Since the early Seventies, Bologna Congressi - a subsidiary of Gruppo BolognaFiere - has focussed its unrelenting attention on energy and environmental problems, using a modern, efficient district heating/district cooling station for summer and winter. This station, which is built around one single thermo-cooling unit in the fair-management district of Bologna, combines energy savings, a rational use of energy and low pollution levels, with financial benefits for the buildings it serves.

In the attempt to further reduce energy costs and improve environmental protection, in 2001 Società Finanziaria Bologna Metropolitana was commissioned to turn the station into a thermal-electric energy co-generation plant consisting of a methane-fed gas fuel turbine. Such station provided a major response to the problem of atmospheric pollution: methane remarkably improved air quality and the turbine was designed to make use of cutting-edge combustion systems so as to minimise nitrogen oxide and carbon oxide emissions, in keeping with the emission reduction levels set forth by the Kyoto protocol. The station also provided economic benefits, as methane is available at favourable conditions since co-generation is combined with district heating and electricity can also be sold.

The current layout of the thermoelectric cooling station enables Bologna Congressi, the buildings it serves and the entire fair complex (with a grid of approximately 4 km of pipes) to cover all their energy requirements in terms of heating and cooling, as well as 35% of their electricity requirements.