Culture and addressing the needs of those who are at risk

By Gary S. Vasilash

The Fiat Lingotto factory in Turin, Italy, is probably known by people who aren’t automotive manufacturing aficionados because it is the plant with a test track on its roof. It opened in 1926 and closed as a factory in 1982. It was subsequently repurposed through the design of architect Renzo Piano and now stands as a multi-functional public space.

Stellantis, the company that now owns Fiat, has opened a new museum dedicated to the Fiat 500, Casa 500, at Lingotto.

What’s more, the company has created La Pista 500, the largest roof garden in Europe: there are more than 40,000 plants on the 1.2-km track where cars like the 500 were once tested.

And coincident with those efforts, the company announced the launch of the New (500)^RED , a trim model of the electric vehicle that s associated with (RED), the organization established in 2006 to initially fight AIDS, but which has subsequently expanded its efforts to other diseases.

Bono, a co-founder of (RED), said of the announcement, “This partnership with FIAT, Jeep and RAM is a powerful shot in the arm for (RED)’s fight against pandemics and the complacency that fuels them. It’s hard to believe that 15 years on from (RED)’s founding we are now fighting another tiny virus … but it’s even harder to see the virus of injustice that marked the AIDS pandemic is alive and well during COVID. Less than 5 percent of people in Africa are fully vaccinated, while vaccines are plentiful in Europe and America. We have to do more and fast to support the hundreds of millions of people who don’t yet have access to the vaccines, therapeutics or sufficient PPE. Because unless this pandemic is defeated everywhere, no one will be safe anywhere.”

FIAT, Jeep and RAM are committing a minimum of $4 million, between 2021 and 2023, to (RED).