Our History
LifeGate, today
LifeGate is a benefit corporation, considered the point of reference for sustainability in Italy, which brings together a community of over 6 million people interested or passionate about sustainability themes. LifeGate works with passion and determination to share information, projects and services engaging an expanding network of people, businesses, NGOs and institutions that are committed to building a sustainable future.
LifeGate supports businesses in improving their sustainability characteristics through consulting, strategic communication and environmental projects. Through is media network, it provides people with information and concrete tools to embrace sustainability in all their life choices and become protagonists of a new social order.
The story starts in 2000
LifeGate is founded in 2000, stemming from the experience of Marco Roveda matured over the course of the 1980s with Fattoria Scaldasole, the first company in Italy to enter the large retail market with an organic product. Ever since, its goal has been to promote a just and sustainable world thanks a conscientious approach that redefines the concept of progress by taking environmental, social and economic factors into account.
The activity begins with the information network: LifeGate.it and LifeGate Radio. Thanks to its communication activities, in 2002 LifeGate is awarded the Premio Cenacolo Rcs, a prestigious Italian prize for innovation in publishing.
Throughout the years, LifeGate’s editorial activity has moved into the web and digital realms, accompanied by all the latest online tools: newsletters, apps and social networks. With the aim of embracing a new form of open and transparent communication.
The journey continues with environmental projects and consultancy
LifeGate continues on its journey with the underlying belief that a good business must also have ethical, social and environmental objectives. Alongside its information network, its enacts concrete projects and initiatives.
In 2002 it launches Zero Impact®, the first carbon offsetting project in Italy that puts into practice the Kyoto Protocol’s commitments: calculating, reducing and offsetting CO2 emitted as a result of human activities. During these years LifeGate also opens new spaces in Milan that embody its values: LifeGate Restaurant, LifeGate Café and LifeGate Holistic Medicine.
In 2005, LifeGate Energy becomes the first electricity provider in the country recognised by the Italian energy authority as producing and selling exclusively renewable Zero Impact® energy.
In 2006, the division entirely dedicated to providing consultancy to companies interested in embracing sustainable development is created. This evolves to the point of becoming LifeGate Consulting in 2013, the new consulting firm that offers 360-degree support to companies in the realms of sustainability and the circular economy: from analysis of socio-environmental performance to assessing and reducing environmental impact, to stakeholder management and defining specific sustainable communication strategies and projects.
The consultancy activity branches out into a vast array of services, concrete projects, communications support, endorsement activities, editorial contents on sustainable lifestyles, unconventional activities, co-marketing operations and local events to engage the wider public.
The Lighting division is founded in 2014 to support businesses in modernising lighting systems, making them more efficient.
LifeGate becomes international
Internationalisation begins in 2015 with the launch of LifeGate.com and creation of an editorial team spread over four continents. Since then, a number of collaborations have been undertaken with organisation of the calibre of the FAO, Sea Shepherd, Amazon Watch and Navdanya International, leading a number of experts to choose LifeGate as the website through which to communicate their activities, collaborations and projects, as well as express opinions: from Paul Watson to José Graziano da Silva, without forgetting Ruchi Shroff.
That same year, thanks to the collaboration with research institute Eumetra-MR, the first Italian Observatory on Sustainable Lifestyles is presented, photographing the evolution of the Italian population’s relationship to sustainability over the course of the years. The data and research have become important sources through which to gain insight into content and themes connected to sustainability, in Italy and Europe.
In 2016 LifeGate Energy expands to the privates market and the first sustainable impact investment fund listed on the Italian Stock Exchange is launched, Investimenti Sostenibili LifeGate (LifeGate Sustainable Investment), in collaboration with Sella SGR. In the meantime, environmental projects continue to grow: Bee my Future is created to protect the Earth’s most precious insects, bees, which through pollination guarantee agricultural biodiversity and food security.
In 2017 LifeGate becomes one of the first Italian benefit corporations.
The fight against plastic becomes universal
In 2018 LifeGate PlasticLess® is created to reduce plastic and microplastic pollution in the seas. A project that, in its first year alone, has already demonstrated its success because of its ability to capture the attention of the public, institutions and companies that want to show their commitment to saving the world’s seas and oceans. The plastic emergency, in fact, is global: 8 million tonnes of plastic waste enter oceans and seas every year. Thanks to this project tackling plastic pollution, in April 2019 LifeGate is awarded the prestigious Costa Smeralda Prize in the “Blue Innovation” category.
2019 also marks the founding of LifeGate Circle, the largest green information network in Italy, thanks to the collaboration with other editorial frontrunners such as Tuttogreen, IdeeGreen and GreenStyle.