourage and make it easier for guests to socialise, a fundamen-tal element of a proper education for young people. The Milan hostel can sleep 350 people and complies with all health and hygiene regulations. If not properly managed, the refrigerator could potentially become a main source of contamination; this is why we decided it was better not to offer our guests access to a shared refrigerator in such a large establishment. However we do offer a shared re-frigerator at our hostel in Bergamo, which has a capacity of 85 beds.Who typically stays in your hostel?Generally speaking we have three types of guest: young people, families and groups. The young people range from 18 to 25/27 years of age; they are traditional travel-lers or youngsters visiting Milan on study or cultural trips.

The families, particularly in the summer, are fo-reigners with young children who are travel-

ling as tourists or use the hostel as their main base. The groups are high school, college or university students mainly from other countries, or sports clubs, choirs, and cultural associations with shared interests. What is the hostel’s capacity and

when are you busiest?Occupancy is heavily influenced by

what’s going on in the city, such as events and trade exhibitions. The biggest is the Milan

Furniture Fair, which brings in the most guests, and is closely followed by the International Tourism Exchan-ge exhibition and the Macef International Home Show. Gusts also stay here for major football matches, such as UEFA and Champions League games, or Formula One Grands Prix, as well big concerts, particularly in the sum-mer.How many refrigerators do you have? Is the fridge a meeting place?In Milan, we have the kitchen refrigerator for the bre-akfast food and a fridge in the reception for the emplo-yees; we sometimes let guests use this one if they need to keep medication cool. We also have other refrigerators kept in a locked room that are available for young peo-ple who stay with us for several months at a time while studying or training as they have different needs.The Bergamo hostel is ranked as the Best European Hostel thanks to its location and the quality of the fur-nishings and facilities. It has a Refrigerator Area where guests can store their food in traditional hermitically se-aled containers labelled with their name and the date. This makes life easier for those who manage the cleaning. I reckon the refrigerator is a fantastic “place” to get toge-ther with others. In a hostel it’s also a bit of an attraction, like a design feature, especially if it looks stylish.

Hostelling International – known as AIG in Italy – offers a bona fide low-cost alternative for people who really want to see the world. We spoke with Lucia Chessa, who runs the youth hostel in Milan.

HOSTELS ON A pAR WITH HOTELS

di Alessandra Fraschini

14

Damiano Mazzarella

Rome to Sweden, without looking back. Damiano lives in a cool, modern city with

outstanding young chefs who are making their mark

15

the fridge

MUSEUMS?NO, SWEDISH SUpERMARkETSEntrepreneur Damiano Mazzarella emigrated from sunny Rome to chilly Malmo in Sweden. He loves doing the shopping because Swedish supermarkets seem like museums. His fridge is full of healthy, fresh food to ensure a good diet for his three children.

di Antonella Armigero

Rome to Sweden. What drove you to make such a drastic life change?Everyone has asked me, “What made you do it?” since I left. However, if you’re driven by instinct, it can’t be that rational. Let’s say that I convinced myself it was the right choice to “emigrate” up to the cold northern regions where the people are cold and everything seems to be really cold.Actually, that’s not true. Even the famous magazine Mo-nocle, my guru among magazines, confirms that Scandi-navians (and especially the Danes) are the happiest people in the world! And I believe it; I live in Malmo, across the water from Copenhagen, and I found the city to be extre-mely vibrant, super cool and modern, a mini melting pot. Plus the people are really young and they seem to have that public spirit which is lacking in many areas of Italy. Beauti-ful women dashing around on bicycles and young lads who all dress completely differently. So for now it’s long live the new Viking supermodel and you can keep the mandolins and sunsets. Italy? Yes, it’s a great place.... for a holiday!How have your habits changed?Well, since I stopped smoking and drinking I haven’t got many habits left. For the time being I’m a slave, kept pri-soner by my fabulous young children. And as I’ve got three there’s plenty to do.And your relationship with food?My relationship with food hasn’t begun yet; we haven’t been introduced yet, but maybe a relationship will get going … Joking aside though, the problem is that I come from a family that’s slightly unique and food never played a major role in the home. My father often advised me not to eat too much to avoid making a bad impression with the girls I went out with, while my mother, like a good smart Ame-rican, never wanted to compete with Italian haute cuisine.

I had a nanny who stayed with me until I was twenty and loved me as if I were her one of her own but she definitely was not the most talented in the kitchen. I survived by ea-ting a bit of this and that. Maybe that’s where I got lucky.What are the dietary customs in Sweden?Damiano – I want to laugh because this question makes me feel completely Italian and I’d like to shout at the top of my voice to the rest of the world about our culinary invincibility. We eat well in Italy because the ingredients are simple. But in Sweden they have three courses toge-ther on one big plate; first and second courses and every now and then pineapple even turns up in the middle of it all. Edible, but with your eyes shut. I’m joking. We eat good, healthy food in my house. Otherwise my wife gets mad.How would you describe the Swedes in the kitchen? And what are they like socially?The Swedes are great cooks and a new generation of chefs is emerging over here. You’d be astounded if you went to Stockholm. I’ve enjoyed the incredible expe-rience of Noma, voted the world’s best restaurant three years running. Now that really leaves you speechless.What do you keep in your fridge in Malmo?I love doing the shopping; it’s the one hour I’m let out for exercise, just joking. Plus being in a Swedish supermar-ket is a bit like being in a museum. Everyone is blonde, clean and tidy. And you meet some beautiful women, the famous “Swedish blondes” and you just want to buy everything in sight. The fridge is often full, but it doesn’t contain many preserves. I don’t preserve very much. Do you ever feel homesick?Nostalgia for Italy... To be honest I’m not the sort of person who gets nostalgic, I haven’t got time to look back.

16

A Lousto in Lapponia, a pochi passi dal villaggio di

Babbo Natale, per non perdere l’occasione di godere dell’Aurora

Boreale è stato istituito un servizio sms, per aspettare

l’evento comodamente dall’Aurora Chalet

Alla scoperta dei ghiacci

Alice Pedroletti

The cold is no longer something from which we

must or can protect ourselves, but something to be tackled

head on. “Frigido” is detachment, a break

with the past

17

the fridge

Frigoriferi Milanesi Frigoriferi Milanesi is a place that focuses on art and culture where people can meet and exchange ideas. It organises many initiatives, such as Frigo-diffusione which is a collection of shows, presen-tations and discussions open to everyone involving expressive experimentations on a range of themes. A new cultural frequency that you can tune into at any time.

FRIGIDO. WHEN COLD bECOMES ARTAlice Pedroletti, a young Milanese artist, chose the cold (frigidus) as a way to break with existing form for an event organised by Frigodiffusione at Frigoriferi Milanesi.

di Valeria Lodesani

Alice Pedroletti is a young artist and photographer who fo-cuses her craft on the many aspects of life and vision. Her works explore the relationship between man and the en-vironment, the personal and collective memory of places, time and space, and the etymological and semantic study of words that accompany actions; creating archives as an individual discipline and artistic practice. Frigido. Vita di un archivio (2012) is about the birth and life of Alice’s archive and is presented as the story of a creative process. Alice used her archive of photographs as inspiration and selected negatives of past experiences, old jobs, and faded memories from which she decided the time had come to make a break. By submerging the chosen negatives in liquid nitrogen she subjected them to sub-zero temperatures and an irreversible chemical chan-ge that transformed them into something akin to crystals. After removing the negatives from the liquid nitrogen Alice preceded to destroy them. The negatives shattered with no real control into different sized pieces, changing their ap-pearance and their meaning: they lost their role as master copies, and also lost the images they had once borne, and gained accentuated materiality, another form and new va-lue as works of art. The next step was to methodically file the fragments in order of size, an action that marked the genesis of a new archive. The exhibition at Frigoriferi Milanesi is the debut show-ing of a project that evolves over time, following the artist’s ideational and cognitive path. In addition to a series of co-loured fragments framed on canvases and some abstract slides, the exhibition also includes Alice’s notes, studies, tools and a video that reveals the groundbreaking process involved in her work. “I chose the cold (frigidus) as the idea of definitive im-mobility, as way to break with existing form. The cold is no longer something from which we must or can protect ourselves, but something to be tackled head on. “Frigido” is thought, and memory, it’s the moment in which the pain of an emotion allows us to grow. “Frigido” is detachment, a break with the past” - Alice Pedroletti

Alice Pedroletti was born and grew up in Milan, where she still lives and works today. She has taken part in many group exhibitions in recent years, mainly with installations and photographic projects, but also with videos and performances. Some of these were first inspired du-ring art residencies, such as the recent Senza Titolo (AKM0 art residency, Gozzano, 2012), during which Alice used her family archive and personal life ex-periences to retrace the memory of Lake d’Orta and the Bemberg textile factory (which is now disused), where her grandmother worked for more than thirty years. Alice’s latest experience was in Florida, where she presented a work about the “madness” of Henry Flagler, the American oil tycoon who was responsible for building the road from Miami to Key West and the “Old Seven Mile Bridge” at the beginning of the last century. At the time this colossal bridge was said to be the Eighth Wonder of the World.

18

Free-zeer!

In the book the household appliances that

have caused the greenhouse effect rebel against mankind and

its bad habits; now they are finally free they put themselves in the hands of the

new generation to embark on a symbolic, daring journey to save a precariously balanced ecosystem. If you would like

to read more about the author, visit www.francosacchetti.it

19

the fridge

THE FRIDGE’S WARM HEARTWaking up and discovering that the fridge has gone; it’s embarked on an environmental mission to save the arctic ice from melting. This is the story told by Franco Sacchetti in his book “La Marcia dei Frigoriferi Verso il Polo Nord” (March of the Refrigerators to the North Pole), an environmental fable that appeals to all ages.

di Antonella Armigero

What inspired you to write this green fable?I have followed the environmen-tal cause for many years as a WWF activist and a cartoonist for The Ecologist, and through envi-ronmental education with teaching workshops for children. The book is a fusion of my experiences and my travels, and a pretext to tell a story about ecology in a brand-new way that everyone can understand.Who is this book for?For my generation which was born in the concrete of our cities, a child of television and adverti-sing; a generation that has forgot-ten about the bond between man and the planet. Luckily something is now changing; this is the time to be more aware of what’s going on and teach our children to take back the future, and fight for a bet-ter planet.Why did you choose the refri-gerator to lead a revolution that starts in our homes?The fridge, like the television, re-flects our society. The difference between them is that we can do without one but not the other. It’s the household appliance that con-tains our nutrition and if it’s true that we are what we eat, we need to be more mindful of what’s insi-de and how we use it.

What would our lives be like wi-thout refrigerators? Can we do without?I spent some time without a fridge to write the book. It was difficult but not impossible. We don’t need to get rid of the technology; we just need to use it more intelligently. For example, the fridge helps us to con-serve food better and for longer and can improve the quality of life in hot countries around the world.What’s your relationship like with your fridge?Our relationship has improved sin-ce I chose to use solar power. I’m now much less worried about an ap-pliance that is always on. I’ve always viewed the fridge as a suggestive object that’s full of meaning; it’s the only appliance to have earned an upright position in our homes. It’s as tall as a person and is almost human-like, as I write in my book. The frid-ge also has a warm heart that clashes with the cold heart of mankind who is letting the Earth perish.What’s in your refrigerator? Which food do you never have?Soy or rice milk, vegetables which I am lucky enough to pick in the wo-ods near Vasto, and leftovers, becau-se it’s important not to waste food. You will never find out-of-season fruit in my fridge or meat, because I’m a vegetarian, and there are no

products associated with the exploi-tation of labour. The book tells the story of a family and each member embarks on a journey of growth and realisation. What role do the parents play?Valdo, the boy who is the main cha-racter, decides to follow the refrige-rators as they march to the North Pole in order to save it: a blank page on which to write the future. Even though his father stays at home, he begins to make radical changes to his habits starting with small everyday things like not using the car and regret over the refrigerator. This revolution starts in our homes and with the family, and the parents have to support the children. Are there any children like Val-do who already feel that they can change the world? I meet inquisitive and responsive children during my teaching wor-kshops. They are very attentive and learn easily. Thanks to their en-thusiasm I can get through to the adults and convey the right values.What is the first step we need to take to change our lifestyle?Read labels, understand where the food comes from and how it is pro-duced, and change our relationship with food by looking at the planet and the people who farm it with more respect.

20

21

the fridge

THE 0-EMISSION FRIDGEOur refrigerators are increasingly more energy efficient, but they contain refrigerant gases that can potentially be pollutants. An idea from the past could now give us a truly green fridge.

di Antonella Armigero

A green fridge that uses no electricity and contains no harmful gases? It sounds like a modern-day innovation but it was actual-ly invented by Einstein and his student Leó Szilárd back in 1926. In those days fridges used a highly toxic gas, and wear and tear on the internal mechanism fre-quently caused the seals to break and harmful fumes to leak out. To get around this pro-blem the man who developed the theory of relativity inven-ted a fridge without a motor based on the principle of absorption, which did not involve the use of harmful pollutants. Unfortunately freon became commonly used in the current re-frigeration systems and so this prototype was never commercially produced. The man who recovered the patent and brought the newly-named Einstein Refrigerator back to

the world is Malcolm McCulloch, an elec-trical engineer at Oxford. The British team started work on a three-year project to deve-lop a fridge powered by renewable sources

of energy, such as small photovoltaic panels, that works with more

environmentally-friendly li-quid gases.

Another group working on a zero-emission fridge is Camfridge, a start-up at Cambridge University that cho-se to use magnetic fields. Magnetic re-frigeration is based on

the magnetocaloric ef-fect obtained with very

expensive and hard-to-find alloys, such as lantha-

num and silicon-germanium. The Camfridge doesn’t have a mo-

tor so it will be very spacious and quiet. The scientists are developing less costly alloys to produce this innovative green fridge on a lar-ge commercial scale.

Free cooling

The term Freeijis is a combination of “free” and the

Swahili word “friji”, which means “fresh” and “pure”, and the letter “S” which stands for

the principle of how this fridge works

A combination of technology and design provi-des the winning characteristics of Freeijis, the electricity-free fridge designed by Caterina Fal-leni, a young designer who graduated from the ISIA Design Institute in Florence, and won the prestigious Alexera Singularity Contest which enabled her to study at the NASA centre in Sili-con Valley. Freeijis is a domestic cooling system for fruit and vegetables, and the way it works is as simple as it is innovative: it is based on the same water evaporation process used by the human

body to regulate body temperature. Caterina is now working on a new version of the first pro-totype; an aluminium container inside another clay container with water in between the two that enables evaporation and the internal part to automatically cool. This device has great social as well as environmental value because it makes the consumer more responsible and is based on the concept of clean, natural energy that can be used by everyone.

Freeijis, the electricity-free fridge

22

Fast, safe transport

Innova Bollanti specialises in fitting out healthcare vehicles for transporting organs. These

vehicles are equipped with portable refrigerators and

systems for emergency communications to monitor

the transfer

23

the fridge

WHEN COLD SAvES LIvESDoctor Antonio Secchi, the coordinator of the transplant unit at San Raffaele Hospital, explains how organs are transported and preserved to The Fridge Foundation. This is when cold and time play an essential role in saving lives.

di Antonella Armigero

How are organs transported in Italy? Do you have special refrigerators?Organs that are suitable for transplant are tran-sported in isothermal containers and portable refrigerators, which have special labels so they can be easily identified. We do not use thermo-static fridges. They are working on prototypes of equipment with portable instruments for the perfusion of the organs.How are the organs preserved? At what temperature is this done?The organ is placed in a sterile double bag to create an insulating barrier against the outside and this is put in melting water ice at a tempe-rature of 4° centigrade. This method is known as cold ischaemia, the organs and tissues do not receive a supply of blood or oxygen, and the tem-perature allows us to stop metabolic and decay processes.What time scales are involved with cold ischaemia?The time varies from organ to organ. The he-art is the most delicate organ and needs to be transplanted within two, maximum four hours after retrieval. A kidney can have a longer cold ischaemic time, even up to twenty-four hours, although it is advisable to act within twelve to sixteen hours.What vehicles are used to transport the or-gans?We use specially equipped healthcare vehicles, and helicopters for urgent cases.

How are the different units coordinated?Up to sixty people with a wide range of different skills may be involved in a transplant. Communi-cation needs to be swift and clear because at ti-mes like this speed and clarity are of the essence. Our organisation is the result of thirty years’ work and is like a well-oiled machine with constantly updated protocols and plans of action.Are the assignment of organs and procedu-res meticulously regulated?Doctor Nanni Costa, director of the National Transplant Centre, has created a system that acts with maximum transparency. Organ transplanta-tion is the only field of medicine in which all the data is published online and may be accessed by everyone in the country. Organs are assigned to recipients via a national waiting list. This prevents favouritism and allows every action to be clearly coordinated with rigorously controlled organs.How many transplant surgeries are perfor-med in your hospital?At San Raffaele we perform about sixty a year. 7,000 people are on the waiting list in Italy and 1,600 transplants are performed every year. Un-fortunately the number of donors does not in-crease, and far too many people are still dying while waiting for an organ. It’s better to dispel any doubts for people, Italian law is very pro civil rights; if brain death is declared, the patient is no longer alive, and nothing should stand in the way of an act of love and generosity like donating an organ.

An act of pure life We can all become donors. All you need to do is register with AIDO, the Italian Association of Organ Donors, and make a voluntary declaration that you wish to become a donor. As well as being an act of love and generosity, it is also a social duty that can give hope and life when a life has gone. Visit the AIDO website at www.aido.it

24

25

the fridge

What is the GreenFreeze project?We aimed to find low-impact alternatives in order to prevent emerging markets from using harmful substances as they developed their economies, and the domestic refrigerator mar-ket was the first sector to be targeted. Green-Freeze was first highly successful in Germany, and this enabled us to take the project to Chi-na in the second half of the 1990s. So this is not a new project, but an ongoing relatively successful concern that most people are still not aware of.Which refrigerant gas does it use?Natural refrigerants are used in the different product sectors from domestic refrigerators to commercial and industrial refrigeration systems and fixed and mobile conditioners: mixes of hydrocarbons, ammonia, water, CO2 and air, substances that do not deplete the ozone layer and have low global warming po-tential (nothing for air, water and ammonia). Greenpeace promoted an international initia-tive – “Refrigerants Naturally” – that involves many important businesses and corporations with the aim of them voluntarily committing to transitioning to natural refrigerants with precise deadlines.Why is it so innovative and environmen-tally friendly?Because the HFCs that replaced the CFCs once they were banned are potent greenhou-se gases and unless we rapidly eliminate their use the global emissions of greenhouse gases will significantly increase. It was recently esti-mated that if we don’t get rid of these gases,

they will account for 27% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2050.Does it have any limits compared with a traditional fridge?No limits, if anything the drive for innova-tion has led to improved efficiency. The latest example is the one developed by Coca-Cola in collaboration with Greenpeace for its “cold chain” which was presented at the Olympic Games in Beijing: not only were the HFCs eli-minated, but efficiency was improved by 30%. Obviously this is initially more expensive, but that is always the way when technology is im-proved and an industrial standard is changed.What are the possible commercial deve-lopments?Fundamental commercial developments have already been made in the domestic refrigera-tion industry, and there are already about 650 million GreenFreeze refrigerators around the world. Today 90% of the refrigerators made in Europe and 75% of those made in China are based on this standard: if we buy a new fridge-freezer today more than likely we will see it is a GreenFreeze, while back in the 1990s when production first started you had to order that specific model. The American market has ope-ned up relatively recently and limitations are in place so only high-end models are available (maybe because the main producers of HFCs are American?). There is still a lot to be done in the automotive conditioning industry; there are still no products based on GreenFreeze in this industry, only a variety of possibilities for conversion and adaptation.

THE FRIDGE ACCORDING TO GREENpEACEGiuseppe Onufrio, the Director of Greenpeace Italia, explains the project for a refrigerator designed in the 1990s to create an alternative not only to the use of ozone-depleting CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons, banded by the Montreal Protocol), but also the HFC (hydrofluorocarbons) greenhouse gases

di Alessandra Fraschini

26

Andrea 33 years old, web designer

Andrea has been married for a year. He does the shopping once a week and

knows exactly what he’s going to eat every day. He rounds off all his evening

meals with a glass of chilled Mirto, the Sardinian liqueur, even though

he has plenty of in-season fruit and vegetables.

Kamila 42 years old,

fashion product manager Originally from Poland, Kamila became an Italian citizen nearly

thirty years ago. She loves making alternatives to Italian and Polish cuisine for her children and partner. She always

has Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and Strolghino salami in her fridge; two traditional products from

Piacenza, where she stays at weekends.

27

the fridge

Davide32 years old

veterinary surgeonDavide lives on his own but is very

careful about what he eats. He is a gym fiend and alternates carbohydrates and protein after a tough workout session. He is also

very careful about what OMBRA, his six-month-old kitten, eats and

sometimes treats her to some ham.

When you open the door to someone’s fridge you can learn a lot about their habits, vices and virtues: it’s not just the food, even the quantity and quality and which shelf it’s on can reveal the behind-the-scene details of all our lives. So, tell me about your fridge, and I’ll tell you who you are!

FACEFRIDGE

28

Paola 36 years old,

mother

Paola is a true Neapolitan and only uses organic produce or products

whose origins she is sure of. It goes without saying that dining at Paola’s house is heaven for the

taste buds ….she follows her grandmother’s recipes to

the letter.

Tommaso and Caterina

35 and 33 years old respectively, and married

for 5 years

Tommaso’s fridge was only introduced to order and fresh food after he got married. Before that

chaos and frozen food reigned supreme.

29

the fridge

Send us your photo and your profile to

press@thefridgefoundation.org and we’ll publish it in the

next issue!

ARE yOU FACEFRIDGE?