A new green distinction for Rio-Antirrio “Charilaos Trikoupis” Bridge at the “Best City Awards”

Charilaos Trikoupis Bridge was once again awarded by a body of experts awarding environmental practices, for its applied environmental strategy.

It’s about the Best City Awards that showcased the 2020 actions; the Awards were organized under the auspices of the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece (KEDE) and the Region of Attica.

The Bridge received the BRONZE Award in the category ENERGY MANAGEMENT: Cities and Motorways Smart Lighting.

This specific award received by GEFYRA pertains to the installation and best use of the LED road lighting with beneficial results as regards both a further reduction of the  CO2 emissions and a road lighting that can be adapted in terms of stopping the climate change and in terms of the dimming system that favors safe driving.

The award honored not only the corporate entities of the Bridge, but also OMEXOM, a subsidiary of VINCI Energies, thus showcasing the dynamics of synergies among companies of VINCI Group, which is the major shareholder of the Concessionaire GEFYRA S.A. through VINCI Concessions / VINCI Highways.

On the occasion of the award, Mr. Panayiotis Papanikolas, Chairman & CEO of GEFYRA S.A., made the following statement:

“We welcome another environmental award as a confirmation of our commitment, for more than 10 years, to the fight against climate change, which has become a worldwide priority of our major shareholder.  The fact that the category in which we excelled recognizes “the design, the innovation, the technologies and the solutions applied to create a sustainable city, by minimizing its environmental impacts” reminds us of the urban infrastructure dimension which is, among others, an important feature of the identity of the Bridge.  In my capacity as head of GEFYRA S.A. and as Executive Director of VINCI CONCESSIONS for Greece, I would like to underline that I am very happy for sharing this award with our sister company OMEXOM/VINCI ENERGIES, thus promoting an applied knowhow necessary for the urban and extra-urban scenery of Greece of the 21st century. We were and we will remain a private partner of public interest.”

Mr. Aris Stahopoulos-Vlamis, Chief Technical Officer of GEFYRA S.A. stated that:

“Since the beginning of the operation of Charilaos Trikoupis Bridge, we have significantly reduced our power consumption.  Moreover, we have undertaken to achieve a very important reduction of our carbon footprint, by more than 60% until 2030, compared to 2019.  Thanks to specific actions, one out of which was to replace the road lighting of the Bridge with modern and qualitative LED luminaires. Thanks to this new system, we first managed to improve the quality of the road lighting, and therefore the users’ safety, and second to achieve a very important reduction in power consumption which reaches 80% compared to the previous system. We warmly thank the panel for this honorary award and we promise that we will soon present new actions to reverse the climate change.”

Mr. Dionissis Korfiatis, Deputy General Manager of GEFYRA LITOURGIA S.A., stated that:

“I would like to thank all our colleagues and associates who contributed to the upgrading, in terms of energy and quality, of the road lighting of Charilaos Trikoupis Bridge. Our actions for the protection of the environment exploiting innovation and technology will continue.”

PHOTO (from left to right):
Mr. Aris Stahopoulos-Vlamis, Chief Technical Officer of GEFYRA S.A.
Mrs. Eleni Kondili, Head of Quality Assurance, Environment, Health & Safety of GEFYRA S.A.
Mr. Dionesios Korfiatis, Deputy General Manager of GEFYRA LITOURGIA S.A.

See the video: