RCS Sport has unveiled the 2026 edition of the Ride Green sustainability initiative designed to reduce the environmental impact of the Giro d’Italia. Now in its twelfth year, the project focuses on waste management, sustainable mobility, and reforestation across the host territories of the Corsa Rosa.
The initiative is centred on a stage-by-stage waste sorting system managed in collaboration with the E.R.I.C.A. cooperative. In the 2025 season, the project collected 70,648.50kg of waste, with 92% of the material successfully sent for recycling.
Ceglie Messapica in Puglia was the top-performing start location in 2025, achieving a recycling rate of 95.7%. Amongst finish locations, Cesano Maderno in Lombardy led with 95.9%.
RCS Sport is an international sports and media company based in Milan, Italy. It organises several of the most prestigious events on the UCI World Tour calendar, including the Giro d’Italia, Milano-Sanremo, and Il Lombardia.
A new highlight for the 2026 season is the ‘A Green Trail – Three, in Fact! 3,000 New Trees to Plant Together‘ initiative. Here, in partnership with VAIA, a benefit company focused on mountain reforestation, 3,000 trees will be planted across three host areas in the Dolomites.
Planting events were scheduled recently for April 18, 2026, in Darzo, April 23, 2026, in Canazei, and April 24, 2026, in Claut. These locations correspond to the routes of Stage 17, Stage 19, and Stage 20 of the upcoming Giro d’Italia.
VAIA will also provide winners of the BiciScuola project with the VAIA Cube, an object made from recycled wood sourced from trees destroyed during the 2018 storm in the Dolomites.
The BiciScuola educational project is celebrating its 25th edition in 2026. The initiative introduces primary school children to cycling values, healthy lifestyles, and road safety. To date, the project has reached 2 million students across 9,500 schools.
Early figures for the 2026 season show that 2,300 BiciScuola classes have already registered, involving 62,824 students and 4,470 teachers. The project recently announced Kahoot! as its Digital Learning Partner to provide interactive quizzes for the classroom.
BiciScuola also continues its partnership with the traffic police, who use their ‘Pullman Azzurro’ to teach road safety and sustainable mobility. Other partners for the 2026 edition include Conad, Continental, Novi, Kometa, and Sara Assicurazioni.
The Ride Green project ambassador is Marco Martinelli, a science communicator and TikToker known as ‘Marco il Giallino’, who delivers educational content to young audiences throughout the race.
The Giro-E event also remains a core part of Ride Green. The e-bike race allows amateur cyclists to ride on the same roads as the professionals, acting as an international ambassador for sustainable mobility and electric assisted cycling.
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