“Clean Air” project

The quality of the air we breathe, indoor and outdoor, is a valuable asset, and has been important to us since our foundation. We must all contribute to preserving it. To launch and spread this message, we have created the “Clean Air” project in collaboration with Fondazione Francesca Rava N.P.H. Italia Onlus and the fashion and reportage photographer Stefano Guindani, who is a long-time Ambassador of the Foundation.

The #Ilovefilters project, throughout a photo contest and a non-profit initiative in support of the N.P.H. Saint Damien children’s hospital in Haiti, aims to make us reflect on how “clean air” not only means a better life, but also contributes to saving lives. A very topical theme: despite the fact that the “2014 Air Quality” report by the European Environment Agency shows that air pollution is still the main environmental health hazard, the European Commission plans to decrease the air quality improvement commitment from the top of the 2015 political agenda. Hence, the mobilisation of various public and private institutions, such as the Italian FAI (Italian Fund for the Environment), and our contribution in the debate.

Therefore, we invite everyone to follow us on Facebook and participate in the #Ilovefilters contest: upload a photo that has as its theme “clean air” onto the www.ilovefilterscontest.com website or #Ilovefilters Facebook app from 7 April to 10 August 2015, and have fun voting and looking at the other photos in the contest. The “Clean Air” theme can be depicted in all its forms through the use of places, landscapes or subjects, as well as problems associated with pollution of any kind, provided that optic or digital filters (e.g. Instagram) are applied to the photos.

A jury will announce the contest winners by September 2015. This jury will be chaired by Stefano Guindani (owner of the SGP Photo Agency) and comprise our CEO & President Giovanni Polin, Diamante D’Alessio (Editor-in-Chief of the fashion magazine “Io Donna”), Costanza Pratesi (Head of Environmental Sustainability and External Relations of FAI – Italian Environmental Fund) and Mariavittoria Rava (President Francesca Rava N.P.H. Italia Onlus Foundation). The prizes include anadventure trip for two to one of the European countries with the cleanest air, Iceland, and the new Barber Shop accessories dedicated to lovers of photography and Italian craftsmanship. Sign up now!!!

Furthermore, we have joined forces with the Francesca Rava N.P.H. Italia Onlus Foundation to support their hospital projects for children in difficulty all over the world. In this initial stage of the project, we are helping to finance the Saint Damien Hospital in Haiti, the largest non-profit children’s hospital in the Caribbean area that provides assistance to more than 80,000 children a year. Indoor air quality, just think of the operating rooms, is essential to preserve the life of the young patients.

But the project does not stop here: some of the winning photos of the #Ilovefilters contest and the photos taken by Stefano Guindani during his travels in Iceland and Haiti, depicting the work performed with the non-profit Francesca Rava foundation at the St. Damien Hospital, will be displayed in a photographic exhibition, obviously themed “clean air” to be held in 2016, the year when the General Filter Group prepares to celebrate its 30th anniversary.