EVENTS
A few years ago, hardly anyone on the Maltese islands had heard of clean-up initiatives, let alone created them, however, slowly but surely, more and more people are coming forward with innovative new ideas about how to make a difference. EBM speaks to Mr Green Ltd Communications Director Mr Rikard Rinaldo about how what started as a small company initiative is set to be a strong driver for sustainable environmental change on the island. "Everyone agrees that Malta is a fantastic place to live," Rinaldo says full of enthusiasm about the subject. "However, because of the size of Malta, the negative impacts of a lot of people living here can be felt even more. The headquarters for our brand is right here on the island and so we feel like we have a huge responsibility to do our part to make Malta as clean and as beautiful as possible." Originally from "a small place in the woods in Sweden", Rinaldo highlights his appreciation for his fellow colleagues sharing a common wish to organise clean-ups, and in fact, Mr Green even have a volunteer programme to facilitate this: "We started with short, minor clean-ups because that way everyone could help and take part in some way or another. It was great to be out there having a positive effect. These clean-ups turned into a volunteer programme where every summer, Mr Green employees can sign up and join daily clean-up sessions all around the island on a boat rented by the company. Every Friday there would be smaller clean-ups organised. We felt this
connected well with our 360 degrees commitment to well-being which includes community engagement, diversity and inclusion, mental health, and fitness. In a way, it was a natural progression to go from what we were doing to finding the perfect partner who had shared ambitions with us. We managed to find this partner in the ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Series.” For those of you who aren't very sporty, swimrun is an adventure sport which sees people racing both overland as well as in the sea from island to island, and well, according to one of the founders of the ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Series, Mr Michael Lemmel, this now renowned race all started as a harmless wager: "ÖTILLÖ started because of a drunken bet. My partner Mats Skott and I heard about it in the autumn of 2005 and were asked to make a commercial race out of it. The first race was held in the Stockholm Archipelago in September 2006." From these intriguing and somewhat humble beginnings, the race grew and grew: "Our ambition from the beginning was to create a race which would get world recognition. That said, we did not think it would be the start of something completely new. In 2012, we decided to push as hard as we could to create an innovative sport. Since then, it has grown by leaps and bounds. It truly is a fantastic experience to take part in." Indeed, as of the end of November (from 23rd – 24th November), Malta will be added as one of the ÖTILLÖ Swimrun World Series race's legs thereby
No 11 - EBM MAGAZINE - 67