It is estimated that in 2050, more than half of the world's population will live in large urban areas.
Can we already start tracing a more sustainable future, by trying to make cities more livable, ecological and healthy, starting with outdoor spaces?
This vision is the basis of the European AMBIANCE project, which sees the direct participation of Mondo Tufting and Mondo spa, centers specialized in the development of sustainable synthetic turf solutions for sports and urban applications.
The AMBIANCE project - launched in 2022 with a projected end in 2026 - is funded by the Horizon Europe programme and coordinated by the Instituto Tecnológico de Aragón (ITAINNOVA).
The research activity involves partners from 6 European countries, through collaborating companies, universities and advanced research centres.
The common goal is creating solutions with bio-based products for outdoor urban applications, from urban furnishings to sustainable artificial turf pitches, and even building materials obtained from agricultural residues.
To better understand Mondo's role in the AMBIANCE project, you can watch the video produced by the project consortium, dedicated to its research into biomaterials for synthetic turf. Mondo's contribution demonstrates how the development of fibers and components derived from sustainable raw materials can help reduce the environmental impact of synthetic turf systems throughout their life cycle, while maintaining high performance standards for sports.
Mondo has long embarked on an R&D path for creating recycled, bio-based and sustainable artificial turf pitches, focusing in particular on yarn composition and performance infill materials.
However, designing a pitch with recyclable or, compostable artificial turf, or other biomaterials is not enough.
The ultimate goal is not only to find alternatives to petroleum products, but also to maintain and improve the technical quality compared to current solutions, y making production processes sustainable through research.
And this can be achieved by focusing on three project areas with a high degree of innovation:
Biomaterials are not the only solution.
According to the circular approach, an artificial turf pitch can only be considered sustainable if its impact is assessed throughout its entire life cycle.
For Mondo, the turning point came in 2011, when the first artificial turf Life Cycle Analysis was developed.
Since then, we introduced many innovations on the market to reduce the surfaces’ impact, with both the environment and users’ health in mind:
Mondo supports the European Commission in its mission to end the invasion of microplastics in the environment.
Ahead of the European Regulation—which mandates the elimination of performance infills that could be considered microplastics from the market by 2031—Mondo Tufting's Research and Development Laboratory has already been working for several years on developing alternatives to microplastic infills for synthetic turf fields.
In particular, we are investing on the following development drivers:
And research continues, both to constantly reduce the presence of petroleum products and to create sustainable artificial turf pitches with a lower impact, from design to end of life.