Small, fast and ecologist like a hummingbird

by Silvia Musso

It is sea time again.
Sardinia has always been synonymous of environment and natural unspoilt landscapes. Thus the Municipality of Villasimius in partnership with the Capo Carbonara’s Area Marina Protetta (Protected Marine Area) few days ago launched a new campaign directed mainly to tourists, to raise awareness for environmental protection.

Campaign’s strength point it is a short animated spot "La favola del colibrì” (The hummingbird’s tale) directed by Paolo Zucca from Oristano wich took inspiration from an African well-known story.In the spot, sent to all the local Sardinian’s TV and distributed via CD in the tourist points of interest, the message conveyed is easily understood: as the hummingbird, all of us in our small and simple gestures , can help to achieve great things. Message that we find also in the words of Wangari Maathai, first African woman, and first environmentalist, that receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. She began his acceptance speech thus: "Although I am the winner of the Award, it is a recognition to the work of many individuals and groups all over the globe. These people work quietly and often without reward to protect the environment, promote democracy, defend human rights and ensure equality between women and men. In doing so they plant seeds of peace".

There is a reason on the hummingbird chosen. The smallest bird in the world it’s responsible of 85% pollination of the trees in the Amazon forest. This means that without him, and his quick flight, in three generations rainforests will disappear with catastrophic consequences for the entire planet. The shape of the beak that fits perfectly into the flower is due to the mutual benefit between flora and fauna. Same mutual benefit that Villasimius’s administration want to improve between man and environment.

Everyone can doing something to contribute on environmental protection, as from everyday life and focusing on small things.

Besides the cartoon will be distributed informational leaflets, supported by signs of renewal in the Protected Marine Area, in order to better "guide" visitors to help the environment.
Manuela Vestro, campaign manager said: "These restrictions can not prevent you from enjoying the area. For the protection and proper use of these beauties, all residents and tourists are invited to observe the rules governing the area, avoiding activities that could create damage or risk to animal and plant species of which is inhabited, follow the rules for waste collection and manage water consumption in a responsible manner. In this way the natural heritage that belongs to everyone, is a priceless wealth and untouched that you can enjoy over time".

Simone Atzeni, Protected Marine Area Director, says satisfied: "Companies in our area have grown, partly because they had to adjust to highest quality standards, which the tourists appreciate very much". More...

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At work for the environment displaying dynamic and web

by Eleonora Anello

Move around the streets of Milan on public transports for several days the campaign "SOS - Sostenibilità" ("SOS - Sustainability")sponsored by IGPDecaux and Koinètica in collaboration with Zetalab. The itinerant message that runs through the streets of the city leads to the heart of the campaign: the website.

The initiative has the dual purpose of raising awareness and at the same time to push in action people who want to support the environment. The dynamic billboards are supported by a site that is aimed not only to simple users but also to governments and nonprofit organizations that will be able to display a virtual showcase projects in progress and good practices that have achieved or are about to do. It will give space for ideas, suggestions and experiences to create a constructive dialogue.
Let’s deepen some aspects of this particular campaign with Giacomo Ghidelli, CEO of Koinètica, partner for development and communication of Social Responsibility.

Has the campaign already produced its effects? Have you already had the first feedbacks?
Yes, the campaign is "working." And you can see the feedbacks already consolidated on the site www.sos-sostenibilita.it. There were in fact published the contributions that businesses, governments, nonprofit organizations, but also ordinary citizens are starting to send. Please note that we are indeed still in the first phase of the campaign, which is set to continue over time. The ambition, thanks to the feedbacks obtained from the billboards, is to build a site that knows how "to network" best practices and suggestions: examples which may stimulate ideas and actions inspired by the principles of sustainability.

What are the peculiarities of a communication that travels through the city?
The "journey", conceived and designed with IGPDecaux, was designed to really turn at all. To arouse curiosity, questions, emotions and reflections on the theme of sustainability not only in citizens but also in business, public administration, nonprofit organizations. And we believe that the dynamic billboards related to a site is the best way to achieve this goal because of the visibility that these two instruments are able to achieve.

Why to work in a mutually reinforcing way dynamic displaying and web?
Today we are faced with a landscape in which people are more and more hard to please and aware. Hence a need to be able to involve people who have to become active participants and not just recipients of messages. Increasingly, it is emphasized the need to move from the "notify" to "communicate with". Today we talk more and more of the role of the citizen-consumer as an actor, as a co-author of the message. The most advanced strategies of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) in fact raise the issue of the involvement of stakeholders as central to the corporate culture and strategies to be adopted. Listening to and sharing of decisions with the public inside and outside is the first sign of this changed approach. That is why we wanted to take a road that could combine the two sources so different to each other: on the one hand we talk, the other we listen. So everyone can really share.

On the site all the surfers can also answer to a test to verify if they are "sustainable." More...

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eart number zero out now!

by Silvia Musso

As of today free download available at the link, eart the new environmental media of AICA (International Association for Environmental Communication). The issue zero is in Italian and partly in English and features works by Sabato Urciuoli, a young designer and landscaper from Turin (Italy). In the future issues of eart a young artist will be asked to interpret the relationship between man and nature.

Have a nice reading. More...

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In Italy, doubling the eco-incentives for the purchase of bicycles!

by Silvia Musso

The Ministry of Environment has allocated another 10 million euro to finance the economic incentives for the purchase of a new bicycle. In just 20 days the initial 8,750,000 euro were volatilized thanks to the on-line campaign launched April 22 and almost immediately stopped. After the boom of requests which have sent in tilt informatic system the campaign restarts with momentum. Minister Stefania Prestigiacomo has decided to allocate new funding to «an initiative that has had an extraordinary success and should be promoted and implemented, meet the desire for mobility "clean" that Italian families have shown».

Unexpected results for the promoters. More positive outcome when you consider that the "informal" campaign was launched only online and has done all the "word of mouth". Groups of cycling enthusiasts have turned to the voice and retailers have informed potential customers with newspaper clippings attached to the windows.

In the field of muscle-propelled mobility, this campaign represents a historical turning point for Italy. For the first time it was granted a discount of 30% up to a maximum of 700 euro in spending for the purchase of a bicycle without the requirement of destruction.
Antonella De Luca, 40 years of Settimo Torinese, has purchased a new city-bike by taking advantage of the initiative. «I went to the shop near home. I had just to choose the bike and I was immediately applied the discount. I am happy and satisfied».

Luca Mariano is a special manufacturer of bicycles, they are few in Italy, rather widespread in Northern Europe. His small workshop produces a reclining bicycles cost, better known as Ecobent - Ecological and cheap. He represents the small artisans working for sustainable mobility and sells worldwide. «The incentives allocated are an excellent initiative in terms of intentions, but the way they are made leaves much to be desired. First, the access to contributions is limited to a list of makes and models that only companies registered to the ANCMA (Association National Cycle Motorcycle Accessories) were able to communicate. Ecobent, like all small producers who represent the ancient tradition of cycling in Italy, is not included and this prevents the access to contribution. The mechanism for delivery of assistance perplexes from the technical point too. The entire on-line system is closely integrated with the computer systems of Unicredit Bank; in fact, to access the system and then to obtain reimbursement of the incentives that advance their own pockets, the dealer is forced to open a bank account with this bank».

Then all the actors of the campaign seem to be subject to constraints: the manufacturer of the bicycle must be associated with Ancma; a reseller must open a current account with a particular bank; the customer must look for information on internet, the only medium that has conveyed the campaign. If the government does not undertake to create the conditions to encourage this type of mobility, such as creating bicycle paths, this new bike park will be in danger of being relegated to the cellar. More...

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You will be one of the 63?

by Alessio Sciurpa

For several days, a billboard that reads "I prefer the Bau Haus ..." stands in the marvellous Piazza Vittorio in Turin (Italy). EThe image of what appears to be a project of bio- architecture and the reference to the domain as well as curious soloper63.com , already anticipate what then the most curious (and we among them) discovered by logging into the site. A new plan for sustainable building which no one knows neither the location nor the characteristics, only two things are certain: the name, 25VERDE (25GREEN) and exclusivity, SOLO63 (ONLY63).

In two days the project will be revealed, stay tuned.
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The icon of the struggle against the distortions caused by globalization Vandana Shiva on visit in Piedmont

by Eleonora Anello

Vandana Shiva, Indian environmental activist, a degree in quantum physics directs the Center for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy in Dehra Dun and she is president of the Foundation of Navdanya Delhi. Famous in this last decade to have theorized the social ecology, the new science that is based on the assumption that the damage caused by industrial civilization, is to search into the equation woman-nature and definition of both as passive, inert, matter first to handle.Instead under this theory "women are the keepers of knowledge original, derived from centuries of familiarity with the land, a knowledge that modern science Baconian and male has condemned to death". West culture is far removed from nature and the woman and, in fact, men have created a development “devoid of principle female, conservative, green" founded “on the exploitation of women and nature".

In these days, Indian physics was in tour in Piedmont, May 15 at the Fiera del libro (Turin - Italy) to present her latest work "Return to the land". In the meeting with the readers have spoken Ermanno Olmi and Carlo Petrini. In her new book Vandana Shiva highlights three global problems to be addressed urgently: hunger in the world, oil dependency and global warming. Three questions deeply interrelated. A threefold question that could be at the same time a threefold opportunity to rethink a global agricultural policy, energy and environment. In the book is contained the explicit invitation to think about a new reality in which human beings are worther than profits. Furthermore, the author advocates a return to the principles of the manner of countrymen, based on the production of niche, sustainability, local communities and environmental justice.

On May 16 it was the turn of Cuneo (Italy), Vandana Shiva has attended the conference sponsored by the National Movement for the Stop the consumption of the Territory, "Soil: common good, not consumer goods".
The movement is fighting against cementation that just in our country, from 1950 to today, has almost swallowed up by concrete 250 thousand hectares of land for year, for instance an area as large as the entire North of Italy.
According to these activists, nature does not have infinite resources. They throw a sharp warning: "the country is reaching the point of no return, it’s in the collapse hydrogeological, heritage and artistic landscape is likely to be irreversibly compromised, agriculture slips towards an impoverishment without return, cultural identities and the peculiarities of each area and each city seem to converge into a single, uniform and indistinct gray container”.

The Movement of opinion for the defence of the right of territory without cementation reports to complaints this growth without limits which considers territory an inexhaustible resource. Its protection and preservation is subordinated to financial interests: a vicious cycle that if not stopped, will continue to lead to collapse entire areas and urban regions.
Legislators and administrators can follow alternative routes based on a new urban policy which is based on the principle of conservation of soil and the "zero growth", which leads for example to steer the sector on rebuilding and restructuring the energy of existing buildings.

The meeting was organized by Pro Natura Cuneo and Legambiente Cuneo, under the patronage of the Province and the City of Cuneo. More...

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Prince Charles boomerang testimonial?

di Eleonora Anello

On air the new site of the "Rainforest Project" of Prince Charles of England testimonial and promoter for some years in a campaign to defend the rainforests.

The web is the most significant medium of the project. The main aim is to create a community online that demands an urgent action to protect tropical forests.The initiative is supported by several partners including Virgin, Google, Sony and McDonald's. So, for the first time in history, an heir to the throne, member of the traditionalist British royal family, officially puts his face into a clickable video on YouTube and MySpace.

In the spot Charles appears near a frog, the animal symbol of tropical forests and fantastic princes, in order to raise public awareness on the environmental cause. Other famous personalities also appear, including James Bond Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Pele, the Dalai Lama and princes William and Harry.

At a time when even the guards of the queen chose to move in a more sustainable way parking the Range Rover 4x4 to patrol the castle of Balmoral with the mountain bikes, the ecoprince, on the contrary, doesn’t adopt an environment behaviour properly friendly. For his movements, for example, he prefers a private jet rather than a scheduled flight that produces less pollution. But this behaviour seems to be the Achilles' heel of the whole royal family. Prince Andrew is now called by his subjects "Air Miles Andy", an ironic nickname due to its many leisure travels performed not only at the expense of British taxpayers, but also and mainly at the expense of the environment.

Now, to be accused by international environmental organizations such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, WWF, is the line of organic food producted just by Carlo. At least five of them contain palm oil, an ingredient that, besides being unhealthy, currently represents the major cause of destruction of tropical forest.

A well-designed and promoted campaign can be damaged and lose effectiveness because of his testimonial that, although prestigious, for his choices in life, attacks all the system of communication? Or the popularity of Charles who makes a blunder in continuous will increase the visibility of the campaign? More...

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Is tinged with green the 2009 Baseball World Cup

by Eleonora Anello

From 13th to 27th September Italy will host the 2009 Baseball World Cup. A big sporting event is tinged with green. A green event where sport promotes sustainable development. We spoke about it with Andrea Abodi, General Director of the Organizing Committee Italian.

Tell us about the initiative.
22 teams will participate to the World Cup and in its main stages will be played in 20 cities of our country. The Organizing Committee formed in Italy wanted to build an integrated project that exit from the traditional patterns of a great international sporting event, making component alongside the sporting five special projects devoted to diplomacy, art, typical of the territories (agribusiness and food and wine), the film and, of course, the environment. From this platform we wish to offer original ideas to bring to baseball a wide range of audience that goes far beyond the already numerous fans of this sport.

What is a “Green Event”?
A "Green Event" is a format that involves the assumption of environmental liability on the part of the organizers of the event. A "Green Event" is the choice to characterize in eco-key an event, it determines the peculiarity of the communication and information. The articulation of best environmental practices adopted and their "witness" through the various forms that the promotion of the event offers, determine the effectiveness of the initiative. In this we are committed to making the 2009 World Baseball event heavily involved in key environmental, from the seemingly marginal aspects of aesthetics: we are the first international sporting event to be inserted "Green Event" in its logo. And we don’t stopped there. In the practice, we are also the first to have the ISO 14001/2004 certification.

Why do the World Cup of Baseball a green event?
Because we believe that sport in general can and should engage more and more on the topic of environmental protection, for the ability and the strength with whom this world may send educational messages. Major sports events in this sense represents another opportunity that combines the communication aspects with the practical implementations in organizational key. That is why we decided to commit so into the 21 locations of the Organizing Committee of Italy and into the local committees, as well as in the 20 sport facilities that will host the World Cup is used as much recycled material as possible, we collect the waste in a differentiated way, energy consumption is generated from sources renewable. At this we associated initiatives on sustainable mobility to get in baseball equipment and about the containment of energy consumption symbolically giving a light bulb low to all viewers who come in stadiums that will host the World Cup. In short, this is a significant effort in key organization that also has a projection of a newspaper which will contribute decisively to the departments of local authorities of cities involved.

Can sport make us more ecological by communicating good environmental practices?
The answer is obvious, it’s affirmative. But the commitment must be constant and widespread, it must be systematic and systemic. It must take an institutional character. Beginning of the CONI and the 45 national sports federations, a massive and coordinated activity could start, also made of small choices and little attention to key environmental information which should be divided in offices and sports facilities, on the one hand aimed at progressively improving the environmental balance of this world. Just think that in Italy there are about 150,000 facilities on which to intervene. And what would you think to consider the millions of practicing sports and their families as key goal in educational and behavioural to give effect to the development of environmental sensitivity in our country? Ideas are not lacking and with the World Baseball we start doing our part. More...

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The XII edition of the International Summer School in environmental regulation and applied economics at the starting grid

by Eleonora Anello

Torino, from 7th to 18th September 2009, will be the scene of high-profile education, with two weeks of summer school on regulation of public services. A full-immersion organized by the Foundation for the Environment “Teobaldo Fenoglio" in collaboration with the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Oriental Piedmont “Amedeo Avogadro” and supported by the Compagnia di San Paolo.

Deepening on theoretical and practical experience: these are the two fundamental principles upon which the teaching of the summer school is founded. The course is divided into three parts: a first module provides the theoretical background and analytical tools essential to the local regulator to operate, followed by an economic analysis of liberalized services not yet regulated, and, finally, will be proposed some cases histories. Students will be engaged in the collection and processing of economic and financial data and analysis of the main legislative instruments regulating the sector.

The summer school is aimed at public officials, private individuals, university students and graduates who wish to explore the issues related to the regulation and pricing of local public services management and environmental issues (waste, water, heating, sports facilities, etc) within the present legislation.

To register, just complete the appropriate form by June 19th. For more information on costs and benefits visit the web-site or write to iss@fondazioneambiente.org.

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The Environmental Interpretation as a key to understanding the world

by Letizia Palmisano

Took place in Athens, from 6th to 10th May, the International Convention of the NAI (inter) National Association for Environmental Interpretation. This discipline, born to live the parks, is based on visitor’s engagement with all five senses. The parks are not explained, but "emotionally spent".
Over the narration, the parks and archaeological sites are re-narrated with histories and dramas involving visitors spontaneously. The aim is to make visitors feeling that reality and, consequently, the whole world, being aware of the damages that Man is doing, but mostly that everyone can its part to protect the Earth.

The conference was an opportunity to share various experiences realized all over the world, to diffuse this practice and to reclaim the importance of the protection and enhancement (naturalistic and economical) of natural, historical and archaeological sites.

The Environmental Interpretation as a discipline was born from hikes in the USA parks and has been spreading all over the world.
In Italy it also become the basis of inspiration for others that protect the nature, history and culture of the Italian Parks, such as the Association of Literary Parks.

At the conference were put in relief some data about green tourism in various countries. In Italy, for example, there are 2500 "professional of nature", which each year produce about 75 million of euros, accompanying and interpreting nature for more than 5.5 million of people.
A significant trend has been highlighted: from 2003 to 2008 visitors from schools grew up by 78% and adults by 61%, with peaks in environmental education and summer camps. More...

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The Scavengers' Manifesto

by Alessio Sciurpa

After “Mongo: Adventures in Trash” of Ted Botha, another book exploring the deeper link between the society and its waste. "The Scavengers' Manifesto" offers eco-minded people a framework for adopting scavenging as a philosophy and a way of life.
Destined to become the bible for a bold new subculture of eco-minded people who are creating a lifestyle out of recycling, reusing, and repurposing rather than buying new.An exciting new movement is afoot that brings together environmentalists, anticonsumerists, do-it-yourselfers, bargain-hunters, and treasure-seekers of all stripes. You can see it in the enormous popularity of many websites: millions of Americans are breaking free from the want-get-discard cycle by which they are currently producing approximately 245 million tons of waste every day.
In "The Scavengers Manifesto," Anneli Rufus and Kristan Lawson invite readers to discover one of the most gratifying (and inexpensive) ways there is to go green. More...

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Learning to communicate natural disasters

by Eleonora Anello

A different way to spend holidays: not only relaxing but also training and opportunities for comparison, and an original way to learn something about natural disasters.
The associations Apare (Association pour la Participation et l'Action Régionale) and GEC (Groupement Européen des Campus) have promoted for years these activities related to the heritage preservation and environment care. Both based in France, they have long experience in this area and since the Eighties organize campus aimed at volunteers from all over Europe and from the Mediterranean, to promote the participation and exchange and put to the fore some important issues like the conservation and the sustainable development.
This year there will also be some campus focus on natural disasters.
In Tétouan, Morocco, from 8 to July 29 the prevention of landslides will be discussed. Ideas will be proposed for the realization of tools for information on the risks associated with landslides direct to the local population, particularly to rural areas residents.
In the Bouches-du-Rhône and Vaucluse, in France, from 1 to September 19 will be addressed the subject of flooding, specifically how to raise awareness the citizens affected. Not how to design communication tools, but also how to increase environmental awareness among the citizens affected. The objective is to develop informational documents of scientific, technical and historical characteristics to promote solidarity and cooperation among citizens.
Finally, it is proposed campus on earthquakes, aimed at creating an educational places of the earthquake that struck in 1909 the French region of Lambesc. It caused 46 victims and some villages still bear the signs. A hundred years from that dramatic event, the idea is to propose a tourist journey in order to raise awareness among visitors about the risk of earthquake. Continuing the work undertaken in the laboratory last year, will be designed a layout for construction of a teaching guide intended for tourists who want to visit those places. The project will involve the authorities and local associations, including the BRGM (Research Institute of Earth Sciences).

All the campus on the prevention of natural risks are borne by the Council of the Region Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur and the French Ministry for ecology, sustainability, planning and development.
The invitation to participate is aimed primarily at students and young professionals with skills, interests or specific experiences as geology, architecture, eco-tourism, local development or communication.

They are also proposed 26 different work sites, focusing on the recovery of architectural and natural sites in Italy, France and Maghreb. Participants will have the opportunity to discover the rich local heritage, learn ancient techniques of construction and to live a human and cultural experience within international groups.
Further information on initiative and procedures for participation are available on the website or can be requested to apare@apare-gec.org.
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Interview to Bruna Brembilla, Provincial Assessor, Department of Environment of Milan: environment at school and environmental communication

by Eleonora Anello

On April 24 ended the First Festival of Environmental Communication addressed to schools and organized by her department. Could you present us a budget?
For participation, the subjects treated and the level of quality achieved, the budget was positive.
The schools that have participated are more than 50, with about 140-150 classes and 27 of these have made a final product that was presented during the festival in different categories of project (green spot, environmental slogans, small “ecological guards”, sustainable mobility).
About 50 classes from across the province of Milan were present in the 4 laboratories set at the “Bacon School Institute” from Monday to Friday.
The conference was attended by over 200 people.
In total, more than 4000 visitors, had partecipated at the festival.

What role environmental communication have, addressed to young people?
To awaken the critical sense as to commercial communication and advertising, where young people are often the ideal targets. Through the green spots, posters, games, children were given the opportunity to create and to disseminate messages that were different from those commonly used. Change the communication model and spread a different paradigm, more sustainable and responsible is our aim. In particular the concept of environment has been analyzed and interpreted freely by the young people in two different and complementary ways: the first is the usual sense of the environment from an ecological point of view, and then the subjects treated were waste, water, energy, also highlighting how these topics are contiguous to each other and how to involve each other. The second meaning given to the environment concept, refers to the social and the underlying issues: bullying, drugs, socialization, relationships.

You have rightly placed emphasis on the environmental education, what role plays within your communication strategy?
The environmental communication has a primary importance in performing the regional department functions. In fact, beyond the festival, we consider essential to provide citizens with a clear communication about the activities and projects that the department plays for the particular area that it covered.
I think to the waste and recycling plans or energy saving and the policies promoted about water: in all these cases the communication, information and education are always intertwined in order to promote a lifestyle more sustainable and conscious.

In which way has the department answered to the event?
The activities in the territory have been numerous: thematic meetings and moments of confrontation there have been no stopping. The response was very good and shows the great interest in the subject. In particular the response we have had on festival by schools and parents has been very satisfactory. Moreover, quite unexpectedly even other provinces have asked for participation, which demonstrates the great attention about topical environmental theme.

What will you recall?
In the initiatives of Pegaso, the project for schools of environmental education in the province of Milan, I always notice a very high level in terms of quality of work, exchange of ideas, skills and energy of teachers, students and parents. In particular this year I have to mention the girls and boys of the “Cannizzaro School” of Rho that under the capable leadership of Marzia Campione have managed the press office of the festival, new experience for them, with enthusiasm, competence and passion. More...

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