PEOPLE • Article • September 27 2024
"Together for the Future": Innovation Arises from Collaboration
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Four stops in as many countries to discover Plenitude's locations around the world through a virtual marathon.
06 December 2024
The Virtual Tour is a sports and digital initiative through which Plenitude employees, divided into teams, accumulate kilometres while enjoying their favourite sports. A digital platform tracks and shares their physical activities. The goal is not to win but to collectively explore the virtual routes designed to showcase Plenitude’s renewable energy facilities worldwide. Some participants cycled hundreds of kilometres, others improved their lifestyle by walking to work, some resumed swimming, and others counted their steps through supermarket aisles.
The Virtual Tour brought together Plenitude teams from around the world to virtually traverse routes in countries hosting key renewable energy production facilities: Italy, Kazakhstan, Texas, and Spain. The idea started with using sports to promote physical well-being among Plenitude employees by forming various teams to share their logged kilometres using a tracking app. What began as an office initiative quickly turned into an opportunity for everyone.
In the Virtual Tour, almost anything is allowed, as long as it involves movement. This ensures the experience is open to the widest possible audience, regardless of gender, age, or individual abilities. Teams of about ten people collectively aimed to cover over a thousand kilometres. Like any journey, there were stops to admire the scenery, learn about local culture, immerse oneself in a story, or savour a dish. In this case, it all happened virtually, with detailed updates shared on internal social platforms as teams advanced to each new stop.
The journey did not take major highways but secondary roads that pass through suburbs, villages, and countryside routes once called “blue highways” - on U.S. maps - due to their map colour. These are everyday places suggested by locals in the Virtual Tour host countries: an unknown corner offering an unforgettable view, a trusted address for great food, or a small-town cinema that stole someone’s heart. In this way, the daily lives of Plenitude’s employees became the journey’s stars, starting from workplaces renewable energy facilities spread across the globe. The energy network overlapped with the human network: relationships formed among Virtual Tour participants, inspiring them to share their own “blue highways.” Some posted pictures of jogging paths through fields, while others shared mountain hiking trails. Sharing through the app encouraged positive emulation.
The four stages held in 2023 and 2024 resulted in a collective total of about 56,000 kilometres covered by 300 participants. Beyond the numbers, the main achievement lies in the lifestyle changes adopted by some participants. Many rediscovered the joy of being active thanks to this positive interaction with others. They also had the chance to meet new people, gain inspiration for future travels, and explore new sports that became their passion. This experience continues to bring benefits, with anticipation building for 2025, when it will be time to get moving again.