EXPO Milano 2015: a legacy for the future
EXPO Milano 2015 closed its gates on 31st October with a fantastic celebration of an event that, during the past six months, attracted more than 21.5 million visitors from all over the world to explore the theme: “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”.
Expo Milano 2015 represented an opportunity to reflect upon and seek solutions to some of the stark contradictions of our world. Even now, every day, people don’t have enough to eat (approximately 870 million people were undernourished in the period 2010-2012) and yet many people are also dying from diseases linked to unhealthy nutrition or excessive eating (approximately 2.8 million deaths from diseases related to obesity or to being overweight in the same period).
In addition, about 1.3 billion tons of foods are wasted every year. For these reasons, the debate covered the topics of conscious political choices, sustainable lifestyles and the use of the best technology to create a balance between the availability and the consumption of resources. The keywords used were: innovation, energy conservation, environmental protection and natural resources.
The legacy that EXPO Milano 2015 will bring to the future was underlined by Sergio Mattarella – President of the Italian Republic during his closing speech – “…the Charter of Milan, which has an important mission: to take the message of this Exposition, addressed to life and human rights, all over the world. With food we can promote the traditions of every single country or combine history with the spirit of innovation and development for the future.”
For ABB EXPO Milano 2015 represented a unique opportunity to showcase its contribution to sustainable development through technology and innovation. In our role as Official Sponsor for Automation and Robotics, we actively participated in the debate, showing our robotized solutions in the Expo’s Supermarket of the Future and talking about the benefits that our solutions can bring to food safety and sustainability in the era of Internet of Things, Services and People.
Just a few impressive numbers: over 1.7 million visitors to the Supermarket of the Future could meet ABB’s YuMi robot, the world’s first truly collaborative robot, hundreds of thousands “selfies” were posted on the web portraying YuMi and its fans from all over the world, journalists wrote hundreds of articles about the benefits that automation and ABB solutions can bring to the future food value chain and over 25,000 interactions on social media showed the interest of the public in our active participation at EXPO Milano 2015.
The Italian edition of Wired, the popular magazine featuring innovation and technology, prepared a ranking of the 30 things that will be remembered after EXPO 2015. Guess what? YuMi at the Supermarket of the Future was ranked at 13th place: A guest star that impressed the public opinion and raised the attention with elegance and efficiency!
Now EXPO Milano 2015 passes the baton to the next Universal Exhibition that will be held in Dubai in 2020. The debate that started in Milano will continue. “Linking Minds. Create the Future” is the core theme of the next EXPO, with sustainability, opportunity and mobility again at the center.
Dubai… the floor is yours!
