Monte Vibiano Vecchio

Last spring I was invited to Monte Vibiano Vecchio, near the small town of Marsciano in the Umbrian hills. Of all the environmentally progressive rural projects I’ve studied, this is easily one of the most ambitious – and successful. Managed by Lorenzo Fasola Bologna, a city exile who returned to his family’s land after working in Perugia, Monte Vibiano Vecchio has been transformed from a conventional farm into a complex experiment in sustainable agriculture.

Now boasting a full-scale winery and on-site olive mill, 20 employees and 300 hectares of cultivated land, Monte Vibiano Vecchio aspires to be a model for other green businesses to follow. The company’s initiatives are outlined in their 360 Green Revolution plan, and include the following:

• Planting over 10,000 trees on the site to absorb greenhouse gas emissions
• Generating energy for the office and production facilities through solar panels
• Using electric farm vehicles, powered by solar charging stations
• Converting chemical fertilisers to organic
• Covering silos in special heat-reflective white paint

Bologna told me that these projects have been implemented with greater speed and success than even he predicted. Committed to developing a network of sympathetic partners, the company builds incentives for ecological sensitivity into its business structure. Their deliveries are carried out by Poste Italiane on the basis of their demonstrated efforts to reduce energy consumption. A distribution deal for the company’s wines has been struck with the nonprofit Co-Op, a national supermarket chain with a noted commitment to promoting local organic agriculture, as well as produce from mafia-reclaimed land.

Bologna’s attempt to sustain Marsciano’s employment base and ensure a high quality of life for local workers is perhaps the part of his plan that left me most impressed. Almost all employees live locally, and commuting by car is discouraged. Bicycles are provided for staff, and walking to work is promoted. Bologna expressed a frank disdain for the commute-work-consume cycles engendered by urban capitalism. This duty of care seeks to revive an area’s collective investment in the success of a local enterprise – a pleasingly old-fashioned approach to a very modern and forward-thinking operation.