But who is Franco Borgogno? I was born in Turin on October 2, 1965. I have been a journalist for over 30 years with a wide multimedia experience (print newspapers, TV, web in local, national and international newspapers). I have written two books so far and I am involved in environmental science communication and education: hundreds of public events and over 80 thousand students met in the last years. I am an environmental hiking guide in the Piedmont Alps, photographer, Maritime Alps Park Guide, traveler. Scientific-environmental project manager of the European Research Institute ETS Foundation.
Member of the Mountain Wilderness Italy Board of Directors. Member of the Scientific Committee of the Sea Trophy. President Ocean Literacy Italy 2018-2023. Climate Reality Leader in the Climate Reality Project founded by Al Gore. Honorary President of the 'Enough Plastic in the Sea' Association.
Author of 'A sea of plastic' (2016, published in France in June 2019) and 'Plastic, the solution is us. Stories of women, men and children doing the right thing' (2020).
Winner of the 2017 AICA-Italian Oscar for Environmental Communication, the 2018 Carlo Marinkovic Journalistic-Literary Award and the 2018 Seafuture Science Book Award, the Sea Trophy and the 2020 Blue Prize-Earth Prize. Winner of the 'Sentinels of Creation 2025' Award.
Component of the environmental art project EUTIFUL
Co-author of scientific publications Mitigation strategies to reverse the rising trend of plastics in Polar Regions e Microplastics in seawater: sampling strategies, laboratory methodologies, and identification techniques applied to port environment e Society Role in the Reduction of Plastic Pollution e Microplastic Contamination in Snow from Western Italian Alps e Quantification of Microplastics in North-Western Mediterranean Harbors: Seasonality and Biofilm-Related Metallic Contaminants and How many microplastics are present in the Po?
Author of the photo exhibition 'Alpine Souls. Essential portraits of wild mountain dwellers' (Maritime Alps Nature Park, Entracque, December 8, 2023-February 13, 2024)
Author of the poster presentation (‘Macroplastics massive observation over 81°N: HighNorth18 expedition record on july 2018 ‘) at the international scientific conference Arctic Frontiers (Tromso, January 2019)
Final selection at the International Ocean Film Festival with the documentary-short '5 Gyres North West Passage Expedition‘.
Sono 'ambassador' of the 5 Gyres Institute.
Mentioned among globally influential artists (photography) for raising awareness of marine protection in 'The Universal Sea Guidebook'. (Berlin, March 2019).
Trainer for teachers (elementary, middle and high school) and AIGAE environmental hiking guides (years 2018-2020) on ecology, climate change, Ocean Literacy, pollution.
Author of the video installation @433_2050 at the 2018 Science Festival (Genoa), part of the artistic photographic project of environmental dissemination Arctic Grafts'.
Speaker in over 200 between workshops, TV programmes (Rai and Sky), national and international seminars and conferences on environmental themes.
Tutor as for environmental science journalism at the Master of Journalism "Giorgio Bocca" all'University of Turinwhere in the past (since 2010) I have also dealt with online, television and press office journalism.
Author of the video onInternational OL Conference (urly.it/38rrf) for theUnesco.
Author on Repubblica (print and online) of the reportage-research on plastics at the North Pole: urly.it/38rrh
Since a few years I dedicate myself toOcean Literacy (education and dissemination on the importance of the sea for human life: from environmental to economic and cultural reasons) and I am co-founder, and President of Ocean Literacy Italy. In particular, I'm in charge of the study and communication (at the educational and journalistic level) of the problem of plastic waste in water.
In August <b>2016</b> I participated in the first sampling expedition for plastics and microplastics in the Northwest Passagewith the 5 Gyres Institute in Santa Monica (California, USA), and on this expedition I have made a documentary "short", finalist at the San Francisco International Ocean Film Festival, and wrote the book A sea of plastic (Nutrition, June 2017).
In July 2018 I participated in the expedition HighNorth18led by the Hydrographic Institute of the Navy (destination 81°, Yermak Plateau north of Svalbard) documenting for the first time the presence of macroplastics in the Arctic ice pack and collecting samples to ascertain the quantity and quality of microplastics.
In 2019 I coordinated - with Roberto Cavallo, AICA and Erica coop. - the sampling and analysis in the project A bit of plastic e 'Plastic snow', first course-wide sampling of the Po River to quantify the presence of microplastics in the course of the Great River and on annual snowfields in the high mountains (published 2020).
In past I've been working on Tuttosport until 2001, as sent e head of service (cycling, swimming, basketball, athletics, volleyball). I then worked as freelance for various Italian and foreign newspapers, dealing with of numerous themes, from politics to economics, from entertainment to the environment. I have been involved in press offices (for international subjects and events). I was co-founder of some of the first Italian experiences of online journalism (www.piemontebasket.com, www.quotidianopiemontese.it) and spokesman for the President of the Piedmont Region 2005-2010), Mercedes Bresso.
