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With the hands in the rubbish

2012-01-30T10:34:00.002+01:00

Paola Alagia, Massimiliano Iervolino. Preface by Gian Antonio Stella. Reality Book Edizioni. 152 pagg. 14€

Review by Roberto Cavallo

I’ve just finished reading the book by Alagia and Iervolino.

I’ve devoured it. Not only because it’s about an issue that I’ve been studying for twenty years, but also because it’s well written. Fluent. It’s seems to be a novel.

When you go back to read a paragraph you found it true. What you are reading is dramatically true. The names, the places, the dates: everything is true.
And with them it’s true the pollution of a vast area of Rome and the connivance of the administrations that let it happened.

“What is Malagrotta? I believe it will become ‘Buonagrotta’* for the service it provided to Rome and to almost the whole Lazio region…” This is one of the sentences of Manlio Cerroni, “the lawyer”, owner of Malagrotta and of many others dumping grounds and waste disposal plants in Lazio. These sentences are extracted from the statements he issued to the Corriere della Sera newspaper and from his auditions in the Commission for the Environment in the Chamber and in the Senate. They are at the beginning of the book.

Then you read the book. You get involved into the story of the “king of the rubbish”, of the politicians who governed Rome, its Province and the Lazio Region and of the place where there’s the dumping ground. And then you arrive at the recent analyses made by the ARPA (Regional Agency for the Protection of the Environment), where it’s said: “the results from the 2010 survey confirm the ground waters contamination observed in the previous monitoring campaign of the site, both for inorganic and organic compounds… On the basis of these results we stress the need of measures for securing the site from the diffusion of the contamination, and we suggest subsequent recovery plans of the site […]. The most important information is not the peak of the 2010, compared to the 2009, but the fact that the numbers of the last year show that the pollution is not decreasing, but increasing instead.”

So you think that maybe it hasn’t really become “Buonagrotta”!

The seriousness of the situation is confirmed by several attached documents, including analyses, graphs, scientific publications about the impact of the dumping grounds on human health, as long as copies of the reports to the Public prosecutor’s office.

The subtitle “the disaster of the ‘partitocrazia’**. The Malagrotta case: the eight hill of Rome” describes part of the book. Because the work by Alagia and Iervolino is not only a denunciation, but also an attestation of the efforts made by the Malagrotta Committee and by its resolute president, Sergio Apollonio. It’s also suggested a regional plan of waste management, which should stress the relevance of the prevention and the waste separation so that, if dumping grounds have to be there, at least they’ll be marginal and not dangerous.

It’s a book that leaves a door open for the hope, because, if “the problem is difficult to unravel […], two points are sure in this story: the citizens, that won’t accepted the decisions made by the top, and Europe, which likely keeps an eye on this situation.

* Malagrotta, which is the name of the dumping ground site, literally means “bad cave”, while ‘Buonagrotta’ means “good cave”. It’s a wordplay alluding to the supposed goodness of the Malagrotta site.

** partitocrazia means a situation in which political parties control all the institutions.

What’s behind the lettuce bikini? An invitation…to not eat animals

2012-01-26T09:13:00.005+01:00

by Annalisa Tancredi

The seductive campaigns of PETA still astonish: the Association People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals borrows a top model’s body to promote the adoption of a vegetarian eating style. This time the spotlight is on the australian Sheridyn Fisher, who has been photographed by reporters wearing a bikini made of lettuce and in her hands a sign that says "Turn over a new leaf. Go Vegetarian ".

The blonde Playmate was not the first to take part in the "Naked campaign" against violence on animals and in favor of a more sustainable diet, the "naked strategy", first introduced by volunteer activists dressed in the slogan "It 'better to be naked than wear fur" , was then taken by the "Lettuce Ladies", girls around the streets dressed in lettuce leaves to promote the veg diet. Later on celebrities like Kim Basinger, Pamela Anderson and Alicia Silverstone have proposed themselves as the faces of the campaign.

A foolproof recipe that allows their inventors to combine the beauty of the alluring and provocative celebrities with emotionally dense and socially disturbing contents. The bodies of fashion models in fact, are just the excuse to turn our attention to the violence that animals are forced to suffer from pharmaceutical industries, tanneries, food and entertainment in the name of profit. Skinned alive, beaten, enslaved, imprisoned, frustrated, their throats cut, drugged, poisoned and killed: the images and footage of slaughterhouses run in the web, but even the most gluttonous meat-eaters don’t have the courage to look at them. Despite of that, each year humans continue to kill 25 billion animals atrociously only for food.

Both in the United States and the Australia more and more people are deciding to convert their dietary habits excluding livestocks and/or their derivatives from the daily menu; even in our country the movement is pregnant according to Eurispes Report 2011, about 5 million of Italian have already switched to a vegetarian diet. Besides the animal rights ideology, the motives are discernible in the pursuit of a healthier diet (based on fruit and vegetables) and in reducing environmental impact. In fact, there is less waste of resources resulting from the cultivation of plants (consisting mainly of water) and the emission of CO2 in atmosphere released by animal farming is greater even than that emitted by road transport worldwide.

Mobile phones for the environment

2012-01-23T07:30:00.003+01:00

by Eleonora Anello

Born for responding to the need of communicating in mobility, nowadays the mobile phones can do so many things that it’s reductive to call them just phones.

Browsing through the several apps, easy-to-use tools of advanced functions, it’s not difficult to find something “green”. By using our phone it’s possible to care about the environment, in many different ways. Regarding the consumer goods, we signal the app Goodguide.

Looking at the users’ comments, it seems to be one of the best eco-friendly apps. Once it’s downloaded, it can be launched every time we are about to buy a product. By putting the objective over the barcode of the product it’s possible to verify what we are buying on the basis of parameters such as the respect of the environment, the health and the social responsibility of the manufacturer. At present the database includes 120.000 products, a number constantly rising, thanks to the users’ reports.

The app, which works also on the web, helps the aware consumers and, at the same time, pushes the companies towards a better transparency and a certain kind of conduct. Goodguide isn’t intended to influence the decisions of the consumers, but instead to allow him to make a more aware decision. Its use is even easier for the online shopping, thanks to the new toolbar, supported by Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.

This ambitious project was born on the quiet in 2007, when Professor Dara O’Rouke, from the University of California, Berkeley, wondered about the goodness of the sun protection cream he was putting on his daughter. After an investigation, he found out that just that cream contained a toxic ingredient.

Useful and enjoyable, Goodguide allows to create personalized lists of favourite products and to share them. It also suggests products to buy instead of the ones that total a low score, by making a sort of ranking of the “fairest” products.

We have tested the app on the products bought by a family composed of four individuals, two adults and two children. Only one product resulted to be present in the database. It was a face cream by a famous French branch, sold in the pharmacies. It totalled a very high score. It’s not clear why the barcode of the Coke couldn’t be read by the system. The limitations of the app thus appear clear: it includes only goods commercialized in the States and it’s not supported enough by the users’ feedbacks. In this respect we believe that, in times when sharing the information can make the difference, limiting the contribution of the people may be a big handicap. This is particularly relevant for projects that are present on platforms encouraging the interaction, such as Twitter, or Facebook, where Goodguide is present with more than 10.000 fans.

“At present and for the next future, we are not planning to expand the app to the European market. We are focusing on the States – answered to us Mia Gralla, marketing manager of Goodguide - As for the choice of the products, we opened to users and companies, allowing them to suggest which products evaluate and include in our program, in the following address: http://www.goodguide.com/product_suggestions/leaders##popular”.

We can deduce from this that being present on the web, and particularly on the Applestore, is and extraordinary promotional tool. It makes of a useful guide an object of desire, at least for who can’t fully make use of it.

Minister-bin is ideal for compost

2012-01-21T14:38:00.003+01:00

by Annalisa Tancredi

English humor is really ruthless. Apparently the British do not have the slightest fear of being offensive or outrageous and continue to tease Italian politicians with their typical humor and sharp witticisms.

It will be better to adopt a healthy dose of sarcasm and leave any attitude of touchiness or nationalism in order to understand the “made in England” idea of naming a full line of trash cans after the ministers of Berlusconi’s executive.After the French quiz with questions on the hypothetical party "Forza Gnocca" and the promotion of Italian products such as pizza restaurant "Bunga bunga" in London, the company Primrose baptizes compost bins for the garden with the names of the (ex ) Italian ministers.

They collect it as nobody does. The ministers-bins are all there and in funny and functional models. There is Renato, the smallest, a mini-container for compost smells; there is also the minister Umberto as a "green cone" eating waste, which turns food waste into water and carbon dioxide. Angelino, Ignatius and Julius are respectively an informal compost bucket of stainless steel, a galvanized incinerator for the garden and a comfortable booth of pit to hide the trash cans. As for the female ministers, the company has resorted to a more ennobled design, as for Mara, the elegant trash of white marble columns, and Giorgia, compact and galvanized, with a modern and young design. Finally the Minister for the Environment Stefania couldn’t miss, in a super natural version with a nice garden composter, pleasant even as an ornament.

The viral effect was unstoppable in the face of such irony and the company could benefit of free advertising from the users that on Facebook have shared the news over 8 thousand times. But the question is much more serious, because these characters were appointed to govern our country at the last elections in 2008. The reactions were varied: some people took it personally and were offended by the humiliation that Italian politics had received by the English. Some has reacted with annoyance and impatience to the nth commonplace about Italian behavior. In fact the action was clearly against some specific characters and has nothing to do with the qualities that have always distinguished our countrymen all over the world.

That political class is now nothing but a thing of the past and through this project the British have given us a creative idea to exploit the popularity of certain characters: the faces of a campaign to promote recycling and composting methods. What better way to dispose of the “organic waste” emergency of our country if not in the popular bin with the name of _ _ _ _ _ _ (your choice).

Green alternatives to the usual gym

2012-01-16T21:23:00.004+01:00

by Anna de Polo

It cannot be said that Londoners don’t have imagination, when it comes to create new trends. Even when these involve keeping fit in an alternative way, combining physical activity and respect of the environment. So why not taking inspiration from them, if we have some weight to work off after Christmas, but the gym is not for us? Here are a couple of suggestions.Last summer along the Tames the new trend of pop-up cycle-in cinemas has spread over.

And what is it? Nothing that complex, in fact. The pop-up cinemas aren’t a novelty: if you have ever heard about them it’s because until yesterday they used to be called outdoor cinemas. Actually sometimes they are indoor, but in any case they are temporary, nomad if you like. Drive-in cinemas are a remembrance of the Fifties: maybe you have never been in one of them, but for sure you have seen them in some movie. So, imagine a drive-in, just with bikes instead of cars. But this is not all, because once arrived to the place by your bike you stay on it and, after having hooked it to the rack and connected to a mini-generator, you keep on cycling, turning into a kind of human dynamo. The energy produced in this way is used to project the film.

Adam Walker, of Magnificent Revolution, the organization that set up the first cycle-in cinemas, said: “We wanted to create Fifties-style drive-in cinema, but powered by bikes. We've done it on a smaller scale, but it was a lot of work. With 20 bikes everyone should be able to pedal gently”.

For whom interested in building up his own pedal-powered generator, so then he can produce energy while cycling at home, the no-profit organization Low Impact Living Initiative (LILI) offers two days courses at its base, a co-op housed in a Victorian mansion outside Winslow, Buckinghamshire.

Another alternative to the usual gym, which combines outdoor activities and love for nature, are the Green Gyms. They are work sessions lasting around half a day, during which you are guided in many different activities, ranging from horticulture to gardening. In a relaxed atmosphere, which encourages socializing (much more than in a normal gym), you have the opportunity to improve you practical skills, keep health and fit and contribute to the conservation of the local surroundings.

Probably it’s not by chance that what is “green” often intersects stimulating and funny activities that imply imagination, creativity and the ability to think outside of the box. If we make an effort to overcome physical and mental laziness, which often anchor us to the everyday grey routine, we can easily improve the quality of our life, as well as the one of the environment.

The water become a slogan!

2012-01-13T14:25:00.003+01:00

by Silvia Faletto

With the nearing of the Congress RIO +20, who will verify the achievement of the sustainability Objectives posed by the Rio de Janeiro’s ONU conference twenty years later, and the official Recognition of the human Right to the water and hygienic services from the general Assembly of U.N. (occurred the 28th July 2010), also Europe has to take action in this camp.

For that reason, the E.U. will complete and publish into next months a thematically project that will take term in 2050, and the advertising Competition “The Future who we want” is a first Initiative turned to all the citizens. The competition has been opened the 10th December 2011, and it has been developed thanks to the collaboration of three important UN organism: UNRIC (United Nations Regional Information Centre), UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme), and the UN Information Centres.

The participants are called into create a advertisement that can be an inspiration to the quotidian and future water’ safety, across the presentation of a maximum of five images with relative slogan.

The realizations has to hold the symbol of the advertising campaign “The Future who we want: Drop by Drop”, and they can be sent through the website www.dropbydrop.eu till 29th February 2012.

The winner will be elected, apart from the vote of a international jury composed by important exponents and experts from the involved sectors, also from the public preferences: in facts, from 1st to the 21 March, all citizens can participate to the public vote, and they will so contribute to the final choice.

At the end of the vote, apart from the first prize, a compensation of 5000 euro, the jury will award also the Youth Prize, who’s reserved to participants with age lower or equal to 25 Years old, and the Public Prize, who’s assigned to the one that with his work has received more votes.

Do you are not applicant advertisers, or simply haven’t you any graphic abilities?

Don’t worry! Apart to vote the favourite slogan, the campaign “Drop by Drop” offer to everyone the possibility to sign cares and Initiative carried out into the normal quotidian Life.

All these voices will activate a global debate, a chain reaction on the web, and this will point out how it’s possible to do something, here and now, to manage, to safe and to guarantee the right to the fundamental and prime need to the life: the water.

To receive more Information go to the website www.dropbydrop.eu.

Naked for an environmental cause

2012-01-11T15:19:00.002+01:00

by Silvia Musso

Is it another exploitation of the female image, or an effective media campaign? What is the line between mere use of a naked female body and an artistic nude used for a noble cause? This is the dispute that has turned around the Greenpeace campaign "I want my child to know the forests", which depicts a naked pregnant woman.

The Uruguayan actress Natalia Oreiro, famous in Latin countries such as soap operas interpreter and environmentalist, has made an appeal for Greenpeace for the protection of forests and has "given" to the cause her belly.

The environmental NGO is not sparing in the use of strong images,but this time the choice – a naked pregnant woman – has been at the same level of previous campaigns?The pose of South American actress is clearly a quotation from the famous picture of a pregnant Demi Moore, then copied by many other celebrities.So there is nothing new.

The body of a pregnant woman, besides being the sublimation of feminine beauty, is certainly highly symbolic as a hope bringer for a prosperous and better future, so the choice seems more than appropriate. But if you look at the picture, what is striking is not the belly, which should be the main character of this campaign, but rather the flirtatious look that makes the testimonial nothing more than an object of sexual desire, a helpless and weak woman. Nothing to do with a proud Mother Nature image that deserves to be respected.

We have almost exhausted the available space questioning about the form rather than the content of the campaign - the protection of forests - and perhaps this is precisely the weak aspect of the campaign. Even among Internet people, who have left comments on the web, the focus is on the beauty of the actress and the more or less abuse of the female nude and the message itself fades into the background.

We remind that this campaign was born inside a precise social and political framework. A government forest bill “Ley de Bosques”, supported by more than 1.5 million Argentinean citizens, was approved by the Argentinean Congress in 2007 to protect native forests. Despite the massive civil society movement and political will, governance is still an issue in the region and deforestation rates keep rising because of logging permits and cattle expansion.

Mrs Oreiro, inspired by the desire for her son to know the fecundity of the forests, lent her weight to the call to action to Governor of Santiago del Estero to halt forest destruction, revoke illegal logging permits and give future generations a chance to discover the wonders of the forests.

We hope that the unborn child, symbol of next generations, will be proud of his mother's environmental engage.

We are 7 billion people!

2012-01-09T08:55:00.004+01:00

by Eleonora Anello

On October, 31, 2011, Danica May Camacho was born in the Philippines. Danica is not just a newborn baby but also the citizen number 7 billion of the world, as said the UN global counter. In fact, “baby-7-billion”, who won a scholarship, is the icing on the cake of a broad communicative action.

Early last year, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) launched "7-billion actions - A global movement for all humanity", a campaign that will continue throughout the whole 2012 aimed at highlighting those positive action carried out by individuals or organizations for facing global development-related challenges. By sharing these experiences in an open forum, the initiative aims at fostering communication and collaboration across a more and more populated and interdependent world, as evidenced by the report "The 7 billion world: people, opportunities", which brings to light an unstoppable urbanization. The study photographed a world characterized by great mobility (in particular migrations from south to north and, within south countries, from rural to urban areas. Hoping to improve economic conditions, this migration will cause a progressive wild urbanization, which ultimately affect the environment and the quality of life of the population.

7 themes were identified in order to engage and to inform the public about these issues: poverty and social injustice, empowerment of women, reproductive health, youth, elderly, environment, urbanization.

Joining the movement is very simple and you can do it in several ways. In addition to stories, which can be personal or involve other people, NGOs and/or companies who committed in favor of humanity, you can try to compose your personal version of the song "United", anthem anybody can interpret with personal style and instruments. The Playing for Change Foundation will select some versions for being part of a final mix.

There is even the "1 of 7 Billion" short films contest, organized by the Foundation 10.12.48. Cinema, as well as music, becomes a powerful mean, a universal language particularly suitable for spreading the debate on crucial issues. Furthermore, cinema and music can give a more human face to those challenges the planet (and especially the environment) is facing.

For fresh updates you can tune in on the most popular social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, or read the blog. This is an all-round campaign, which leaves nothing to chance and which also employs the most classic communication resources such as brochures and fact sheets (addressed both inside and outside the United Nations), posters and videos. To ease individuals’ actions, has also been formulated a model of letter.

Rush to the final present...

2011-12-23T15:53:00.004+01:00

by Silvia Musso

In previous post, we have already tried to understand how to diminish our environmental impact during the next Christmas times. Now we try to find the most ecological gift.
About clothes, Greenpeace remind us that we can opt for “toxix free” labels that thanks to the Detox campaign launched in July 2011, firms such as Nike, Adidas, Puma and H&M has been engaged to eliminate toxix materials from their products by 2020.

WWF, instead, suggest do not give exotic animals or derived products, avoiding to feed their illigal commerce; to make shopping using the bycicle or public ways of trasportation; to give organic products deriving from the fair trade.

If you have children, good are the toys of Ecogiochiamo, online shop of sustainable and low impact articles made with natural materials (wood, paperboard, silk) and atoxix colors.

Two obejcts, stressed also on the website www.mestieredimamma.it for their educational and ecological peculiarities, seems to us very stimulating. The house on tree realized in paperboars that can be built without scissor and glue and that can be colored and Crokitoo, table game made by paperboard with accesories in natural wood, that learn the eating habits of different animals.

For a solidal Christmas, Altromercato shops propose interesting ideas adapt for all ages, for house, body care and other objects attentive to environment and producers rights. On its website, moreover, with a funny test, you can choose online the right gift for the person who will receive it, without finding themselves in the scuffle of the stressful rush to the final present.

For us the best present remains a good book, preferring editors that print on paper friend of forests. Among books reviewed by Envi, we indicate in particular way Meno 100 kg by Roberto Cavallo. Another very recent book is Basta il giusto (quanto e quando) - “Just the right (how much and when)” - by Andrea Segrè (Altraeconomia edizioni). They are two books that give good ideas to list the yearly proposals for the new year, with the best wishes that in 2012 we all will be able to reduce waste and consequently our ecological foorprint.

From stranded waste to Christmas decorations

2011-12-22T07:23:00.003+01:00

by Silvia Faletto

Eat the Mussels caught few hours earlier along the Coasts of our Sea, this is always a pleasure.
However, even if this practice is done wisely and environmentally carrying out, this activity often brings damages that we don't view : the remnants of broken and useless fishing Nets end up on our Beaches, and they become a seroius Danger to all the fragile Ecosystem based on coastlines.

For this Reason, Legambiente Volunteers in Mola (BA) regularly collect Litter over the Mola's Coast , and for Christmas 2011 they propose a new Way to bring new Life to what otherwise would be another Sea Garbage.

From the Transformation of Nets, in fact, it has been create a "Christmas' Ega": this is a nice eco-friendly Decoration to our Tree, and it also helps to protect the Environment from which it come.

Obtained by wrapping the fishing Net around a Egagropile (a sphere of residues beached Posidonia, an aquatic plant typical of the Mediterranean), the “Christmas' Ega” is part of the Achievements designed to promote a Christmas craft that respects the environment.

How to write the president of Legambiente Mola, Antonella Berlen, the objectives to achieve with this campaign are numerous and ambitious: "The first Goal of this Initiative is to collect a very specific type of Waste that is present in large Number to our Shorelines: the infamous Net used to Processing Mussels. In addition to this, we want to approach the Garbage and its transformation in a creative Way to Rejection, and also we would Reduce the new Trash produced by buying decorations impactful.

Morever, the campaign wants to bring financial Support to the association, and so to contribute to the expenses (rent, electricity, telephone, water, etc.), which otherwise fall on already committed volunteers. Finally, we wants to give the opportunity for this Christmas, to transform the Net into another already designed Decoration, to allow the Ball to get back on the coast of Posidonia."

Subscribing a “Christmas' Ega” to associations and businesses that participate to this Project, we'll contribute to a important Campaign, which calls each of us to work to the Present and the future of Italy!

For more information: Legambiente "The Capodieci - from the countryside to the sea", www.legambientemola.it.

Under the Christmas tree good practises handbooks

2011-12-21T09:35:00.004+01:00

by Silvia Musso

Are you too struggling with Christmas? It would be for the crisis or for the worries for future austere times, but this year you can find useful suggestions everywhere “to celebrate” in a sustainable way. Many more or less big, more or less known associations and organizations as well as municipalities or firms are listing decalogues of good practises that with zero Km dinner, green gifts and environmental friendly decorations will help us to overcome also this Christmas. Greenpeace suggests for the Christmas tree to use prunes, instead of buying a real one, to buy low consume lights, to use less meat for the dinner and about the fish to avoid cod, prawns, tuna and swordfish choosing bluefish.

Always about the menù a reflection and a anti-waste vademecum comes from Andid, the association of Italian dietists. «Since always – president of Andid, Giovanna Cecchetto, explains – Christams times are the occasion to share refined dishes where food becomes the symbol of abundance, pleasure, thoughlessness, hope of a fuure well-being. But differently from now, those food were used to last also after Christmas and were sipped during the following weeks with the “recycle” practise. Today it is not like this any more. We throw away all».

According some data collected by United Nations, in fact, every year one third of food producted on Earth, about 1,3 billions tons, is wasted. To contain and avoid these wastes Andid dietits have listed 10 suggestions. Among them: “Do not get hungry at the dinner time”; “to respect satiety signs”; “to avoid bread”; to buy a correct quantity of food, proportioned with the numbers of people”; do not being groped by sales and to limit too big food supplies”.

Coldiretti's suggestion, over the invitation to choose zero Km food, is about the Christma tree. It is better to opt for the real fir because often the plastic ones come from China and have done thousands of km with many greenhouse gases emissions. Moreover the firm can be replanted after the festivity, or disposed in les time than the plastic one tht needs 200 years befor the complete degrade. In Italy the firs' cultivation to be allocated to Christmas market is part of hydrogeological risk prevention projects.

About the holydays, finally, WWF, in its yearly decalogue, suggests to prefere Italy rather to far destinations and the train rather than areoplane.

Other decalogues, very similar ones to the others, come also from websites of municipalities, businnesses and reviews.

The ideas to spend a sustainable Christmas are many, we have to decide if let them a real practise. Anyway if you are still looking for a gift, under the Christamas tree, try to put one of these handbooks. It will be a good present for the future of or Planet and an occasin to rflect together with frineds and relatives among candies and wine.

Let’s rate the "Environment Character" of the year 2011

2011-12-20T14:20:00.002+01:00

by Marzia Fialdini

Who is the Environment Character of the year 2011? The Roman born award on the web is back for the third year: it assigns to Italian citizens the task to reward those people or organizations who supported - with commitment and professionalism - the cause of green economy and environmental sustainability in Italy and in the rest of the world. The idea, the project, or just the information or the political initiative which during the year left a mark in favor of the environment will be awarded.

Compared to last year there is something different in the composition of the list of candidates: there is a higher number of collective subjects such as committees and forums, and a reduced number of representatives of “traditional” associations. The presence of local administrators, that last year got themselves talked about because of undertaken local initiatives, remains dominant. Entrepreneurs are less present and there is virtually no representation of characters of the entertainment and journalism that last year dominated the rankings.

The twenty-one candidates for the 2011 Award have been selected by a Technical Committee composed of directors of environmental newspapers, environmental journalists, responsible for Italian theme sites and bloggers. To name someone among the candidates there are "The Angels of the Mud" from Genoa, the new environment minister Corrado Clini, the "Italian movement for water Forum", the mayor of Cassinetta di Lugagnano Domenico Finiguerra, Giuseppe Onufrio, Executive Director of Greenpeace Italy, Nichi Vendola, national President of Sel, "Fukushima 50 - Nobukatsu Osumi" (workers of the Fukushima nuclear Power Plant), the fishermen of Torre Guaceto reserve (promoters and active part of a project of sustainable fisheries). The complete list is available on the award website: www.personaggioambiente.it.

To vote you have to register on the website. You can express your preference only once and within December 31, 2011. The pattern of voting is updated in real time and the winner will be awarded during a ceremony to be held in Rome in late January 2012.

«The award - declared Mario Notaro, Secretary of the Technical Committee - aims to give voice to those millions people who care about the environment and want to convey, with their vote, a sign of recognition for those men and women who spent themselves in battles and initiatives related to sustainability. We hope this third edition records the excellent results in terms of votes achieved in the previous one and that, year after year, the award becomes an event that, in addition to declaring the mostly distinguished character of the year, could be an opportunity for dialogue and national debate on the nature of environmental problems of our country».

Dear Santa, this year we want sustainable mobility...

2011-12-19T09:11:00.000+01:00

by Eleonora Anello

Hiring Santa for one’s communication campaign is something great. Compared to other celebrities, he’s cheaper and much more persuasive. These things should have been thought in Cesena where, this year, spreading sustainable mobility is up to Santa Claus himself!

The Borello primary school will organize, in collaboration with the neighborhood and the Sustainable Mobility Department of the Municipality of Cesena, a Christmas party on December 23 dedicated to the environment.At 8 o’clock, at the starting point of the three lines of the Pedibus, Santa Claus in the flesh will deliver some gifts to the children!

The Vicenza Province, Confcommercio, Ferrovie and Tramvie Vicentine thought instead to the families tied up with Christmas shopping. With the initiative “Catch the bus with Santa”, citizens can use public transportation across the whole province for free, avoiding parking problems and without hurting the environment. Furthermore, all those who will convert to sustainable mobility will enjoy purchase discounts. The appointment is on the Christmas weekends and on the Christmas eve.

«The initiative “Santa’s bus” aims to favor local public transportation use and represent a saving for Vicenza’s families – said Attilio Schneck, president of the Vicenza Province – At the same time it eases the reaching of cities’ centers which are often congested by traffic during holidays».

The idea of linking sustainable mobility to shopping reconciles everyone: «Both retailers and tourism operators like “Santa’s bus” – says Andrea Gallo, president of the Vicenza retailers’ association – I think it’s a good idea to link public transportation to retailing chain, because even on this side we shape the future of our cities’ centers».

Cristiano Sandonà, province alderman for transportation says: «We want that many people could try the efficiency and the value of public transportation, which are much better than the over-used cars. This will enable people to enjoy Christmas atmosphere, appreciating public transportation’s comfort».

The web is more desecrating. On the internet you can find even two Santa Claus. A traditional one and a weird one. One is green and the other red. We are talking about the movie made for the Cagliari 1x100 campaign for a sustainable holiday mobility. In the funny video two Santas compete for presenting Christmas gifts... One of them uses a car, the other one moves sustainably. «The campaign – told us Pamoja, the organizer association – aims at raising citizens’ awareness and at promoting voluntary abstention from using car on Sundays. This year Christmas is just on Sunday!».

Eco-friendly tips for Christmas

2011-12-16T18:39:00.004+01:00

by Annalisa Tancredi

This year the Christmas tree is made of recycled cardboard and decorated by fairy lights and reused ornaments, because producing a plastic one emits more than 23 kilograms of CO2 and it’s biodegradable in more than 200 years; at that moment, Santa Claus' beard will be too long and it is better to be eco-good with him if we wish to receive any Christmas gift, obviously ecological and packaging-free.

The best practices for an eco-friendly Christmas lunch are: cooking slowly and in a simple way, with fresh foods, avoiding precooked and frozen foods; be careful with food wastage because 1/3 of it ends up in trash tripling the amount of waste disposed during the holidays. You have to be very patient to cook handicraft polenta and traditional lentils (which could be greener if cooked without sausage, usually excessively packed). Reducing meat consumption is also good for health and the environment, because producing it emits much CO2 and half of it is generally trashed. The same about fish, don’t buy it if not local. Do not buy exotic fruits, otherwise prefer kiwi, persimmons, mandarins and made in Italy dried fruit. Prefer seasonable and biological vegetables, better if bought by GAS (Purchase Solidarity Group).

Let’s take a look to sustainable Christmas events: Legambiente Young Energy Liguria will organize on Saturday, December 17, a Christmas dinner with dance and music to present the Ligurian Purchase Solar Group to those citizens interested in installing a photovoltaic or solar plant. The initiative is promoted by Legambiente Liguria and the Genoa Municipality and it’s part of the measures envisaged by the SEAP (Sustainable Energy Action Plan) of the Covenant of Mayors. "We organized a series of public meetings, issued to all concerned citizens in collaboration with the Municipalities - said Stefania Pesce of Legambiente - We are collecting subscriptions for reaching the minimum needed number of participant.". The advantages are discernible not only about prices but also about higher guarantees, higher plants’ quality and transparency (competitive tenders are open to all businesses).

The City of Corchiano instead, winner of Five Stars Municipalities Award 2010 and City for Green Award 2011, organized on Sunday, December 11 a Christmas event dedicated to the ecological footprint, the rediscovery of ancient tastes and jobs. Christmas decorations and illuminations are obtained from the reusing of iron and plastic bottles. In addition, it’s possible to taste biologic red wine and the typical cake made with raisins and local craft beer, along a path to the rediscovery of medieval jobs.

Chistmas is welcome to Mother Nature only if eco-friendly!

Polar Bear Cam: facing polar bears and climate change

2011-12-14T20:49:00.004+01:00

by Irene Gozzelino

Christmas is definitely coming. We are surrounded by glittering stars, Santa smiles in the shop windows, often encircled by reindeers and polar bears. Wouldn’t it be better to watch a real polar bear? You can actually do it, through the Polar Bear Cam.

Polar web-cam, which you can link to comfortably from your home, is sponsored by Polar Bears International, a worldwide no-profit organization aimed at the preservation of the polar bear and its habitat through research, safeguard and environmental education. Collected data are at anyone’s disposal. Association’s goals are to become a key educational and scientific research resource on polar bears and their habitat and to create an internationally inclusive organization that promotes teamwork and countries’ involvement.

Barbara Nielsen, Polar Bears International’s Director of Communication, kindly replied our questions about the web cam.

First of all, how can the webcam be scientifically useful?
“The main value of the webcam is to offer everyone the opportunity to observe polar bears’ world, enabling them to realize directly the climate changes which are concerning Arctic. At the same time, webcam surveys the condition of polar bears and their population”.

How can the webcam be useful for protecting polar bears and the environment? Which is its value in environmental communication?
“People who watch webcam images are struck by the beauty of the polar bear and its habitat. Many people also noted many of the bears are underweight. Until few days ago, indeed, there was no snow or ice covering on the whole Hudson Bay, preventing bears from moving to food-full places. Just 30 years ago, the bay usually froze during the first or second week of November.

Using the webcam enables us to certify the global warming in Arctic. One of our website’s visitors wrote us that seeing the images of the underweight bears waiting for the freezing of the bay were heart-breaking. His comment went on underlining how persuasive the webcam is on global warming themes”.

Barbara told us even about explore.org, a website containing data proving bears’ difficult situation. Many links enable to deepen the topic and to actively participate in the cause.

This year, under your Christmas tree, don’t forget a present for polar bears and for the environment.

In Berlin the garbage makes fun

2011-12-12T16:04:00.003+01:00

by Irene Gozzelino

She writes on her own website that she´s feeling especially persuasive. She is ironic about the daily life of the citizens, made of walks with dogs, cigarette´s butts and garbage. She´s funny and she dresses only orange.
We´re presenting you the garbage disposal services of Berlin, managed by the biggest firm in Europe in this sector.

The firm is called BSR, an acronym that means “Berliner Stadtreinigung”, simply “cleaning of the city of Berlin”, and it was founded in 1951. Apart from an efficiency guarantee from 6000 employees and from 2000 vehicles for the waste collection, the BSR is remarkable for her communication capacity.

Every year the streets of the German´s capital are invaded of a new and funny advertising campaign about waste collection, street cleaning and garbage collection, that changes with the season. The cold colors of ice and snow mark the winter, more warm colors recall the summer´s sun.

The colors are changing but not the objective: to change our own bad cultural and emotional background about garbage and who collects it.

As you can see in our Facebook gallery, the garbage collector is represented like a familiar person: he takes care of the city (the home of all) taking away the garbage exactly like we do at home (the slogan is: “like at home...only more”).

In another image we´re seeing The Big Kathrine, an enormous child, that is dominating the city like a giant: she´s so big ´cause all the children, learning from an early age, can give a big contribution to clean the city, now and in the future.

Then the advertising images are genial that invite to throw away the organic rest in the appropriate baskets: most famous classical paintings are deprive of fruits and vegetables ´cause “old vegetables belong to the compost´s basket”.

Finally, we need to mention the trashcans on the street; they have an intelligent structure with an hole only for cigarettes, and are always provided with funny slogans like “CO2´s collector” or “WOW WOW it´so amazing how you have collected the defections of your dog the right way!".

Thanks to this this strong advertising campaign, the just diligent citizens are made aware of the recycling collection. One result is, that every year 6000 tons of organic waste are produced and transformed into bio gas that is used by the vehicles of the street cleaning and garbage collection.

The color of the BSR is a harsh orange, and we must state, that in this case, orange has never been so green.

Sometimes they come back: if plastic bags arise against those who dispersed them into the environment?

2011-12-09T14:55:00.003+01:00

by Francesca Morra

Imagine if the container of your plastic grocery bags started walking across the home, or if the door of the pantry where you hid the nearly 300 bags the average person uses per year, opened up and begin to go out scaring guests during Christmas holidays. Imagine if, slowly, all plastic bags gathered to create a humanoid form 3-storeys high and began to move around the city and schools. Imagine how you would react...

This is what actually happened in Shanghai: the association Roots &Shoots, together with the agency Bates141, a network dedicated to communications and marketing, created an interesting and very effective advertising campaign about pollutant effects of plastic bags spread in the environment. They built an inflatable monster made of plastic bags donated by the schools’ students, which circulated across streets and schools striking spectators.

The claim that accompanies the monster is "Waste plastic bags and they'll come back to haunt you" which, associated with the menacing image of the monster, stirred the heart of many students who witnessed the "birth" of this creature.

The supporting foundation is Roots and Shoots, which aims at educating new generations to environmental respect. The association's mission is precisely to raise awareness among young students because, as stated by Tori Zwisler, coordinator of environmental education projects «When you're doing environmental education you are educating not only children but also adults. If a kid saves energy also his parents will begin to do it, and then the neighbors and their families and so on ...».

Considering that plastic shopping bags are a waste most people do not realize to produce, we believe the visual impact of all these bags coming to life served the purpose of creating doubt in people who saw that.

Start thinking these 3 kilograms of plastic waste per year are easily avoidable becomes simpler and immediate if a monster of that magnitude is above us!

CleaNap: guerrilla cleaning in Naples

2011-12-07T09:06:00.005+01:00

by Annalisa Tancredi

Waging a guerrilla, armed with brooms and shovels, against administrative malpractice and negligence for historical and cultural places of Naples. In Campania, a dozen of young students and precarious under 32, called "The angels of rubbish", decided to clean Neapolitan squares and places of worship, organizing some guerrilla cleaning flash mobs. They are CleaNap - Piazza Pulita, a voluntary movement born on Facebook and become, in a few months, one of the most covered by national and international press. In few days the fans number grew up, active citizenship joined the idea of shaking the city swamped by lawlessness, administrative inefficiency and waste.

On June, 4, the first ecology-swoop started from Piazza Bellini, then the ecology-from-below movement reached Porta Capuana, Santa Maria la Nova, Piazza Matteotti. Now CleaNap is a voluntary association for social solidarity and environmental sustainability and in next year intends to clean up Vesuvius National Park, to contrast its decay. Emiliana Mellone, one of the organizers, tells us something more about the association.

How was the movement born?
CleaNap was born as a viral proposal shared among Neapolitans citizenship. I created an event on Facebook "Let's clean Piazza Bellini, each of us equipped with broom, gloves, maps: occupy squares!"; I invited my virtual friends, social network sharing mechanisms did the rest. We were 100, 200, then also 400! Later, people met in squares joined the team of friends and after this summer we set up a voluntary association.

What about "The Sound of 3R", your proposal for EWWR?
It was a flash mob seeking to involve passers-by. We emphasized the importance of recycling, reuse and reduction through games and questions and a musical and improvisation acting performance. We contacted the Bateria Pegaonda who played with instruments made from recycled objects.

What about the future? Have you planned other guerrillas?
In December we will be involved in the Asia's campaign "Four days of differentiation" about re-using paper and cardboard and composting. About long term plans, CleaNap is the Italian partner of Let’s do it! for the 2012 World Cleanup, a campaign made by volunteers coming from more than 100 countries, for cleaning up countries from illegal junk. We have a very ambitious project, cleaning up the Vesuvius National Park!, that needs to be endorsed by a massive support from all citizens, private and institutions. We need many people from all over Italy who want to join us for cleaning a national symbol that in last time has been victim of illegal spills. If many people will take part in the initiative, then we can achieve important goals: not only the recovery of abandoned junk in nature, but also a real structural intervention, which needs also the help of the institutions.

Spazio Etico presents his project: Voce del verbo “RI-CELLULARE”

2011-12-05T13:53:00.003+01:00

by Valeria Rocca

Have you ever heard about the “Witness of the snail”? The Austrian thinker Ivan Illich said «The snail teaches us the way to think of a happy and friendly “de-growth society”. Building the delicate architecture of its shell with larger and larger coils, the snail has to stop and begin to create diminishing convolutions to avoid that a too large one, rather than contributing to its wellbeing, become a serious overweight». The metaphor is easy to understand: the man must pursue his welfare making choices in respect of the environment and the world, exactly like the snail, without excessing.

Spazio Etico, an association working in many different fields in Lazio, supports this philosophy. According to Spazio Etico, if our everyday decisions can positively affect the world around us, why not to commit ourselves to avoid waste? Among their many activities, the project “Voce del verbo Ri-Cellulare” deserves special attention.

Recent studies say the cell is the most popular gadget in the world and the most frequently replaced. Do the people recycle their old mobile phones? Only the 3% of the word population. Recycling mobile phones is instead very important because it enables to reduce greenhouse gas emissions resulting from landfill disposal of mobile phones and their batteries, to correctly dispose toxic materials contained in the cellphones (lead, cadmium, lithium), to prevent health problems, and to recover valuable metals. For more information we asked Mauro Speranza (project manager) some questions.

When was the idea of the project “Ri-cellulare” born and what are the main reasons that prompted you to promote it?
«The project "Voce del verbo Ri-cellulare”, was ideated in late 2009 as part of SPAZIO ETICO. On one hand we had the willingness to do something for helping the world we live in while on the other hand we realized that the increasing quantity of mobile phones does not correspond to an easy disposal system. In fact, very few people go to depots to dispose phones. So? Highly polluting items crowd the landfills or, at best, lie in drawers full of unused equipment».

Through which means was the project promoted?
«We planned a specific communication campaign using different channels, both classic and modern. First, we use the internet: the association’s website hosts a dedicated section and in the same time we use social networks. Furthermore, we don’t forget traditional channels such as social and cultural events. Information meetings and workshops were carried out in order to spread the activities and raise public awareness about the environmental impact of mobile phones, especially if they are not disposed by law. Collaborating with other associations which share the same values is very important for spreading knowledge of our activities. In addition to the associations, we are trying to involve the public bodies of the Lazio Region and of the Province of Rome (which sponsored the project) and the Municipality of Rome. An information campaign is also about to start in many schools».

Which objectives do you want to achieve with this project?
«We want to collect a growing number of used mobile phones in order to spread an environment-friendly culture, intended as a set of daily activities anyone can achieve in his daily routine. Furthermore, the association is trying to spread the culture of the “de-growth” and of the waste fighting, and this project pursues this aim».

Are you currently satisfied of the achieved results?
«The satisfaction is twofold: on one hand first results are encouraging in terms of number of collected phones (more than 2000), but above all we are realizing how much people can do if properly informed about the consequences of their actions».

Are you planning to export your project to other Italian regions?
«Exporting the project closely follows the interest it’s having across Italy. It's common to be contacted by other associations and partnerships are starting with some realities, especially in the Calabria region. Indeed, we are willing to support anyone who proves helpful in this regard».

We accept and spread with pleasure the invitation of Spazio Etico. All necessary information are available on the website.

Only one flyer for everyone!

2011-12-02T16:21:00.003+01:00

by Eleonora Anello

An exemplary leaflet campaign made up with only one paper using the motto "One for all". It’s not a fake, but a fun campaign of WWF Hungary. Two pandas changed an environmentally heavy communication campaign into an effective and sustainable one. If we then take into account the consistency between the communicator and the topics, then you can say that, with no doubt, the campaign was perfect. Actually, large quantities of paper don’t befit to those who have environmental intent or at least look like that.

But let's get the facts. As you can see from the hilarious movie posted on the internet, the two volunteers clumsily disguised as pandas chose a large shopping center to spread their message. The two environment-friends animals invited citizens to donate 1% of the tax to the environmentalist association, as provided by law. One of them was placed at the bottom of a crowded escalator, the other on the top. Going upstairs, the receiver had the time for understanding the message. After the communication had been read, the piece of paper which had ceased its primary function, was taken back by the other panda who redistributed the leaflet preventing its abandonment.

No need to say that the video of the initiative was a viral success on the web, with an original idea which aroused curiosity and amusement among the people, with low economic and environmental costs, avoiding unnecessary waste and spreading a clear message in an incisively way.

To save energy has never been as easy as now: bet you

2011-11-30T15:18:00.007+01:00

by Marzia Fialdini

Energy is valuable and we have to safeguard it. Within the domestic life, in everyday routine, we can reduce energy wastage through simple tricks, achieving consumption cut. On these bases, in 2009 was created Energy Neighbourhoods, a European initiative which put in competition hundreds of families in Ireland, England, France, Spain, Bulgaria, Germany and Belgium. They had to prove they were able to reduce energy consumption without investments or comfort loss.It’s the third edition of the initiative in France and several families living in Alpine regions have experienced an energetic consumption reduction by 8%: for example, switching off electronic devices or heating houses at no more than 19 degrees. During the six-months contest, participants received suitable technical support achieving an energy consumption reduction by 17% on average, saving 270 euros per family.

In Italy the initiative has been renamed Famiglie SalvaEnergia, and it’s spreading across several cities, in particular in the Genoa Province, in which it involves the municipalities of Lavagna, Serra Riccò and Arenzano in an energetic bet with their citizens. Groups of families engaged in reducing as much energy consumption as possible, in terms of electric and thermic consumption, just changing their habits and correcting their behaviors. From February to April, 2011, the Provincial Government committed itself to survey the event, and families achieved to reduce their consumption by 7%. FamiglieSalvaEnergia is one of the first standard actions promoted by the Province to its municipalities and has been included in every SEAP (Action Plan for Sustainable Energy) approved up to now. On December 1, the second edition of the initiative will start. The goal is saving by 9% of electricity bills, and has to be carried out between December 2011 and March 2012: the most virtuous families will be publicly awarded in May 2012.

The Genoa Province promoted the initiative after receiving a report on CO2 emissions on its territory: 45% of the emissions is due to buildings, and 60% of it comes from houses. Actually it’s possible to dramatically cut off CO2 emissions just changing our routine habits. Lowering by one degree the heating temperature or switching off stand-by pcs or televisions can enable to save energy, money and polluting emissions.

The three municipalities involved in the Famiglie SalvaEnergia program signed the “Patto dei Sindaci (Mayor’s Agreement)”, an EU’s initiative the accession to which is spontaneous. Signatories bind themselves to reduce by 20% by 2020 the CO2 emissions on their territories (main cause of the climate change), according to the EU policy.

The third edition of the European Week for Waste Reduction 2011 comes to an end

2011-11-29T16:14:00.004+01:00

by Rosa Puig i Moré & Francesca Morra

Sunday, November 27, was the last day of the third edition of the European Week for Waste Reduction, which has implemented more than 7.000 actions across Europe; once again Italy obtained the second place award with about 960 actions carried out around the country!

In Italy, the media coverage for this edition has been especially remarkable due to numerous appearances on television and radio. There were three runs on “Striscia la Notizia”, by Cristina Gabetti, on “Canale 5”: Saturday, November 12, Saturday, November 19 and Saturday, November 26 (with an average of over 4 million viewers). Two runs on RAI3, one on Ambiente Italia and one on Chetempochefa with nearly 2 million viewers. In addition, several special episodes and interviews on local channels, radio, digital channels and online TVs. There have been also several publications on the press: e.g the Corriere della Sera.

Even though the rain hasn’t stopped for some days during the “Week”, Project Developers haven’t been discouraged. In fact, even in those places where bad weather caused serious inconveniences, Organizers found the way to carry out planned initiatives, giving attesting the true passion of people who adhere to the "Week" and who make this yearly growing initiative possible. In June 2012, in Paris, the European Awards will be given to European most original and worthy actions, basing on the evaluations made by a panel of experts.

This has been the third and last edition of the European Week for Waste Reduction within the LIFE + Program of the European Commission, but the Italian promoter of the “Week”, Roberto Cavallo, President of AICA, confirms that this project won’t stop here: “The European Commission is evaluating the possibility to keep up the economic support to the European promoters coordinated by the Association of Cities and Regions of Brussels. Anyway, the European Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik, has already declared that this is one of the most important and most successful initiative of the last 10 years, so we hope the initiative continues.”

The Italian Promoter Committee, composed by the Environment Ministry, Federambiente, Rifiuti 21 Network, Province of Turin, Province of Rome, Legambiente, AICA, E.R.I.C.A. and Eco dalle Città, expressed his gratitude to all the Project Developers who organized so many interesting and successful actions and also who participated in them.

Turning waste into a resource. It happens to the EWWR 2011 markets

2011-11-27T19:26:00.000+01:00

by Eleonora Anello

It’s really rewarding getting rid of the objects we do not use anymore. It's good for the spirit and... for the environment! For this reason, the barter and used markets have become a must among the actions dedicated to the European Week for Waste Reduction.

This weekend, across the Milan’s hinterland, and more precisely in Mesero and Albairate, two important markets of barter, reuse and repair will be held. It’s important because they build up a relationship across the area and are part of a more complex process, as told us the President of the Consorzio dei Comuni dei Navigli, Carlo Ferrè: «We started on the occasion of the EWWR 2010, organizing in Vittuone the NoTrash Mob in the schools. We went on with the campaign “Il primato della leggerezza” ("The primacy of light"), seeking to decrease the amount of waste produced and at the same time to improve the separate waste collection and the quality of life of our citizens. On this Monday the educational phase of our operation will start. With the help of some volunteer groups, we're going to assess family by family the quality of separate collection applying different tags on waste bags. This tags are red, yellow and green depending on the quality and will be motivated to make clear to citizens what they are doing wrong if they're wrong».

Among stands of books, toys, kitchenware and jewelry we also met the deputy mayor of Mesero, Giuseppe Fusè. «As soon as the Consortium proposed these initiatives we immediately responded with enthusiasm. The action has a strong impact on the environment because it removes from the disposal a large number of goods which may be still used instead of becoming waste. Furthermore, it has a social impact creating a virtuous circle involving all citizens and inviting to reflect on the possibility to repair some items instead of throwing them away. To be more sustainable, we advertised the event mostly by mail and through word-of-mouth, avoiding an excessive production of leaflets».

The Mesero market was also a place of education through the information point in which were distributed the campaign’s bags and the “Centalogo”, a guide to the correct disposal of waste. The plumber who gave useful advices on how solving small housework and taught domestic water saving has been particularly appreciated by participants. The highlight of the day was the construction of a recumbent bike from salvaged parts of old bicycles, managed by Ecobent. The market has been constantly monitored using recording sheets of occurred trade, in order to get an effective estimation of saved waste.

In the meanwhile, today Sunday, November 27, in L'Aquila, a city that has always cared a lot about the EWWR despite the hard time it lived during the launching days of the first European edition, the barter Market is being held on - Exchanging not Throwing, initiative coordinated by the Environment Office and ASM Spa. The president of the multi-service company Luigi Fagiani said: «We wait for citizens in this important event in the Dante Alighieri school, on Onna Street. To be a good example is first and foremost our responsibility as administrators. In fact we will be bringing some objects there and actively participating in the initiative. A smart way for getting rid of no longer useful items and for replacing them with others we need without creating waste. The goal is to transform waste into resources».

So... have a good bargain at all!

School of reduction

2011-11-26T14:02:00.003+01:00

by Silvia Musso

Again this year the schools have not been denied. For the third year, in fact, the percentage of participation of schools at EWWR has been very high.

As already shown by the action of the Pozzuoli School (Naples province), which in 2009 had won the European Award for schools category, the strengths that make effective the initiatives proposed by schools are the involvement of the community and the will to extend their duration at the whole school year. From all over Italy the enthusiasm and interest of students, teachers and headmasters on environmental issues of waste prevention widespread beyond the narrow boundaries of school walls to involve different actors: households, neighborhoods, people, shops.

Thanks to EWWR environmental education activities from few hours cut throughout the school year hve become true programming to be integrated to traditional programs.

This is what the three schools, among many others, demonstrated.

The “Istituto Comprensivo of Fiano” (Turin province, north Italy) with “Lo Zero Rifiuto!!! …. Buone pratiche sul territorio” (Zero waste!...Good pratctises on territory) conducted a brainstorming session on ways to reduce waste at school and organized a visit to a site that deals with the problems of waste and its reduction (composting site, company repair shop, second hand ...). It also began to network different local actors - municipalities, mountain communities, industries - for a project to be realized in the future and aimed at waste reduction, with the realization of a conference or a projection of films followed by discussion and an exhibition on the activities and achievements of students adressed to parents and inhabitants.

The “Istituto Comprensivo Galileo Chini – Scarperia” (Florence province, centre Italy) November 21st with "Rifiutili" (Useful waste) has sparked a number of initiatives that will continue throughout the school year. Students and teachers will dedicate to the creation of a laboratory of recycled paper, visit the store "Mercatopoli" that sells second hand items, to read passages about the restoration, reuse and recycle, reuse for the snack food not consumed during the lunch, etc. The parents of the students will also be involved in workshops as well as work of restoration of old objects in the school, to be sold during the year in the flea markets of the city centre, in the exchange of used textbooks, maintenance and renovation of school buildings and restoration and sale of used games.

The “Primo Circolo Solofra” (Avellino province, South Italy) instead made a real ecological week where the most important element was the involvment not only of students, engaged in "Operation Empty Garbage Bin", but also of their families. Parents had to agree to accompany their children to school on foot throughout the Week and to organize at home information meetings with relatives and friends to spread some good waste prevention practises to play in the week.

The schools have become a source of prevention messages addressed to the whole community through not extemporaneous actions, but integrated in educational activities, in continuity with previous years and with the cooperation of families and other local actors. The academic world has shown that the EWWR in these three years has succeeded in its main communication objective: to make the waste reduction a common practice, a lifestyle and not only a sporadically activity as teacher Anna Maria Dreoni of Scarperia claim: «The school has always had an eye for environmental education, adhering to initiatives and projects that, broadly speaking, had the intent to educate pupils to feel good in their environment. We think that in the first cycle is the fundamental task of the school teachers to educate children to the economical use of objects and their affairs and hence resources. EWWR offers us the opportunity to tell our children that we are in a broader horizon, which at the same time in which they reflect and carry of the laboratories, there are millions of children and young people across Europe who think the same problems and perform activities similar to theirs».

QR-code for SERRe Salentine’s extra virgin olive oil

2011-11-26T08:55:00.003+01:00

by Annalisa Tancredi

A slice of bread and a thin drizzle of oil are the symbols of simplicity and culinary heritage of Salento’s greenhouses (Serre Salentine) that, during the European Week for Waste Reduction 2011, will be the backdrop for oil tasting and waste prevention events and of the presentation of "QR code SERR ev OIL” project.

In occasion of the period of oil production and SERR 2011, many local farms will promote best practices to optimize oil preservation, production and consumption among those tourists who every year visit Salento to taste new oil. The initiative focuses on three main themes: waste-oil reduction (longer life product), waste-packaging containment (less waste thrown out) and the optimization of resources (produce in an eco-friendly way).

Expert agronomists will explain preservation best practices for a “Longer life product” to the testers along the "oil’s streets", in order to ensure a chemical and organoleptic integrity and at the same time reducing waste. In this way is possible to “throw out less waste” like oil or packaging like bottles or containers; the aim is to raise awareness among consumers and producers and to promote reuse of containers or alternative packaging system.

But the top-of-the-range is the launch of a new best practice to “Produce in an eco-fiendly way” for oil businessman: it's the “Qr code SERR ev OIL” project (a new oil labelling system), sponsored by City of Lecce and Radio Skylab. Qr-code, already widely used in other sectors, is a cryptogram which codify a considerable mass of informations in less space. The project developer Antonio Stea explained the operation: "Once photographed, the Qr-code will direct users to the company’s website where they can find a variety of information about the characteristics of the product, price, food combinations and best preservation techniques to lengthen the product shelf life. It’s also possible to insert a link to an audio/video, so consumers can taste the oil and at the same time listening information about oil, its origin country and the history of Salento’s greenhouses".

In addition, the code could reduce labels’ size and obtain a substantial savings of paper and petrochemicals-derived materials.

The iniziative is certainly an original and innovative way to take part in the SERR advertising in the same time waste reduction, digital technologies and Salento typical products.

It’s possible to taste new extra virgin olive oil from Saturday 26th to Sunday 27th November at the following farms: Imbriani in Casale Marchesi (Casarano), Agrosì (Supersano), Manco Antonio (Alliste), Faraioli (Casarano), Bernardi (Tuglie) and Agronatura (Taviano).

Let’s put our bins on a diet!

2011-11-24T10:04:00.003+01:00

by Marzia Fialdini

EU citizens produce 2% more waste every year; in Italy each citizen generates on average 10.5 kg of trash per week: quantities that have to be dramatically reduced. For raising institutions’, stakeholders’ and consumers’ awareness about the waste prevention strategies and policies enacted by the European Union, was created the European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR), this year at its third edition. From November 19 to 27, initiatives will be promoted across the country in order to inform as many citizens as possible about simple everyday actions for preventing waste.

On Sunday, November 27, in Madama Cristina Square in Turin, from 10 am to 6 pm, to the motto: I refuse! - The commitment of all to reduce waste, Amiat and City of Turin will organize a big street party to promote small good daily habits which enable to reduce waste at source and to weigh less down on the environment. Through games, workshops, entertainment and markets, public will be able to understand the importance of using objects for as long as possible, the importance of making separate waste collection and to change bad behavior in order to reduce waste production.

Other organizations will attend the event: the Torino Province which will support the campaign on reusable nappies; SMAT, encouraging tap water drinking through the Water Bar; Coldiretti Torino, which will teach children to transplant seedlings and potted flowers with compost; the Environment Museum, with its Ecological Footprint Laboratory; the Ecologos Research Institute, which has been campaigning on reducing the packaging of communication products and has started a chain of light stores, just to name a few of the many initiatives which are present there.

Thanks to the collaboration of the CSI-Piemonte - Consortium for Information System - an online game has been created. It can be accessed from a mobile phone in order to enable anyone to face the new challenge: the effective capacity of each of us to put our bins on a diet.

Thanks to COVAR14, food waste play a leading role EWWR 2011

2011-11-23T09:34:00.004+01:00

by Andrea Stecich

What about bread and pasta left-overs? These days it’s a quite weird question.

Many of us, for various motivations, prefer getting rid of them in the rubbish or, more sensitively, recycling them through the compost heap collection system. Anyway, thrown waste are still edible and rich of nutritious: in the EU, 89 millions of tons of food per year are thrown away, and 42% of them come from our kitchens, rather than from supermarkets. Starting from these facts, on the occasion of the European Week for Waste Reduction which will take place from November 19 to 27, COVAR14 (South Turin Province Consortium for Waste Collection) decided to spread an innovative and strong message in order to stimulate public’s reflection, even though the practices are actually not so revolutionary, because our grandparents already used to reuse food waste.

Following the tradition then, COVAR14, in collaboration with Istituto Alberghiero Bobbio di Carignano, Eataly, Slowfood, Banco Alimentare and the restaurateurs, produced a “left-overs recipe book”. This was an opportunity for restaurateurs to show their cooking skills. Istituto Bobbio has been involved in organizing the scheduled events (three cooking classes and a left-overs dinner open to citizenship) thank to its teachers professionalism; Eataly Slowfood and Banco Alimentare will be in charge of food supply and transportation, and they will form the technical panel during the final dinner. The dishes, cooked by Istituto Bobbio’s personnel, will be voted according to different categories (maximum reuse dish, zero consumption dish, the best dish etc.), For giving visibility to the initiative, posters and press advertisements (Corriere di Moncalieri, il Carmagnolese, Luna Nuova, il Mercoledì) have been produced, and municipalities have also been involved. The recipe book will be the starting basis for the EWWR events, and it will be handed out by the municipalities or during the events. Otherwise you can download the pdf version from the COVAR14 website.

This way we can bring home a fragment of the ancient “reusing art”, for spreading across friends and relatives, saving money and preserving the environment.

Becoming a zero waste company

2011-11-22T14:02:00.004+01:00

by Silvia Musso

At the third and final edition of the European Week for Waste Reduction, the cooperative ERICA, technical partner of the Italian Committee has decided to engage seriously changing its "connotations". From company attentive to the principles of waste reduction – it is in fact a leader in Italy into the field of environmental communication about recycling and waste prevention - will fully convert to the philosophy "zero waste".

During the European Week, the Board of Directors will adopt a specific resolution that will engagr the company in all its components to arrive not to produce non-recyclable waste by 2020. The Board has identified some criteria and actions such as the progressive removal of "disposable" goods, the purchase of goods from recycled materials, the purchase of goods with minimal packaging, on-site composting of organic waste of the kitchen, the two-sided printing of documents and re-use of paper printed on one side for specific needs, the careful determination of the amount of material for communication campaigns to contain the remains.

The decision will be communicated to all the working members, employees and collaborators also indicating the concrete activities to be undertaken. A month after the resolution, an analysis will count the type of waste still produced by ERICA and will evaluate corrective or new actions.

Those responsible for internal technical office, which has prepared a special investigation to determine how to reduce waste production, answered our questions.

The strengths of this action are numerous. Two particularly make it innovative among all the EWWR 2011 actions: the two-way communication, directed either inside - towards members and employees - or outside - to suppliers and customers - and replicability in other companies. Can you explain these two aspects?
«E.R.I.C.A. is a cooperative company, where the corporate form is itself a philosophical management model which principles are shared and promoted by the Board of Directors. E.R.I.C.A. works primarily for public administrations with citizens, and environmental issues permeate all activities promoted and developed by E.R.I.CA. For these reasons the choice of a policy aimed for "zero waste" can not be realized without the involvement of tose actiors with which, directly or indirectly, ERICA work and collaborate. Awareness to the issues of sustainable development is a key policy of E.R.I.C.A. and the will to create a methodical process, monitored and replicable by other companies represents the correct completion of the company mission».

The initiative is certainly worthy, but the difficulty will be to keep the commitments over the eight days of EWWR. What distinguishes this initiative from a mere marketing strategy?
«E.R.I.C.A. has decided to formalize a virtuous cycle to reduce its waste already taken a long time ago that also contributed to obtaining ISO 14001 certification. The EWWR is just the occasion to introduce such commitment that involves the integration of its system of quality management and environmental protection with procedures that tend to a progressive reduction of waste. This will be done in the first place with a careful analysis of the daily flows of materials, from the purchase to final disposal stage, going to identify the critical points and setting of specific targets in the medium and long term. The monitoring will be crucial, and this is why E.R.I.C.A. will identify significant indicators that will be kept under control.We invite anyone who believes that this initiative is only a publicity strategy to follow E.R.I.C.A. through the many channels by which it daily communicates, and get in touch with us: we will be glad to present results and offer advice to anyone wishing to take the same path».

Envi definitely takes the call and will follow with interest this experience, unique of its kind in the world of Italian businnesses, in the hope that other companies are encouraged to take the same path.

EWWR 2011: Casematte and Equiliberi. Turin and Pinerolo to reduce waste.

2011-11-21T14:14:00.003+01:00

by Francesca Morra

The third edition of the European Week for Waste Reduction has finally begun, involving 960 actions throughout Italy. Among these, about 16% will be implemented by associations, which are assuming a major role spreading the spirit of SERR 2011 among their members, and not only them. Let’s start from Piedmont, taking a look to the non-profit organization Equiliberi and to the association Casematte.

Equiliberi Onlus is a Pinerolo-based association committed in social solidarity activities in many different sectors, always with special care to environmental protection, principle enshrined by the Association Charter. Through the initiative “L'impronta (ecologica) è servita” (The (ecological) footprint is served) Equiliberi carries out its awareness campaign on several occasions: submitting EWWR questionnaires to City’s administrators, to volunteers of AVASS and for all students; giving sustainable development classes; cooking dinners with leftovers, organizing travelling aperitifs and afternoon snacks for spreading waste reduction.

In particular it should be noted the presentation of the Sustainable Development Project on November 22, from 18:30 – to around 20:00 at Eataly Pinerolo - route Poirino 104, Pinerolo (Turin).

It’ll be focused on food recovery and on education to sustainable development in the catering industry as well as on best practices for waste reduction. President Maria B. Romano says that, with these initiatives, the association proposes «to contribute to moulding a culture aimed at preventing the production of excess waste and at creating opportunities for businesses and the urban system in general».

The Casematte association was formed in Turin in 2009 by a group of professionals working in promoting social and community development. For the EWWR 2011 they created the initiative “Guardacampo in città” (Scarecrows in the city): it's an exhibition, visible from November 22 to 27 (at the Collective Garden, Turin) of scarecrows made from recycled materials by the students of ASL TO 2 and of the Educational Service of Deaf Institute of Turin. These scarecrows, together with having a decorative function, host in their structure plants and vegetables, enabling a “vertical” small and portable balcony growing treated with self-made compost.

According to Chiara Casotti, one of the founders of the association and in charge of the EWWR 2011 activity «collective participation in cultivating a plot of land together, encourages openness to social and cultural diversity, facilitating, in particular, the integration process of foreign citizens and persons with disabilities, in a wider perspective which goes beyond the environment».

Of particular interest, this action proves itself to be even more innovative giving the chance to "adopt" the scarecrows: close to each of them, in fact, will be left a sheet of paper on which anyone can write his name for requesting the adoption.

Do not miss the opportunity to participate in these worthy of note actions.

The European Week for Waste Reduction doubles!

2011-11-19T12:32:00.009+01:00

by Eleonora Anello

Finally here. After a long wait, the European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR) will run for the third time between 19 and 27 November 2011, with the aim of informing large numbers of European citizens about the simple actions that they can take in everyday life to help contribute to waste reduction efforts. According to the last count, 7035 EWWR actions are being implemented in 2011. Once again, the previous year’s record has been broken! (4346 actions in 2010).In order to coordinate and promote the 2011 Week, 34 Organisers across 20 countries are mobilising stakeholders and validating their actions.

Under the coordination of the 34 organisers and with the support of the European Secretariat of the Week, a variety of project developers, including administrations, associations and NGOs, businesses and industry, educational establishments, etc. are getting involved in the EWWR by carrying out awareness-raising actions about waste reduction, with various target audiences (citizens, employees, pupils, etc.).

These actions will focus on the various stages of the product cycle, ranging from production and consumption to reuse. They will be focused on one or several of the 5 following themes: Too much waste – Better production – Better consumption – A longer life for products – Less waste thrown away.

The European character of the EWWR will be reinforced by introducing common actions across Europe in 2011. These common actions will take place during the Week in different locations in Europe using the same methods, sharing the common objective of highlighting their real impact on waste reduction. There are five categories of common actions, focussing on various symbolic issues: Paper waste reduction; Food waste reduction; Repair & reuse; Excessive packaging waste reduction; Clean-up days. The idea is to measure the waste avoided during the actions themselves and to communicate this information.

The most outstanding European Week for Waste Reduction actions will be rewarded at the European Waste Reduction Awards Ceremony in June 2012 in Paris.

We want to conclude by using the words of the President of AICA, Roberto Cavallo, who spent all these years for the success of the EWWR in Italy: «Prevention comes before all! The nature, even dramatically, tells us this. The doctors tell us this. The laws tell us this. An extraordinary lay prophet like Calvin tells us this. Let's try together with the EWWR».

The European Week for Waste Reduction already succeeds: we are almost 1000 organizers

2011-11-19T07:12:00.002+01:00

by Emanuela Rosio

Here we are, the European Week for Waste Reduction has reached its third edition. An edition marked by the growth of the participation both on the side of participating Countries and on the side of the number of actions implemented across Europe.

In Italy we arrived to 900 events, appointments and actions which will take place from November 19 to 27 in every Region, from the North to the South. In squares, in theatres, in schools, in meeting places, we will discuss about reducing waste. Because reducing waste means approaching in a respectful way towards natural resources, taking care of our environment and being more aware about our citizens role in addressing public policies.

There will be moments during which schools, businesses and public bodies will meet citizens to communicate the importance of focusing on our behaviors implementing concrete changes: goods swapping and recovery, information deepening moments (theatre shows, congresses ecc.) and moments in which experimenting new practices and discussing about our future and our role in determining it.

Envi will signal and review the most effective and innovative actions and we ask you to keep yourselves posted and participate on www.menorifiuti.org; in fact, it’s likely that some actions could take place near to your place. If someone wish to make something more concrete we can suggest some simple acts for participating directly in this campaign that, born in few countries, has been rapidly spreading across Europe thanks to all those who contributed to implement it in the field.

We can make many different things. Let’s think of all disposable items we use everyday, of all the packaging we can avoid drinking tap water or using textile bags, of the quantity of food we throw away and of how avoiding waste improving our shopping. Daily routine actions are many, we ask you to think of them and, if you want, to write us…

Enjoy the EWWR!

Farmville really exists! Be a Cyber-farmer

2011-11-18T16:29:00.004+01:00

by Annalisa Tancredi

Once in his life anyone thought of leaving everyday life to start a new one in the country, growing sweet plants in his own garden. How many people would prefer to pick fruits and seed tomatoes rather than wriggle out of shelves and shopping carts to the rhythm of cash beeping?

Grow the Planet is a new social network, the Farmville of the real world, bound to become the new mean for sharing experiences among agriculture’s lovers and among those who want to transform a balcony into a mini-greenhouse for vegetables. The project is made in Italy and has been already approved by H-Farm, italian venture incubator, which has invested 70 thousand dollars in it. The portal was launched during TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, the most important competition for web startups.

Users can improve agricultural skills using a set of tools: on-line planning their garden, consulting vegs information sheets, exchanging tips and sharing demo video; they can also monitor the climate for protecting their greens in case of occasional showers.

In addition, the geolocalization of the garden has an added value for cyber farmers because it allows them not only to cultivate friendships and join in local communities to exchange seeds and vegetables, but also to get closer to potential customers, promoting the direct producer-consumer relationship, and facilitating the creation of joint purchasing groups.

"Grow the Planet is all about helping the home farmer, either expert or beginner, to build up their own garden. We would like to show how fun and easy is for everyone to grow organic vegetables on their own, in order to enjoy better food while doing something good for the environment" explains Gianni Gaggiani, the founder.

Grow the Planet highlights the need for the social networks for an evolutionary leap towards qualification in sector: users targeted, specialized contents and greater connection to real life. Eating healthy food "made in my garden", in fact, is good both for people’s health and for safeguarding the food chain and the biodiversity of our planet.

“It’s time to grow up and make a better world”… with rakes and mouse!

United territory for the environment

2011-11-16T15:15:00.003+01:00

by Eleonora Anello

«Even before it started, it is an example of cooperation between public, private and environmental agencies and the territory». These are the words of Cesare Naj, president of the Fondazione per leggere, promoter of Form@mbiente, complex initiative of environmental governance that aims to improve and update the knowledge for implementing common policies and broad participation in the environmental field. The project prepared by the foundation - Biblioteche Sud Ovest Milano, with 45 local municipalities, the Consorzio dei Comuni dei Navigli, AICA, and many other realities (Amaga and E2sco among others), wishes to speak to administrators and operators of public administration, to teachers and to the professional and manufacturing sector, in order to facilitate the creation of a true environmental culture in a participate way.

Form@mbiente is a structured program, sponsored by the Province of Milan and realized with the contribution of Fondazione Cariplo, which is composed of 4 complementary and interrelated actions. It will start with the information training course for local administrators and technicians, together with other similar meetings addressed to high schools and to the private manufacturing sector in order to involve the majority of citizens. Environmental issues like water, waste, energy, air, technology, home and territory will be discussed, even with real lessons on the field.

The second step concerns the drafting of the Action and Best Practices Development Plan, a document drafted in a participated and shared way by those involved in the courses. It will have to be adopted by participating municipalities. This will simply move to the third action, the most pragmatic, which schedules the creation and launch of joint purchasing groups. This is a particularly strategic activity because it give autonomy to the parties involved, building a legacy that will survive even after the project will completed.

The last step is about the communication for encouraging participation. The measures will be preceded by careful spatial analysis in order to modulate the effectiveness. It will then launched an essay and photography contest, especially addressed to young people. Texts and images selected will create a publication edited by the Fondazione per leggere. To stay posted, the citizens will be able to rely on the official website of the initiative and on the Facebook.

Form@mbiente ends May 30, 2013 with a big final event for presenting the results achieved.

«AICA has been involved in a real construction phase of a project with the territory - said the director of envi.info, Emanuela Rosio - starting from local needs. We are confident that this method will allow to develop synergies and to involve local people and institutions in a real change in behaviors and awareness about the central role that communication and participation play in the process of change».

Reuse? Posh stuff…

2011-11-14T09:46:00.003+01:00

by Eleonora Anello

There are initiatives that arise primarily with humanitarian purposes but which are environment-friendly and can also become an example to emulate for those who want to engage in environmental communication. One of these cases is Merci, the Parisian concept store opened in 2009, which donates all its profits to charity.

1500 square meters filled with furniture, clothes, toys and any object is no longer used. All these items can be brought to the store at 111 Boulevard Beaumarchais Paris who comes to help those who would like to donate but do not know how and where to go. This makes the most needy, the benefactors and, why not, the environment happier.

Probably the Cohen spouses, founders of the luxury clothing for children Bonpoint company, have thought about the environmental aspect of the initiative enhancing sustainable products marketing. "I do not expect to save the planet! - Marie France said in an interview - however, I wish him as little pain as possible. And if I have the chance to choose between selling plastic dishes or others in bagasse (sugar cane fibre), made in beautiful colours, obviously I choose the latter. It’s time to understand that solidarity means no longer austerity or sadness".

Media give a lot of visibility to the store, as shown on Merci’s website, which is dominated by the symbol of the concept store: a 500 car full of antique objects which you can admire in the courtyard of the store. The website itself seems not to be interested in the web’s potentials, offering the customers a single html black and white page. The project relies on the real goods exposure rather than to the virtual reality, and the store has been joined by a literary café, a florist and a chic canteen.

A real wonderland, a little and a bit snobby world with a philanthropic vocation. Merci is a mecca for those design objects re-launched on the circuit of consumption pointing on scenery. It is that place where the wealthy will find themselves completely at ease. Dream for shopping-addicted who can finally buy goods for a good cause.

Terramacchina: a journey through the difficulties and the love for an overworked territory

2011-11-11T08:59:00.003+01:00

by Francesca Morra

Traveling across intensive cultivations, large companies, economic experts and ecologists champions of sustainability, entrepreneurs more or less sensitive to the issue and small barns of the province of Parma in crisis: this is the path that lies in front of those who take a seat on a chair and watche the documentary “Terramacchina”. This is the result of a research project that involved the network of Centri di Educazione Ambientale della Provincia of Parma, coordinated by CIREA (Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali – Università degli Studi di Parma) and in collaboration with Assessorato Ambiente of the Parma Province.

The 72-minutes movie runs faster jumping from a tangible world, made up of images and testimonials from the territory to a world without space and time where the main character is Febe, a girl who plays and paints, whose fantasies come to life through the magic of animations. Daniele di Domenico, the director, says “Terramacchina wants to spread a love and warning message for this land, but it also turns in a very concrete way to the production system, which can be seriously threatened by an impairment of natural resources at the basis of food production”.

As the title of the documentary says, the Earth has become “a machine to let operate in a reckless way” where intensive-growth crops are extended over the whole territory. We can no longer procrastinate and shift the consequences of our actions to future generations, represented by Febe in the movie, who is “he personified image of a new environmental consciousness, of a new culture of responsibility”. Responsibility that goes beyond the moral question of sustainability, extending until an economic point of view: sustainability gives benefits to everyone, not just to the environmentalists!

The first projections (Monday, October 10, 2011 - Cinema D'Azeglio of Parma, Thursday, September 22, 2011 - Cinema D'Azeglio of Parma) have sold out. This important public response led the organizers of the project to promote the projection of the documentary all over Italy. Anyone can organize a screening in his city: just go on the official website of the project in this section and request a free DVD.

The trailer ends with the finding that alone is enough to stimulate interest on the topics of the documentary: a backwards countdown of the new births every second in the world! It is indeed time to make room for new solutions existing in the agro technic area, in order to continue living on the Earth, who gives us so much but requires many cares.

“Suburbs”, waste on canvas: art like social alarm

2011-11-09T14:35:00.003+01:00

by Annalisa Tancredi

A painting shows the image of an abandoned suburb, invaded by junk but unable to respond effectively to emergencies. This time the waste issue is told through the eyes of an artist, steeped in materialism and desolation, loneliness and cumbersome, a mirror of the inadequacy of the administrative system and of the style of consumption our society still pursues.

«Environmental sustainability and artistic creativity combined to stimulate reflection on environmental issues». The climate, energy, pollution, recycling are the topics discussed at the national competition AxA - Art for the Environment, ended on 9 October, organized by “La forza del Segno” and supported by the municipalities of Cassina de 'Pecchi, Comazzo and Gorgonzola.

An opportunity to celebrate the marriage between art, environment and environmental communication, in which artists are spectators of the collective history and, simultaneously, reporters of their own reality in real time. Through the painting medium, art talks to us in a sensitive and soft language, but full of communicative functions which leads the viewer to reflect, inside himself, on the consequences of a simple daily act for the collective welfare.

The exhibitions were attended by 97 pieces of work from all over Italy and, of particular impact was the picture of Josè Augusto, painter and glazier from Licata, son of Cesare Augusto, a painter. Since 2007 Josè has decided to direst his work to social art ".. illuminated by the fact that we can love our own territory, not only praising the beauty, but also denouncing its defects and environmental degradation. I painted our natural beauty for years but then dissatisfaction took root: I was tired of painting subjects in which I could not find the Truth". His work "Suburbs", is a painting of empty boxes, cartons left on the ground, long dark shadows and a suburban wasteland as a backdrop.

What did drive you into painting "Suburbs"?
«Reality of Licata city is contrasted between beautiful landscapes and a situations similar to the third world: for years the suburbs have been like a landfill full of tires, appliances and trash piles. It represents the perfect balance between poor civic pride and administrative mismanagement».

What does the painting represent for you?
«Those rows of metal containers, in themself, are a pollutant. For years, I was putting in my garbage, and for me they are the mirror of administrative situations have occurred: clean and tidy during good management periods, dirty and forgotten during maladministration».

What would you like it to represent for the audience?
«For me it is very important to see the reaction of the audience: there are those who simply say "Good!", those who confessed they would never buy a picture like that, and those who don’t stop even for a moment to watch it, I think because the issue touches him too much closely».

Which lessons from your father do you enshrine?
«My father taught me to find beauty even where it’s hard to see, for example, when I paint a crumpled plastic bottle».

Which kind of resources would you use for planning an environmental communication campaign?
«I am not able to talk about communication, but if unintentionally I do that through my works is because I think a picture, albeit crude, is the best way to slam on people's faces the sad reality. We are used to live in paradoxical situations, and this doesn’t help people to change their attitude towards the environment».

Czech communication experiments

2011-11-07T09:43:00.004+01:00

by Silvia Musso

It's been over one year since we introduced to Envi readers the original campaigns realized in the Czech Republic by EKO KOM, a company that deals with the collection, recovery and disposal of packaging waste throughout the country.

What has happened since then? It is time to look East Europe and "go back" to Prague to listen to our friend Šárka Nováková, head of communication sector, who explains us the current communication projects targeted to Czech citizens.

It is active since last summer the campaign "Of course" that differs from those we are used to because it is direct to people who already make waste collection to thank and encourage them to continue their good behavior. There are, in fact, many myths that accompany the habit of recycling, but EKO KOM wants to invite responsible citizens not to be misled.

In order for the campaign to be properly targeted and adjusted, its content is being prepared on the basis of the results of a survey. This determines the current behaviour and number of those separating waste and also of those who never separated waste or stopped separation for some reason. It followed from it, amongst other things, that people who separate waste do not feel sufficiently motivated to continue doing so in the future. In a great many cases, they are confused by myths that occur around separation and recycling of waste, such as that separated waste ends up in a landfill anyway or that this is just a passing fashion that will soon disappear.

Consequently, this year EKO KOM has decided to overturn the commonest citizenship's myths in an attractive and enjoyable way, realizing some films. The individual episodes can be viewed in www.samosebou.cz from August to October, and there are the most conventional film genres, intended to attract the broadest possible audience. They include westerns, kung-fu, comedies, film noir and gangster films. Waste separation is not the main subject here; it is introduced into the story very unobtrusively but nonetheless integrally.

«The heroes of genre films, who combat myths in an original manner on the web site, are primarily employed to overturn myths and promote the subject of waste separation and recycling - Nováková explains - Compared to previous years, we are directing a far greater proportion of our activities towards the online environment, where an increasing fraction of the population is active and where it is possible to work longer and better with the user. Success is arriving as showe by our website that saw already over 100,000 visitors».

EKO KOM is experimenting new original and appealing strategies to communicate the waste separation and recycling. Its campaigns show the dynamic of a young business made by young people. Administrators, politicians and communicators could be inspired to modernize current campaigns that are often repetitive, limited in the media used and in messages proposed, which we citizens we are already used.

“For Beautiful City. Clean after Your dog”: a campaign without cliché for Belgrade

2011-11-04T14:53:00.003+01:00

by Valeria Rocca

Belgrade makes itself heard. Not so much for its architectural beauty, but for a bold and controversial advertising campaign “For beautiful city. Clean after your dog” created by McCann Erikson Serbia, in collaboration with Alma Quattro, for the diffusion on the Internet.

Just the municipal administration of the Serbian capital demanded and funded this campaign to promote and develop environmental awareness among the citizens of Belgrade, especially those who have a 4-legged friend.The message the team wants to bring out of McCann Erickson is simple and clear, "Helps to beautify your town, remember to collect the needs of your furry friend", but what it’s still controversial are the images used to realize the campaign.

The choice of McCann Erickson is to attract attention with unusual and malicious shots, far from usual traditional clichés.

So Belgrade people have been seeing for a couple of months, on billboards around the town, irreverent photos showing in the foreground the B side of some models, and a model, collecting their dogs’ needs.

It’s a choice outside the box, which is controversial: feminists protest, experts are skeptical, the idea is not completely original and even a little corny, anyway success on the Web is enormous. From Facebook to Twitter the pictures of the campaign make go crazy and comments are enthusiastic and fun.

You can take a look here.

Customer satisfaction research in environmental communication

2011-11-02T14:55:00.004+01:00

by Eleonora Anello

One of the main goal of a communicator is to make the message effective. To avoid a flop, it’s necessary to proceed from sound facts originated from scientific researches and to plan the communicative action in an effective way.

These years in the psychology field there have been many achievements. New tools for investigating customers’ opinions have been searched, going beyond the classic theories and being aware of avoiding thought processes such as rationalization and social desirability, which could distort facts. For investigating the most unconscious individuals’ reasons was created MuSeS, a customer satisfaction researching system presented in 2010 in Ravenna, under the patronage of Ente Bacino Padova 2. During that occasion its possible use in environmental communication have been debated.

MuSeS (Multi-Sensory Sort) – created by Luca Cian (University of Michigan, in collaboration with University of Trieste) tries to unveil the hidden targets’ needs in order to make it more involved and cooperative. What is, to be precise, MuSeS? We asked its creator.

«MuSeS is a tool for investigating people’s expectations, especially concerning their unconscious and multi-sensorial side. Traditional methods of survey emphasize just a few elements, mainly cognitive, that seem not to be the most important factors for bringing about a change of behavior and attitude. Economic psychology and marketing literature underlined that majority of the causes of our decision are not conscious».

Which are the real innovation of MuSeS?
«There are different novelties compared to pre-existing tools: focusing on unconscious customers’ expectations rather than on cognitive aspects; being based on multi-sensorial stimuli; avoiding the traditional division between qualitative and quantitative methods».

Something more specific?
«Regarding the first point, traditional methods are mainly based on written questionnaires. This presumes that delving into unconscious issues is useless and that expectations are something writable. MuSeS instead bases on projective techniques coming from clinic psychology, able to overtake rational barriers and to investigate the most unconscious and unaware aspects. Regarding the second point, MuSeS is the first projective technique which can investigate all the five human senses. This enables us to implement 360-degrees communication strategies, based on visual, auditive, olfactory, taste and tactile stimuli. Lastly, on the third point, we found a mathematical algorithm. This enabled us to enforce a computation objectivity (typical of the quantitative research) on the projective tests results, typically qualitative investigation tool».

MuSeS met with many successes in the international scientific community, both when it was presented to ICP – International Congress of Psychology – held in Berlin (Germany), and during the exhibition of EAWOP - European Congress of Work and Organizational Psychology – held in Santiago de Compostela (Spain).

Eco-Cemetery: even the afterlife become ecological

2011-10-31T09:07:00.006+01:00

by Marzia Fialdini

In this period traditionally dedicated to the commemoration of the dead, and if we consider an ecological living as the primary mean to improve the environment, then we should perhaps reflect on the fact that humans continue to pollute even after their death. How? It may seems incredible, but every funeral is a real threat to the environment: the coffins are often made with precious woods and toxic paints are used, cemeteries require expensive maintenance and a big quantity of pesticides is used to keep intact and fresh floral arrangements.

The new frontier of ecology then passes from the cemetery: the end of a life can represent a new impetus to the environment. Last year in March the first eco-friendly cemetery was inaugurated in Blackley, a small town near Manchester, central England city. In this area the bodies of the dear departed were placed in biodegradable and free of carcinogens coffins and marble slabs have been replaced by a rough stone or a tree, on which was engraved a figure, so that the earthly remains are uniquely traceable. Furthermore, the hearse has become electric and there is no need of gardeners, because the nature, running its course, thinks of everything. In the United Kingdom in a short time the green cemeteries have already reached 228 units.

In Holland, the environmentalists have proposed a fascinating idea: growing a tree from one’s ashes, helping to give new life to the Planet. In Australia on July 1 a somehow “revolutionary” eco-cemetery was inaugurated: no tombstones, so, to record and locate the exact position of the deceased, you have to use the GPS. The zero-impact cemetery is the St. Francis Field (owes its name to St. Francis of Assisi), at the Kemps Creek Cemetery in the western suburbs of Sydney. It currently has a capacity of 300 people, 300 real eco-dead who will reduce their footprint on the environment in life as in death. How? Everything inside the cemetery is natural and environmentally friendly: from biodegradable coffins made without the use of chemicals and with a zero emissions process, to the procedure of preparation of the body that takes place without using preservatives and disinfectants, thus facilitating the natural recycling. The use of a site is granted for a period of 30 years, after which it can be further renewed.

And in Italy? In our country since 2007 biodegradable coffins are available, but they are certainly not the most popular. However in 2010, for the first time, a design object called November Rain, focused on the importance of water, was created to use in cemeteries: it is life, so recover it, store it and reuse it are noble gestures that every human being should do even after his death. November Rain is a project of Andrea Vecera for a self-sufficient tomb, which recovers the water and also use it to generate electricity to power a led.

Nature has given us life, therefore it’s right that the body, after being buried, goes back to Her again. The cycle continues.

Prepariamoci! Luca Mercalli's new book

2011-10-30T11:11:00.001+01:00

by Roberto Cavallo

Get ready!
With the exclamation mark.
My mother used to tell me this word, when we were waiting for a trip on the mountains.
Luca Mercalli’s invitation, which become an exhortation, doesn’t refer to that kind of mountain-trip feelings, rather to dark days which are waiting for us if we don’t exit the thick cultural fog that enshroud us.

Luca starts his book with ten commandments for the 21st century.The author has not became a mythomaniac but, like a kind of modern Spinoza, tries to be the nature’s spokesman. That nature we should obey to avoid our self-destruction.

Mercalli’s book is composed by two parts and an appendix. The first one is “What we should know”, in which author introduces us some concepts of sustainability, because, actually, “we should know”.

There are biographical references, at least fifty, for readers who are interested in deepening the concepts of intelligent mobility, good waste management and energy saving.

First part paves the way to the second one, Mercalli’s plan B, in which, reminding Lester Brown, accompanies us to choose daily-based behaviors that will help us to survive. Surviving does not mean relying on good luck but, Mercalli tries to convince us, means using the great knowledge potential got together in thousands of years of human history to change the course of our future.

The big surplus value of this book is that Mercalli’s plan B is not a theoretical formula or an academic research, rather an effective report about author’s deeply consistent way of life. He tells us how he installed solar panel for heating water and photovoltaic ones for electric energy, how he built up a big tank to collect raining water or how he got to optimize the energetic consumption of his old house.

His style is light and reading goes on like a pleasant chat in front of the fireplace. Personally I prefer a less-diplomatic Mercalli, like in that chapter in which he tells, with pleasure, how he destroyed with a big beetle his just-bought new house’s flower box. In the same time I can understand that he doesn’t want to receive libel actions as it happened in the past.

The book is fine and Mercalli is a rare consistent and careful man. Enjoy your reading and, quoting the author: let’s wake up and prepare!

GOF: ´cause we want to change the world not the climate

2011-10-26T09:17:00.004+02:00

by Irene Gozzelino

The problem of climate change is, of course, a global problem, but this is not heard and addressed in the same way in the different countries, for different economic needs and development, for more or less marked impact of its consequences, for more pressing priorities. But if some are more "guilty" of the fever of our planet and there is one who is more the victim, the both have a common fate: they are going inexorably toward an era of great changes in the biosphere, with respect to which man, among all living creatures, seems to be most vulnerable. How to manifest the alarm and the will to act? How to communicate in one language, if not made of the same words, made of the same concepts?

The project Grounding Our Future has been carried out for: a period of one year, funded by the European Union within the Youth in Action program, involved young volunteers from Mauritius, Vietnam, India, Italy and Germany and ended October 1, in Rome, at the City of Utopia.

The project took place in several stages: as a first approach, all participants presented their country and their views on climate change over the ten-day seminar in Karnitz, led by experienced staff of KMGNE, at this stage "preparatory" was followed by another, shorter, in Berlin, and later exchanges: each volunteer spent a month in which the host country involved in a GOF is expressed in a kaleidoscope of activities such as awareness campaigns, seminars, riding a bicycle.

The Italian partner is the International Civil Service, whose the person in charge for the national coordination, Roberto Carraro, has kindly responded to some questions:

Why the SCI has decided to participate in the project GOF? What were the aspects of "attractiveness" of the project?

We thought the project with the idea to disprove the stereotype that sustainable practices and respect for the environment are a feature only of the countries of the North. We wanted to pursue a project based on the mutual and horizontally exchange between north and south of the world, to feel the commitment to environmental justice and climate as a factor that unites us rather than divides. Another objective was to remind the world how the South is tragically hit by global warming, although this is mainly caused by the industrialized countries.

How can this type of projects to develop awareness towards environmental issues "burning" of our era?They can do that to the extent that they create real participation, and proximity to a range of issues by young people from all corners of the planet that have been involved in the project and aren’t never be passive spectators. This is what we have always tried Grounding Our Future.

Why do you think that the media products and the organized campaigns in various countries can be effective?

Why do they live the participation of those who created them, making them attractive and real, because they reflect what the project was, as content, such as reports, such as actions on the territory.

For a taste of GOF, The Proposal is the video that you find accompanying this article, for everything else there is a website and a Facebook page.

What’s up with the EWWR 2011?

2011-10-24T13:54:00.006+02:00

by Francesca Morra

The European Week for Waste Reduction is proceeding at full speed and just the impetus of public’s will, led the Italian organizers (Aica and the Italian Organizing committee) to extend to 2 November the deadline by when sending the application forms for joining the EWWR 2011.

The goal is to achieve, and why not overcome, more than 600 accessions, thereby exceeding the 585 counted last year in Italy. The Secretariat said that the Italian validated actions and officially registered are more than 370, but many are still being validated. From this point of view, the organizers are very positive and they expect the boom of the arrival of membership cards around November, 1st, in a perfect Italian-style. Participating in a large number is important to spread what the "Week" wants to convey: “You can reduce waste, concretely and simply, by implementing daily measures" as stated in the last press release and as evidenced by the Web Video on YouTube and Facebook.

This spirit of sharing objectives led to plan new common actions across Europe. These initiatives cover several categories: reduction of waste from the food, reuse and repair, reduction of waste from packaging. Each of these actions involves the actual weighing of waste saved by acting as shown in data sheets: organizing a waste-free tea party, setting up sustainable canteens and collecting repair and recovery potential waste for other uses. In this way you can actually see how everyday actions can dramatically reduce the production of waste.

All those who want to keep themselves posted about the European Week for Waste Reduction developments can visit the official website and the Facebook page , with the linked event. Few days remain before the new deadline for joining the European Week for Waste Reduction. The Secretariat (segreteria@assaica.org) is ready to enlist anyone who wants to join in, associations, organizations, administrations, schools, businesses etc. Participation is open to all those who spread the waste reduction goal as the new war on waste. We therefore expect a lot of action accompanied by original and effective communication campaigns which will provide notice in future articles.

INFOPO: a river to navigate on!

2011-10-21T14:21:00.004+02:00

by Eleonora Anello

These days rivers seem to have been forgotten by citizens, except for when they make a comeback due to their levels rising dangerously or black oil spills staining their fresh water.

So the rivers which cross many urban centers, become the protagonists of different environmental communication campaigns (some of them clearly fanciful such as the Big Jump). There are also initiatives that contribute little less spectacularly to rivers’ revival and to their promotion as public spaces to be exploited in a sustainable way. As the Infopo internet portal, opened in June 2009 and completely renovated this year in July.

Conceived and designed as an instrument of information and analysis on river’s life and places, its pages provide information, data, photos and movies, book reviews and references.

We ask Daniele di Domenico, head of the project, how are the things going...
«From the mails and comments we have received, we notice that Infopo has aroused much interest among the people even not using up the whole Web interactivity. We had peaks of interest during the environmental disaster which struck the Lambro river (and thus the Po) last year, because of the oil spill. Typically, these events raise a lot the population’s attention, making them demanding clear answers».

Why do you choose a website?
«CIDIEP, the structure which promotes the project, is in the field of information and education on environmental issues affecting the Po basin. From 2007 we promote projects in partnership with schools and local governments in order to encourage citizens’ participation to local governments’ decision processes. Working on such a big area (from Piedmont to the Delta of the Po river) we thought that a website could facilitate movements of information and help sharing experiences between far realities. Moreover, by a web-based analysis, we noticed that there were no spaces for grouping simple environmental information for public. There were just sites and portals managed by technical organizations and then professionals addressed. So we tried to work through the portal as CIDIEP used to do in field: we translated into plain and accessible language the information we obtained directly from authoritative sources such as authorities, environmental agencies, local governments, etc…».

Are you satisfied of your work?
«Well ... There is still much to do. It takes time before the network is aware that you exist and recognizes the website as a reference point, as a place where you can find information and ask questions and instances. Despite the crisis which is sweeping our country and considering the means at our disposal, we are pleased of the results we are getting».

A preview for our readers?
«At the moment we can just say that we are using Infopo as a support tool for concrete actions to activate across the territory».

Envi.info joined Facebook

2011-10-19T14:32:00.005+02:00

The environmental communication and the social networks have changed our interpersonal relationships. Constantly looking for new solutions for spreading out its editorial contents, even the Italian version of Envi.info landed on Facebook. The new social version enables visitors to read the news of the journal on our the Facebook page.

If you want to keep yourself updated, just visit our Fanpage and click "I like". You can do it straight from the side. So you’ll become a fan and you will not miss any news! You will also meet other enthusiasts about environmental communication and environment and take part in our discussions!

Stay up to date. Put in the network editorial contents, best practices, images and video. Propose us environmental initiatives and communication campaigns. Help us to grow up our community with a lot of click on "I like" and suggesting Envi.info page to your contacts! See you there!

Less waste and less plastic for all with the new Porta la Sporta initiatives for EWWR 2011

2011-10-17T09:30:00.003+02:00

by Francesca Morra

We produce too much waste and of all types, but one of the most notable is plastic. It constitutes about 15% of the waste produced by an average Italian family although there are nearly 100 different types of plastics that can be differentiated in the same way. But above all we can reduce it down to 15 kg of plastic produced in less by adopting a number of simple tricks.

This is the main objective of the new initiative Meno Plastica: traguardo 15 kg in 7 mosse, which, together with two other initiatives, Mettila in rete and Sfida all'ultima Sporta, has been launched by Porta la Sporta at the door of the European Week for Waste Reduction - EWWR 2011 to be held in Europe 19 to 27 November 2011.

These three initiatives have been proposed to Italian local authorities through a capillary mailing. In addition, other actions can be taken by citizens themselves without external help such as drinking tap water or using the shopping bags instead of disposable bags every time of purchase. Other actions will require the intervention of production, retailers, neighborhood shops as well as appropriate legislation in order to make available to citizens more opportunities to purchase in an environmentally friendly way.

Silvia Ricci, from Porta la Sporta, explains the difficulty of making clear to manufacturers, and particularly to distributors, the need to change and renew the product range of eco-friendly products such as detergents, "on tap" or bulk food, but also states that great improvements can be achievied in this area: “We shouldn’t forget that the mass distribution can produce big changes in the world of production since it can influence the upstream production, by putting some stakes, and at the same time can raise awareness and support the consumer to deal with change”.

The campaign tries to involve all the actors that can contribute to solve the serious problem of excessive waste production, in particular of plastics. The campaign extends particularly through an active website www.portalasporta.it, where they are explained in detail all the initiatives launched in order to participate to the EWWR 2011 or simply to help reducing waste, an issue now as important as urgent.

Water relay race: the protest goes on

2011-10-14T10:41:00.003+02:00

by Eleonora Anello

The Water relay race goes on, a nation-wide event which is involving a large public. It started on last September, 13, from the Genoa Water Festival and it is going to cross 12 Italian cities for ending in Bari, on October, 17.

At the starting block, as torch-bearer (actually “water-bearer”), there was Pietro Mennea, ex 200 m Olympic record holder. The sprinter travels city by city bringing the water flask, filled at every stop, as a symbolic changeover between the cities involved. Waiting for him at every stage there is Marina Senesi, daily linked to the Radio Due broadcast Caterpillar.

The Water Relay Race, supported by Federutility (Federation of Italian Water and Energetic Companies), tries to promote initiatives for enhancing tap water consumption and for arising citizens’ awareness towards a conscious and correct use of water seeing that Italian water’s quality is pretty high.

At each stage the involvement of host cities’ public water system managers have been fundamental, as planned in the campaign. Anyway not everything went like clockwork: in Reggio Emilia, Ancona and Florence the initiative have been challenged by the “Committees for Public Water”, who accused Federutility for ignoring referendum’s results.

More protesters than participants? Follow the final rush on the website or on the initiative’s Facebook page or even better other information sources.

Kuminda: a menu of events that satisfies taste and minds

2011-10-12T09:16:00.004+02:00

by Francesca Maio

An happening organized to communicate sustainable lifestyles with a festival that talk about food. From 14 to 18 October Cascina Cuccagna - one of the oldest agricultural farms of Milan, near Corso Lodi, behind Porta Romana – will be the location of Kuminda: a Festival about the right of food in Milan by ACRA and Terre di Mezzo.It will be three days of events to tell the food through art, music and drama in perfect harmony with a sustainable place symbol of Milan.

There will be moments with international experts, ethnic and bio happy hours and do not miss a meeting by many voices to talk about punjabi’s culture, migration and integration in Italy and Lombardia , followed by a delicious tasting of Grana Padano and pakore.

A farmers market will be an opportunity to experience a different kind of shopping by purchasing bio-products of the campaigns from Milan.

There's something for everyone, even for children which will be proposed special laboratories that will combine play and education to approach them to food and seasonal food.

Among the many initiatives do not miss the show LABEL, questions of label, which will reveal the background of the theatrical language prying the supermarkets and the way we consume. Lisa Casali blogger of Ecocucina, and her unusual dishwasher cooking workshop will guide us to learn to cook delicious dishes using the dishwasher as the "oven" zero impact. Seeing is believing.

On 17 and 18 October at Anteo Space Cinema, Kuminda will propose a selection of short and feature films from Festival delle Terre in Rome creating the opportunity to learn along with critics and directors, stories of culture and colture told through the camera’s eye.

From 14 to 18 October you are called to be protagonist with food to tell sustainable lifestyles. Don’t miss it! Be there!

“Recycling Society” as the answer to the Crisis

2011-10-10T13:46:00.003+02:00

di Giuseppe Totaro

How much has been done (and not) after three years of the European Waste framework directive? Is it possible to build a dialogue between Europe and Africa about waste prevention?
There are the main themes of the international conference “Recycling Society – Practical implementation of the European Waste Framework Directive at local and regional level”, scheduled on October 26th and 27th in Genoa, Italy, and organized by Acr+ and Aica with the cooperation of the Municipality of Genoa, Amiu Genoa and the support of Cns, Erica and Novamont.

The conference will be held at Palazzo Rosso, via Garibaldi 18. All information, how to participate and the detailed program are available on the official website www.genoawaste2011.eu.

The occasion to debate on the European Framework is the annual general meeting of Acr+, hosted for the first time in Genoa, scheduled at the end of the conference. The participation of several members of the Association, coming from all over Europe and Mediterranean countries (delegations from Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Guinea are expected to come too) will create the possibility to exchange positive experiences at both local and international sides.

Many Italian authorities and experts in the field of waste management are among the speakers, including Daniele Fortini (president of Federambiente); Walter Facciotto (general director of CONAI), David Newman (director of CIC and Solid Waste Italia), Roberto Cavallo (AICA’s president) and professor Walter Ganapini (European Environment Agency).

At the end of the first day, Wednesday 26th at 7pm, the program includes a tour at the new Laboratory of Energy and Waste of Genoa, hosted inside the Magazzini dell’Abbondanza.

Movie stars for UN

2011-10-07T15:46:00.004+02:00

by Annalisa Tancredi

It's hard not to hear a humanitarian appeal when its deliverer is a Hollywood star. What celebrities say or do seems to be more authoritative and truthfully and is able to effectively inspire selective attention and to influence people’s behaviours. This time Antonio Banderas, actor and leading personality of the international movie scene, appears on the screen playing the part of Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Development Programme (UNDP), to deliver an urgent appeal on food crisis in the Horn of Africa.

On July 29 the UN raised alert to all nations over the worst famine of the last 60 years. In Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia people are forced to flee towards camps because of drought, famine, conflict and prices rising. 20% of families is facing a serious food shortage, more than 30% of people suffer from severe malnutrition and the daily mortality rate is about 2 over 10,000. Children are dying of starvation and thirst and the UN Deputy Secretary Asha-Rose Migiro stated that "The future of an entire generation is at risk."

One of the causes of thirst is global warming, that affects oceans’ temperatures and changes the pattern of rainfall (ENSO - El Niño-Southern Oscillation). It’s a matter of fact that the warming of the Indian Ocean, due to greenhouse gases emissions, caused the decrease of rainfall in the Horn of Africa areas.

In these dire situations, Goodwill Ambassadors use their fame to boost the requests for help and to highlight these issues to media and public. The popularity of the Ambassadors and the consideration the target has placed in them help to make the message effective. The more popular they are, the more powerful the message will be.

The social and environmental communication campaigns, aimed at raising awareness and mobilizing the masses on public interest issues, need ambassadors for winning a dual challenge: to field all possible creative resources to awaken a general public who is accustomed to alarmist media and to introduce attractive means to communicate social plans.

This is Antonio Banderas’ appeal: «Across the Horn of Africa, is taking place the worst food crisis in the world. Drought, conflicts and high food prices have left people starving. Hundreds of thousands of them have left their homes, walking for weeks in search of food. More than 12 million people are in desperate needs and the number grows by the day. The United Nations are working to save their lives and to help them to get back to their lands. We too are working to make people more prepared to face this kind of crisis. So life is not lost yet and they can keep making a living. Me even, as Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Development Programme I am getting involved in this plan and I hope you will do the same. By responding now we can make the difference».

IED for Gaza: future architects build a sustainable school

2011-10-05T14:58:00.003+02:00

by Annalisa Tancredi

“Think green, build sustainable”: a didactic structure with reduced environmental impact has been built in the middle of Parco Michelotti in Turin by students of IED- European Design Institute’s Master Course in Sustainable Architecture, during the workshop “A sustainable school”.

The full-scale model of sustainability will be presented to the press on Friday, October, 7 at 13:00, inside Parco Michelotti. During the press conference “Think green, build sustainably” there will be three different speakers: the Turin Environment alderman Enzo Lavolta, the Turin IED director César Mendoza and the Arcò Group – Architecture&Cooperation, which managed the design workshop with his consolidate experience in ecological design for developing countries.

The aim of the workshop in fact was to build up an eco-friendly classroom prototype which will be send to the Gaza Strip area. IED Master Course is directed byMario Cucinella – MCA Firm, whose students had to face a double challenge: designing in a sustainable way and, in the same time, dealing with a territory in which, due to tricky circumstances, it’s hard to estimate available resources.

Therefore, it was necessary to teach students specific construction techniques, considering variables such as poverty, materials’ availability and the workforce on site. Recycling materials is one of the taken techniques: it’s possible, for example, to re-use discarded tires and sandbags to build perimeter walls (already tested by Arcò Group during the "Tyres school" project), or to use wooden and sand beams for covering the building. Moreover, the techniques of assembling low-tech materials, which are versatile and fast with excellent bio-climatic performance, are very important.

For some days, the young future architects modelled with their own hands a smart and functional design project, proving that manual ability has not been replaced by the progress yet. We have to take a new point of view about object functionality, such as converting a tire in a brick.

It’s hard to stop a guerrilla

2011-10-03T09:36:00.002+02:00

by Eleonora Anello

Not so long ago we talked about a funny ambient marketing campaign promoted by the Volkswagen Group, the largest motor industry in Europe. If that time it was appreciated for the excellent environmental communication, Greenpeace now reveals its “dark side”.Detournement has come!

The tireless people of Greenpeace made the parody be their most effective weapon, and got to harness the VW media power twisting the famous Passat commercial launch. In the official video a baby Darth Vader practices to move objects laying on of the hands.The “Volkswagen darkside” video reveals the true role of VW and it calls up the rebels. According to Greenpeace, VW lobbies to stop the rising targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the EU rather than engaging in designing “greener” cars.

So the web started its guerrilla. On June 28th, the English version of the viral video against VW, at that time the most shared in the world, has been removed from Youtube. The LucasFilmLtd, author of the Star wars saga, issued the censorship claiming copyright.

Notwithstanding the GP channel has been blocked, individual users has been going on sharing the video via Facebook and Twitter with even more determination.

«Almost two million people have already seen our video, which is a way to tell the truth about the VW intention to curb climate-protecting laws – said Andrea Boraschi, campaign and Energy and climate division manager of Greenpeace Italy – we regret our Youtube channel was blocked and we hope this situation will change soon giving anyone the opportunity to watch our video anywhere».

Under the motto “if you strike us down, we shall become more powerful than you could possibly image”, quoted from Star Wars, the viral video still prospers on the web. GP could count on millions of Jedis who have been writing blaming VW and exponentially spreading the call.

The future? Renewable

2011-09-30T14:52:00.003+02:00

by Eleonora Anello

Today the Google’s Doodle in Italy is dedicated to renewable energy. The six letters which compose the name of the most famous search engine in the world have been transformed in green energy’s symbols. Its authors are students of Borgo Rosselli’s Primary School in Porto San Giorgio (Centre Italy), winners of “L’Italia tra 150 anni” art contest.

With more than 20.000 votes “Avanti con energia!” won the contest, focusing on sustainable energetic technologies like wind and solar power, that are weel-adapted to our country’s features. We hope they can be used for more than 150 years and over. In the meanwhile we save this hopeful Doddle on our pc!

Earth’s future in a cartoon’s own hands

2011-09-29T09:18:00.005+02:00

by Annalisa Tancredi

Ecology? A child of five years could be better educated than an adult, but thanks an Italian cartoon rather than Public Instruction: “2 friends for Earth”, co-produced by Rai Fiction and Union contact. The author is Marco Gisotti, journalist and environment communication expert: «I wrote this cartoon with all my passion - said the writer, author of a recent successful book titled “Guide to green Jobs” – but by now the production is at a standstill, despite RAI has appreciated it very much».

“2 friends for Earth” is addressed to 4-8 years old children and it’s aimed at promoting educational and training topics in a friendly way, supporting a sustainable and respectful way of life.

Pietro and Raimondo are two inseparable friends. Pietro is a 10 years old curious and muddler dreamer, fascinated by nature. Raimondo is the ecology-skilful man from the future, came to earth from 3000 A.D. to examine the old XXI century, which was lush and prosperous but caused the most environmental troubles.

The future-coming man explains the children, without any catastrophism, methods and solutions to preserve the Earth: using solar energy, recycle “4 R” rules, biodiversity conservation and resource saving.

This funny cartoon tries to raise a brand new awareness among young and adult people, in order to force them to get aware of the economic-social needed changes.

In 2008 RAI TRE broadcast thirteen episodes, than the project got stuck. «We wanted to perform 26 episodes, it’s a pity the series have not been financed yet, despite their success» said Mario Cavazzuti, Union Contact’s TV and Cinema Department Director.

Who missed the series can find it (in Italian) on the internet: www.rai.tv.

Last year a special episode has been directed for the "Frutta nella scuola” (Fruits in schools)" ministerial campaign. Click here to watch a part of it.

Ravenna 2011: waste, water, energy and art

2011-09-26T13:38:00.005+02:00

by Eleonora Anello

The “Ravenna 2011” cultural event is full off fringe initiatives. For the fourth year, visitors can admire the “Emergenze Creative” work of art. Many artists will take part in the initiative: Dacia Manto on waste, Elena Arzuffi on water and Massimiliano Pelletti on sustainable energy.

The exhibition, organized in collaboration with Labelab Laboratory, will be an occasion for the artists to share their environmental sensibility with a wide public, promoting a public art path across Ravenna’s historic routes, the same routes which will host the well-known environment festival.

In San Francesco square, among the arcade columns, the “Wood seer” big flattering sculpture will stand out, a piece by Dacia Manto focused on waste issue and in particular on waste materials reusing. The art installation is entirely made of old drawings made by the artist herself or by children involved in the project. The cloud-vegetation-like piece will take shape just in front of the public, who can take part in it bringing the artist their environment-themed pictures on September, 28 and 29, at 5 p.m.

In Piazza del Popolo Elena Arzuffi will work on water’s value,, inviting the public to take part in a kind of “gioco della campana (bell’s game)” with a “water square” instead of the classic “sky square”. Bringing back one of the oldest and most beloved children games, Arzuffi decides to pour the public’s fantasy out asking them three simple questions on water’s color, scent and shape. The most original answers will be edited on the Emergenze Creative website.

Lastly, in Piazza del Popolo we can admire “Rabbits in the sun”, a piece composed by sculptures of full-scale rabbits clustered around some glass jar capturing solar rays. The work of Massimiliano Pelletti shows how to produce energy and use it in a sustainable way. Indeed, during the day the piece captures sunlight to use it during the night lighting the funny rabbits. The recreational nature of this piece is aimed at intriguing young public, educating in the same time at using renewable energies.

We should not miss this interesting mix between art and environment, sharing the contemporary artists’ critical points of view on these matters.

“Amnisiadi: forgotten waste Olympic Games”: when the game gets green!

2011-09-23T15:19:00.003+02:00

by Valeria Rocca

The third edition of "Amnisiadi: forgotten waste Olympic games." will be held on Sunday, Sept. 25, contemporaneously with "Clean Up the World", a historic initiative of Legambiente. The initiative, supported and promoted by the INFEA network (Regione Piemonte project on services for environmental education), by the City of Avigliana and by the Lakes of Avigliana Natural Park, will take place just in the park, in the Little Lake area.

But what is Amnisiadi? We asked Laura Grandin some questions. She is the manager of Antichi Passi, an organization which is in charge of the guided tours service of the Park and manages Institution's teaching programs in schools.

First of all, why did you choose the name "Amnisiadi"?
«AMNISIADI is a word pun. Amnesia is a temporary loss of memory, while "Amnis," is a dialect word to name trash. Using play is a way to alleviate the waste issue in order to make it accessible to all. The question is: “Can we forget about our waste?”».

What are, specifically, "Waste Olympic games"?
«The Olympics are a weird waste collection: a race along different routes in the Lakes area. Participants are symbolically divided into teams and they have to collect as much material as possible along trails, supported by “Antichi Passi”’s guides and by eco-volunteers from the city of Avigliana. Later in the afternoon, there will be different “waste-themed” challenges and, of course, the prize-giving».

Which themes will be addressed during the afternoon and, in general, throughout the day?
«Games tend to emphasize how long-lasting, bulky, dangerous and high-priced waste are. The separate refuse collection arouses problems: the recognition of materials as well as their proper delivery. We are talking about invisible waste too, like insecticides, pesticides, cleansers and urban and agricultural discharges».

Which goals do you want to attain?
«This event is part of a group of different initiatives called "Educational Incursions", addressed to citizens and, in this case, even to non-resident users of public areas in the municipality where activities take place. The equipped area of Lake Piccolo, during public holidays, is normally crowded much more than an ideal Proteccted Area. The problem of waste is only a portion of the difficulties in managing the site. Wildlife disturbance, fires lighting, bathing and surfing bans and public order complication are some of the others. We want to ironically emphasize how important is to prevent waste. Recycle and reuse are not sufficient, we want to integrate the series of best practices on waste management with “R for Refuse”».

In which way did you promote the initiative?
«City of Avigliana press office and Avigliana Park manager were in charge of promoting the event. Furthermore we use mailing lists and you can find all informations on the web».

In brief, this is a good opportunity for walking across the beautiful area of Avigliana lakes and for safeguarding the environment.

A safety net for the territory: the forum “Salviamo il Paesaggio, Difendiamo il Territorio”

2011-09-21T15:24:00.005+02:00

by Francesca Morra

At least once in our lives, taking a walk or a ride in the car, we said: “once upon a time there were just fields here, and now you can see houses, buildings, asphalt everywhere…”. It’s not necessary to be 80 years old to say it! We have been witnessing an unrestrained urban sprawl (cyclically covered by the media) without any serious attempt of resolving the situation. Every single year hectares of land are spent for new buildings. A Legambiente recent research says that 500 km2 of land are covered by concrete each year.

Against this silent and slowly-striking environmental disaster, the voice of the Italian Forum “Salviamo il Paesaggio, Difendiamo il Territorio” raised up with a national bottom-up communication trying to spread the message of the need to protect soil and save the beautiful landscapes of our Italy. The forum and communication campaign coordinator Virginia Scarsi says: «The choice of a positive claim for the logo has been fundamental: communication messages often do not work because they use negative words like "stop” or "no." We chose two words which indicate that there is still a problem, but with a hopeful approach». In fact "Save" denotes that something is in danger and "Defend" brings to mind the need to nurture and preserve something.

In two years organizers received hundreds of thousands of reports, so they decided to take a census of all not inhabited and unused buildings, as a first step. This will make it possible to draw up a document getting the picture. This can also become a "resolution/motion model" or a bill. The aim of the organization is to change the common way of thinking about constructions. We have to consider the upgrading of existing building as the preferable solution. The communication campaign (associated with the Forum) tries to give everyone the possibility to express its mind and to raise awareness among not yet informed people. Notwithstanding the main goal is to force local administrators to take a clear position on this issue.

The campaign does not use just the Web (the site which is still under construction, or the regularly updated Facebook page) but tries to enter the usually free spaces like house balconies through flags displaying. Moreover coordinators will provide to the local communities many customizable materials: stickers, posters, advertising pages.

The organizers hope to entice people who will see the flags and attend the events planned, to question, to search information and at least becoming aware of the situation. With this extensive network of communication the mission is not impossible.

Which means do we need for talking about waste in Europe?

2011-09-19T09:23:00.004+02:00

by Giuseppe Totaro

The workshop “Environmental communication about waste in Europe: which means, which messages for which goals” will be held in Ravenna on September, 29. It has been organized by Consorzio Bacino Padova 2 in collaboration with AICA (International Environmental Communication Association). The initiative will take place in the home room of the “Ordine della casa Matha” (via Andrea Costa, 3), and it’s part of Ravenna 2011 festival on waste, energy and water policies.

The most effective ways of communicating about waste will be the principal matter of the meeting, holding the European Week for Waste Reduction as an example. During the last three years, EWWR has involved more than 1200 individuals and organizations, including national and international agencies, institutions, authorities, NGOs, schools, Universities, companies and firms.

The workshop will go through two different moments: the first one will be focused on EWWR experience and the impact of waste reduction in Italy. Andrea Atzori (Novambiente editor in chief) will moderate over a debate with Rosa Puig (AICA) and Gianluca Cencia (Federambiente CEO).

Later on, past EWWRs guests will report their experiences and accounts: Gallipoli Municipality (finalist at the European 2010 Prize for Public Administration), Pozzuoli 7th Didactic Circle (winner of the 2009 European Prize for schools), Apeiron Association (2010 finalist) and Mario Sunseri and Gigi Russo (organizers of the Busker Festival, appointed as an environmentally sustainable project).

Work will start at 9 a.m. with guests registration and will end at 1 p.m.

For further information please contact AICA by phone (0173-33777) or by e-mail segreteria@assaica.org.

Environment has a lead role in Milano

2011-09-16T15:21:00.003+02:00

by Eleonora Anello

Milano Film Festival, in its sixteenth edition, decided to concentrate on environment protection trying to lower its impact on the hosting urban surroundings. There will be ten days of screenings dedicated to raise awareness on environment issues.

Many movies and many themes will be covered. The first one is “water”, in collaboration with CAP Holding, a public company that is in charge of the water system in 230 municipalities in Lombardia.For the second year, they have built up a “water’s house” in Piazza del Cannone and two water nozzles nearby the refreshment stands in order to deliver sparkling and still tap water without any transportation impact. The aim of the campaign is to request people not to consume plastic bottles and glasses. On every eco-glass and flask you can find the campaign slogan: “I drink tap water”.

«Milano Film festival’s care on environment combines with water public companies efforts to promote a sustainable employment of water – Alessandro Ramazzotti, CEO of CAP Holding explains – Put water at people’s disposal, in a meeting place such as a cinema festival, is an attempt to enhance tap water’s quality and to invite citizens not to waste it».

On the waste side, thanks to Amsa, a separate refuse collection system including paper, plastic and cans has been activated. If someone is not sure about the correct delivering of garbage can ask the Legambiente volunteers for help.

Milano Film Festival is also official partner of CiAI, the National Consortium for aluminum waste Recovery and Recycle. Cristina Gabetti – TV journalist and newscaster – will officiate a panel that will award the CiAI Prize for Environment to the best movie on environmental issues and sustainable development.

Lastly, landscapes will be protagonist in the “FAI il tuo film” contest. Italian Environment Fund (FAI) wants to enhance the best Italian places using cinema, part of its well-established campaign called “I luoghi del cuore”.

What else? Enjoy a sustainable view!

“A piedi nudi nel verde”: an interesting book against the deficit of environmental policy

2011-09-14T15:15:00.005+02:00

by Silvia Musso

Are you local administrators, educators or simply parents? Do you think the city where you live is not human-sized? Do you think your children need green spaces where playing and being free? In brief, do you feel a "nature deficit" and would you like to know how to change this reality toward more sustainable urban forms?

A piedi nudi nel verde. Giocare per imparare a vivere (“Barefoot in nature. Playing to learn to live” by Giunti Editore) is a book where you can find useful insights, interesting examples and an extensive bibliography and site links on the relationship between childhood play and nature.

The two authors, the philosopher of science Albertina Oliverio and developmental psychologist Anna Oliverio Ferraris, have been engaged years in the defence of urban environments to meet the needs of any citizen, especially children. We contacted them to figure out through their observations what the book specifically is.

Which is the aim of the book and its main target?
«These days lifestyle is not suitable for children growing needs. While activity is essential to children wellness, obesity among youths is dramatically increasing due to sedentariness. Children are exposed to several stimuli that accelerate their growth preventing them to spontaneously develop their mental attitude through games. There is a relationship, scientifically proven, between the lack of free playing in childhood and anxiety and depression in adolescence. If these days children play much less than a few decades ago, is because meeting spaces have slowly disappeared, roads have become very dangerous, parents are more concerned and anxious than their grandparents were and in consumer society children are considered just like small adults rather than kids. With this book, we speak to teachers, administrators and citizens. It is important to give children back those spaces and those times they need. Too many children today are overweight because they move little and obesity is increasing among adolescents. Too many children are not engaged in anything could give them pleasure and which contribute to the development of sociability and intelligence. Children build up their personality interacting with peers, taking initiatives and using imagination. Playing together is learning to make decisions, solve problems, exercise self-control, regulate emotions, respect the rules, find compromises, all in a cheerful and optimistic atmosphere».

In the book you refer to a kind of commercial communication that often degrades outdoor life, play and movement. Are there special forms of communication and media which may convey environmental sustainable messages concerning childhood and education?
«Media could send this kind of messages. If they do not, it is because they just follow business. Think of the incredible number of commercials broadcasted every day, even in children programs. It is good to know that in several European countries inserting commercial advertisements in children programs (from Norway to Greece ...) is not permitted because of the power of persuasion and manipulation that may have commercial messages. But advertising is not the only guilty. Many entertainment programs send messages morally harmful or full of anxiety trying to keep viewers "glued" to the screen. Gossip broadcasts are offensive to children: many, however, watch them with their parents».

Among the numerous stimuli and examples presented throughout chapters, in several occasions you refer to the importance of citizens involvement in cities administrative life. What do you mean by that?
«Children are citizens like anybody else, even if they do not vote. But they cannot defend their rights, so adults have to be strongly involved in their welfare, women in particular. Experience teaches us that when women have public administrations roles, children's civil rights are safeguarded. Northern European countries, where women hold political offices as an equal to men, we find the highest attention to children and adolescents as well as the largest number of initiatives to make cities more "green" and livable. Even in Italy we have some good cases, but there is still not a widespread awareness of these issues».

Envi strongly recommends reading this book we can call "militant": it is a text full of relevant messages for a sustainable present and future of our children, that we hope can be spread as much as possible.

A question of style

2011-09-12T14:37:00.004+02:00

by Eleonora Anello

Can the style of a communication campaign influence its effectiveness? May a bloody campaign have taken more than another that have soft and calm tones? There are no recipes suitable for all circumstances. It depends on many factors.

In the vast world of environmental communication, food-related issues are becoming increasingly important. Some initiatives focus on reducing waste, other on the nutritional habits in order to promote more respect for the environment.

The approaches are varied. “Chiediti cosa mangi anzi chi mangi” (“Ask you what you eat rather who you eat”), action demonstration staged in late June on the streets of Trastevere , a district of Rome, by activists of the OCSA (Organisation against animal slavery), is fully part of the "horror" series. They have meticulously reproduced the scenes that consume every day in slaughterhouses. The macabre re-enactment was the last act of a long protest against the exploitation of animals killed by the meat industry. Strong images accompanied by unpleasant sounds of cries of dying animals destined for our tables. And then posters made with the blood that has attracted the attention of passers-by and, in conclusion, the advice given by the voice-over, which is to switch to a vegan diet.

A shock campaign that is difficult to see in Italy, but more frequent in other European countries like France, where they often take on a re-educational function, or used in Spain as a brake restraining the adoption of certain behaviours.

Beyond the Europe’s confines, it have been adopted softer approaches, that privilege more moderate tones. In the emerging China, a country that is rapidly aligning the lifestyles of industrialized countries and where, ultimately, against the ancient traditions, the meat on the tables never fails, they are hooked to fashion. The PETA’s activists, the known group for the ethical treatment of animals, launched the campaign "Save a cow. Eat this instead Dress". A simple message, broadcast by Gao Yuanyuan, actress not only fascinating but true example to be followed after her conversion to veg diet. The testimonial became a model wearing clothes and accessories made of plants and creating meaningful images served to spread the message. The Chinese were able to appreciate a dress made of lettuce leaves or a banal necklace of chillies. In an interview with Reuters Jason Baker, a member of Peta has added details on the initiative: «We worked on the campaign with other celebrities wearing bikinis and dresses made of lettuce, but this is the first time we had a Chinese celebrity. To ensure that the vegetables remain fresh and crisp during the photo shoot and to get the best results, we have hired to work detail on a five tailors».

Two campaigns that extol the abandonment of the meat from their menus. Two different styles. Perhaps only two ways to emerge from the jungle of messages where we unravelled daily.

Local Citizens Debates and as citizens face the issue of climate change

2011-09-09T15:51:00.005+02:00

by Silvia Musso

It will be held in Brescia (North Italy) on 23 and 24 September, the VIII National Conference of Sociologists of the Environment. Among the noteworthy actions in terms of environmental communication, we stress the Local Citizens Debates, a model example of a dialog on climate change, paper presented by Silvia Caprioglio, a Phd student at the Graduate School of Science and Communication Project at the University of Turin.

According to this research while climate change has gained a central role in the scientific, political and media arena, citizens, despite the interest shown in the balance of thematic relevance and the impact on daily life, however, are likely to be relegated to a role of mere passive receptors.

To return to the public a role of active participation in the debate on climate change, last April 2009 the European Commission launched the project called ACCENT, Action on Climate Change through Engagement, Networks and Tools, a 2 years program that has involved over fifteen science centers, science museums and aquariums in Europe and Israel. Besides the organization of workshops, demonstrations and scientific conferences, Observa, project partner and research center that promotes reflection and debate on the relationship between science and society, has developed a local debate format, called Local Citizens Debate (LCD). During the project 25 LCD were organized between Europe and Israel. Scientists from local research institutions, stakeholders, policy makers and civil society organizations dealing with citizens, met for a total of almost 700 people involved and more than 100 experts. Citizens have had the opportunity to discuss both among themselves and with panels of experts and to collect comments and recommendations on climate change at different levels - addressed to the media, scientists, local government, national or European - to be sent to EU.

From north to south of Europe has emerged as the climate change tends to be perceived as a distant phenomenon, which usually is not made in connection with local events. Regarding the causes of climate change, however, citizens do not seem to have doubts about the human contribution; the doubts, if anything, about the amount of liability with respect to human factors of natural origin. On this point the position of those who argue that the changes were introduced too fast on the Industrial Revolution - and especially in recent decades - collides with that of those who think that development is a process continuous and positive, that the more quickly the more you can provide new ways for further development.

Finally, in on one hand citizens are demanding more information and more research, to the other they feed suspicion about the independence of the media as much of the research institutions and highlight the role that each individual should and could play. It would be a change in lifestyle, particularly in relation to energy, food and transportation. According citizens it should be favored the use of products that do not involve long distance transport, the tap water instead of the bottle, a greater use of public transport and attention to LED lights and lit unnecessarily. Actions that could be encouraged also in terms of personal benefit (economic, health, welfare). But if it seems to be a spread awareness of the need for profound changes, the shooting toward a concrete individual effort for the most part still is hard to be realised; the progress of science and technology fastly advances and among citizens resist the hope that it will solve some of the current problems without having to get to actively question the lifestyle.

This is definitely a focal point for the social sciences as well as for science communication. How communication can tackle difficult environmental issues to bring them closer to citizens? How to design effective communication campaigns and what features should they have in order to drop in everyday life and common feeling issues such as climate change, energy crisis, waste reduction etc.?

The question is open. Who wants to find spaces for discussion and debate, especially from the standpoint of sociological reflection, can participate to this presentation or to the conference in general – we also recommend the session "Environmental education, sustainable lifestyles, patterns of production and consumption" moderated by Giorgio Osti, a member of the AICA Scientific Committee and professor at the University of Trieste – More info: http://www.sociologiadelterritorio.it/eventi.php, tel / fax + 39 0302406342, ilaria.beretta @ unicatt.it, valerio.corradi unicatt.it @, @ enrico.tacchi unicatt.it.

An apocalyptic goodbye

2011-09-07T14:56:00.003+02:00

by Eleonora Anello

How does the world become without the use of renewable energy? This was figured out by Lecce 2080, articulated and complex ambient marketing campaign that in early summer has animated the streets of the city in Puglia. Through the original communication project, Nextwind, a company that deals with alternative energy, said goodbye to the market in this Italian region. In this way, the company has wanted to make people think about possible scenarios related to environmental choices that exclude low energy impact.

But let's see what it is. «The project we have packaged for Nextwind – the communication agency Utopya Minds Lab explain in a note - is a shocking campaign. The duration of the whole action was 45-days and was divided into 3 phases: teaser, transition and revealing. The beginning was marked by street marketing action which involved the placement of paper made eggs placed in strategic points of the city. Conventional and un-conventional means integrated together to hit multiple targets at different times. The concept is clear: in 2080 for not having kids-fish originating from genetic mutations and the sunken cities, now it is necessary make “alternative” choices. The tone of the campaign is a growing, from the melancholy record of the 'virtual diary' kept by the father of this imaginary baby (ndr Spigolino) on the lecce2080.it site on the determination of the complaint that the company wanted to do to give its version of events . As regards the results, we prefer to quote the numbers: the site had over 18,000 unique visits and over 23,000 pages were viewed. The Facebook Fanpage has collected nearly 1,700 preferences and more than 5,000 visits. We have been in more than 30 articles in paper and web and have been involved hundreds of blogs. With a readership of over 1,000,000 readers/users, the campaign has far exceeded the primary target (local) also reaching the secondary (national)».

One of the targets of Nextwind moral testament was to the Administration Region, and, perhaps, beyond all expectations, the campaign has hit even higher, becoming the subject of a parliamentary question, but it has not been viewed positively by all the citizens of Lecce, what one reads between the comments assigned to the local newspapers. «The wolf in sheep's clothing. That’s the Nextwind. Italia Nostra, GenerAzione, Biocontestiamo and all the Salento municipalities should "accommodate" the huge wind parks are fighting hard against the choice made by this company of 20 Italians, bah .... only a link that asks our money to government incentives, subtracts the land to the farmers and sells ready-made projects speculating Scottish and Spanish companies. Spigolino arrived in Parliament but rather a moral issue: is it right that a company that sells wind turbines creates terror to make Salento citizens accept the dirty choices with the dress of the green economy?».

So not all of them are intimidated. Somebody openly criticize the choices of communication, «“Awareness” Campaign? But please, do not make fun of us! This campaign only served to sensitize the people on the plant in Salento endless expanse of wind turbines. There is very little awareness. It is not talk about saving energy, reducing energy costs, educational and environmental aspects ... It is not talk about raising awareness of renewable energy, the real ones! Moreover, these gentlemen, paladins of the green-economy, do not even have decency to listen to the "against" voices. On the group page on Facebook, they delete the negative comments, and take away the right to write to the users who are against! It ‘s good that you know this too!».

So, without the happy ending, the Spigolino adventure has concluded.

U4energy, schools compete to save energy!

2011-09-05T18:21:00.004+02:00

by Francesca Morra

Can you teach students good habits in terms of saving energy? Can they learn to respect the environment by implementing small or big tricks? Can pupils and teachers together strengthen efforts in raising awareness of who is in and around schools? These are the challenges met by U4energy, pan-European contest devoted to energy education, organized by the European Commission under the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme and managed by Europan Schoolnet.

The competition involved 27 European Union member states, including Norway, Croatia, Iceland and Liechtenstein, with a total enrollment of 1,489 schools with 477 initiatives spread throughout Europe. In Italy were 3 schools for category A (students had the opportunity to design and implement an energy saving plan to reduce energy consumption in their schools); 9 for category B (this category is only intended for teachers, they have had the opportunity to present their lessons on energy efficiency at school having available methods, educational materials and teaching resources); and 10 for category C (led by teachers students have organized a campaign to increase awareness in their school making videos, posters, postcards and other communication material).

The European Commissioner for Energy Günther Oettinger underlined the importance of these issues in his speech duruìing the opening of the competition, which took place in September: “I am sure that through their commitment, their innovative spirit and creativity, students and teachers make U4energy an excellent platform to share skills and knowledge in the field of education and intelligent use of energy in Europe ". He also showed how students and teachers have a critical role when it comes to awareness. This, together with an extensive communicative action, makes the project a great place for kids to communicate energy saving when they facing a world increasingly energy-intensive, needing a deep awareness of the impact that the immoderate consumption have on the planet.

The winners of each category were selected by a jury composed of competent persons in the field of environmental issues and energy saving. The awards ceremony will be held in October in conjunction with the "3 days for school" with the participation of other five countries: Austria, Hungary, Malta, Slovenia, Czechoslovakia. Other ceremonies will be organized in multinational Lithuania, Bulgaria and Portugal; in Europe, the winners will gain international visibility in a high-level awards ceremony to be held in Brussels, where students and teachers will also visit the headquarters of the European Parliament. Waiting to see the winners we can keep in touch with schools and organizers by visiting the Facebook page.

This is a way of teaching good environmental practices, that start and arrive from schools to overcome the energy challenges of next years!

“MENO 100 kg, ricette per la dieta della nostra pattumiera”

2011-09-03T10:36:00.000+02:00

by Roberto Cavallo
Edizioni Ambiente, 2011

Emanuela Rosio's review

How to explain to children the European strategy on waste reduction? Perhaps remembering the actions of a grandfather they did not know. That grandfather, who spent hours hunched over a step to straighten the nails from the rafters and then put them off depending on the size in a Nutella jar.

An image that more than any other explains one of the European strategy 4 “R” to reduce our impact on the environment. The R of reuse, that reuse of objects that imply great creativity, innate in the past rural world.

Roberto Cavallo's book strenght is in this skill to make concrete a difficult subject, transforming it in daily acts. A problem to solve that becomes a common word that involves everyone. The waste management that metaphorically becomes a diet problem. As in summer before you go to the seaside. To follow a diet means to start thinking to what we throw away figuring out if these things are really necessary or if we cab change our behaviour and reduce also our bin's size. A light reflection that touches our future, that interrupts for a momentthe festivities of the Titanic to question the route, to say that maybe there's still time to divert from the iceberg that is waiting for us.

So let's ask what are disposable things, what are the products we buy and if there are some less impactful on the environment. Almost like a game that touches all the rooms of the house. And so in the text, we find the advice on cleaning products do it yourself, on homemade yogurt, on home composting to be done in the garden, how to reduce and reuse everyday objects.

The book flows slightly, taking over the theatre play called the same in which ideas become concrete suggestions for changing your buying choices, with jumps into the past of the author's family and references to current legislation and Roberto Cavallo's professional experience (President of ERICA soc. coop, services company that designs and realises environmental communication campaigns), alternating between descriptive and didactic parts.

The book can be of interest either to those are seeking advice on waste reduction, or those who are looking for a book able to evoke past times with great effectiveness, especially in terms of ability to transmit images and sensations described in minute details.

The book can be purchased at the discounted price of 12 euros (instead of 14) until September 5th by sending an email to amministrazione@cooperica.it. The book will be in all bookshops since September 7th.

For more info: ERICA soc. Coop. www.cooperica.it.

New look for Envi.info

2011-09-01T16:24:00.002+02:00

After some weeks of vacation, Envi.info is back with many interesting innovations for its readers. We spent our holiday changing in appearance and adjusting our layout. Now we hope our long-standing friends appreciate all this novelties. Notwithstanding we liked our “old version”, we modified it trying to make it cooler and up-to-date, like our articles though. Besides the homepage didn’t change: on the left you can find as usual the editorial, and in that section during the next weeks we’ll post also many environmental-communication leaders’ new articles and opinions. In the center section there are the latest news on environmental communication and in-depth reports of the most recent events of the autumn, like Ecomondo in Ravenna (from November 9 to 12), ACR+ General Assembly (in Genoa for the first time on the 26 and 27 of October) and the European Week for Waste Reduction (from November 19 to 27). What else? Enjoy Envi.info!

Happy summer holidays!

2011-08-04T17:00:00.002+02:00

See you on September...

The drama and the fight against asbestos between cinema and the web

2011-07-29T10:50:00.002+02:00

by Eleonora Anello

3000 deaths among former workers and ordinary citizens. 20 years in prison each requested by the prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello charged to the senior executives of the multinational Eternit, accused of "intentional disaster and lack of safety measures and precautions". This is the tragic story of one of the greatest environmental crimes at the hands of an industry that knew but kept quiet in the name of profit.

Those of us who take care of daily environmental communication have been very impressed by the fervour and the social cohesion arisen, after 30 years of silence, among the population of the affected areas.

In the intense wish of justice that meanders among the public opinion, art, in its various forms, plead the case, especially since there was the certainty that there are civilian casualties involved, meaning people that have never set foot in 63 Oggero Street, the base of Eternit in Casale. It has thus been seen an unprecedented explosion in information and communication, with the hope that the issue would have gained the proper visibility. And so it was.

One of the pieces most appreciated by audiences and critics is Polvere (dust), whose central theme is the asbestos,. The video-documentary by Niccolò Bruna and Andrea Prandstraller was awarded 2 prizes at the International Festival of Cinemambiente and, in recent days, one prize at the Euganea Film Festival.

The documentary film has drawn by “Asbestos in the dock”, a social networking project born in parallel and operated by Niccolò Bruna for the Association of Asbestos Victims (Afeva) of Casale Monferrato, aiming at highlighting all the heritage of information generated by research and enhancing and extending the message of the international civil battle. «The history of the process is a collective story - the author explains - a story where many people contribute to information and, through their narrative, complement the story. The pristine idea was to make a weekly report about the process and also to collect useful information for the documentary. In a short time, Asbestos in the dock was able to mobilize people who would not have been reached by the mainstream media, because their coverage is limited to the highlights of the process. Internet not only has been instrumental in helping to spread beyond the Italian borders the information needed to keep alive the international mobilization (on 2009 April 6th, the first day of the hearing, many foreign associations were present) but it has also encouraged the participation of the members. Thanks to the web there is indeed the possibility that a different kind of information will reach a better quality and a higher coverage than traditional media. The strength of the project is that it deals with a very specific and local issue; however, that attracts global interest. The media look at the spectacular side and not at the substantial one, but in Turin there is a process that can become a milestone for the issue of corporate social responsibility: it is a symbolic issue even more important than the process itself».

To repeat the eloquent words of the three prosecutors who are handling the case in Turin, it is a "huge disaster" that sees “as main allegorical accused asbestos", but whose devastating effects on workers and citizens are due to the conscious conduct of the two accused, which for years has been based on a single vile and despicable strategy: the non-communication of risks.

Cambio Climático 2011: Argentina gives hospitality to the thrid Internation Congress on climte changes and sustainbility

2011-07-27T14:42:00.002+02:00

by Silvia Musso

Since 8th to 11th August will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the third international conference on climate change, organized by UNLP, the Unidad de Comunicación Institucional Facultad de Ciencias Económicas.

Among the experts who will participate as speakers there will also be Erik Balzaretti, coordinator of the Italian Master in Communication of Sustainability and member of the Scientific Committee of AICA presenting a paper with a certainly intriguing title, "El Calent global, entre el Apocalipsis y el marketing" ("Global warming, between apocalypse and marketing). Envi stuff reached and asked him some questions.

What do you expect from this conference and from the dialogue with other experts?
«Firstly I want to say that the call as an expert in this international conference is an evidence that my work and AICA activity in these years were not in vain but rather of a certain value. Then, you always hope in some new ideas or at least some new points of view that that let the research to advance or to find some partners to work on issues of our interest. My paper, dedicated to the relationship between the media and climate change, is part of a strand devoted to issues of communication and culture and education. Now it seems clear that global warming is real and we need to find "the words to say it" and to prepare a quantitative and qualitative turnaround into the use of energy resources».

Your speech focuses on the collective imagination in the Environmental Communication of climate change. Can you explain briefly what it is?
«At the heart of our society there is not the people but the media. They, through various forms of narration, have taken the task of building our opinions, our hopes, our denials. The social and economic system through the media constructs the identity of each of us and of us all together. A good rhetoric to push for change must keep in mind the collective imagination and act on it if it wants to achieve effective communication. This is valid for climate change, better to say global warming because also the words have a more or less impactful meaning, as with all environmental issues».

In the paper you are presenting , you talk about "Cassandra syndrome that characterizes the environmental information". What do you mean by that?
«How you know Cassandra had received as a gift from Apollo, the ability to predict, but after he had broken his promise the Greek god had revoked the ability to be believed. Information firstly, but also environmental communication in general, suffers from this syndrome: you carry data, and it is expected that the future of humankind will be difficult if you don not decide to change the development system, but the citizens and the institutions find it hard to believe and to take action despite signs are getting stronger».

What should the Environmental Communication linked to climate change do to avoid an ideological interpretation of the data?
«Get out of the impasse of rationality and logic that allows the interpretation of data and relates to the citizen as a clenched fist that forces you to believe and stand up for working with the rhetoric, poetics, and the paradigm of desirability that instead is perceived by citizens as an open hand that caresses and persuades. In this sense, to act on imaginary, even through the most catastrophic one, allows the movements of consciousness and introjection of the subject that does not always you can get on a scientific-rational level. Ours is a society of mass consumption used to be flattered by the rhetoric of goods, including cultural ones, through the language of marketing and advertising. We need to develop emotions, as the rationality is not working».

Environmental communication and climate change: the thems to reflect are definitely numerous. While we are waiting to receive the report of the Professor Balzaretti on his participation at the congress, the debate can be also opened on these pages.

Kids, responsibile tourists

2011-07-25T14:06:00.003+02:00

by Silvia Musso

The schools are close and it is time of well-deserved holiday also for the children. If you dont' have ideas on what to offer your children, a help comes from WWF Italy and Touring Editore that together published the first guide on responsible tourism targeted at children.

Io viaggio responsabile! (I travel responsible!), this is the title of the book written by biologist Elena Gatti and realizrd under the scientific supervision of supervisione scientifica of WWF Italy, tells in comic form and log book the adventures of Berny and Ele, two enterprising kids, protagonists of trips to the seaside, countryside, mountains and travels troughout Egypt and Nepal.

Young readers are approached to a way of travelling that respects the environment, heritage and artistic cultures of the places and peoples, the interests of local communities. The kids learn without getting bored the five commandments of responsible tourist, which are dedicated to the chapters of the book: to protect the environment, to respect people, to meet the animals, to do smart purchases, to move without polluting.

«To speak of ethics and proper behavior in an abstract sense can be not only difficult to understand for a kid, but ... very boring! - Ornella Pavone, curator of the book and of the Junior Touring catalog, says - A funny communication as the comic book, and immediate, like the diary, written in first person by the two protagonists of the stories, stimulates curiosity and interest of children by making them go into the problems, skipping the "theory" stage».

From the story in fact the key principles of responsible tourism come out which are then summarized and systematized in fun cards. At the end of each chapter, in addition, readers can try the quiz and personalise the guide with their observations and photographs.

«The issue of Responsible Tourism is part of Touring Editore issues - Mrs. Pavone says- It is a current on which the attention of tour operatorsis is increasingly focused all around the world. So, from touring guides for adults, it was natural to transfer the message of the new style of travelling, sustainable and respectful of cultures and territories, also to children and teens, from 6 to 14 years, the readers of the volumes that are offered by Junior Touring».

The volume is unique in its kind. Io viaggio Responsabile! is the first book to bring these issues to children and it is new for both issue and formula. It is also a cross-reading of many school subjects: geography, science, history, literature, art, civics, religion are involved. It could be good not only for young people, but to be a useful tool for a teacher who wants to face informally with their children important and very timely topics.

In the coming weeks, while kids will enjoy reading this comic, teachers could start planning the next school year by placing these important issues of environmental and social sustainability into their teaching subjects.

Meanwhile, the collaboration betweenTouring and WWF Italy continues. It has been recently published Weekend nella natura (Weekend on nature), a guide on 45 routes in the WWF oasis, and in all probability Io viaggio responsabile! will be the first in a series of books for children that address the many issues of “light” tourism.

«This alternative way to travel - Mrs. Pavoneconcludes - has just overlooked the Italian scene, but is attracting growing interest from the public, especially the younger ones, because it proposes ways to travel adapt of everyone and favors the family target . Biking, hiking, trail rides, train, boat, natural oases: there is a whole world of adventurous and interesting trips even in the short and medium range, and children are naturally curious and always ready to go».

Pomigliano d'Arco: between FIAT and eco-report

2011-07-22T11:54:00.002+02:00

by Eleonora Anello

There has been much talking on April 4th, 2011, when they launched the news that the separate collection has got into the Fiat factories in Pomigliano.

«The Fiat - Raffaele Di Nicola said, the manager of Enama Spa, the company that manages the collection of urban waste in the city, at the launch of the campaign - has shown great sensitivity. The modernization of the plant for the production of the new Panda as well as the new mode of separation has created the opportunity to redesign the employee dining areas, adapting them to the needs of the new collection system». In fact, containers for paper were placed close to all offices and to each location. The car company has also scheduled meetings with all companies to inform them of the news about the environment.

In a press conference Di Raffaele said: «We are working with an innovative model of communication. Our campaign is silent. As a first step we have involved only the homogeneous subjects, including property and school managers, voluntary and environmental organizations, managers of both large and small companies and also traders. Our aim was to teach them about a direct communication towards the subjects they represent. Thus, firstly a word-of-mouth advertising along with posters and then, secondly, public meetings with the entire community of Pomigliano. The goal is to exceed 50% of separate waste collection by December 31st, 2011».

The campaign has involved not only the companies operating in the Campania region. The action created by the Fondazione Willy Brandt wanted to involve as protagonists especially families and schools. Enzo Pirone, FWB coordinator, has focused on the educational program at the heart of the campaign Riciclando (Recycling). «The boys of the fourth and fifth year of primary school will use the “Eco-report”, which is a mean of communicating with parents, but also a way to spread the idea of a good separate collection. By the use of the Eco-report, with a classic role reversal, they themselves will become protagonists, who, through questions and subsequent evaluations, will score their families’ behaviours and habits in the house management of wastes and separate collection. The Ecoreports will be collected and then digitized to be analyzed by experts, coordinated by FWB, in order to have a statistical analysis of the habits and behaviour of households». And it does not end here. The “Professor Recycling” has been put in charge of the relationship with the classes. By sporadic surveys he will be responsible for spreading the culture of sustainability through a theatrical approach, which should capture the attention and interest of kids who, in turn, will be called to create and dramatize a play and a performance on the theme of waste collection.

With an elaborate campaign of communication, which gets its strength from the use of a diversified language, understandable by everyone, Pomigliano d'Arco, already "Riciclone City", aims to become a centre of excellence in a critical area such as that of waste.

Volunteers from all over Italy for waste collection Roberto Cavallo suggests a solution for Naples

2011-07-21T09:19:00.000+02:00

Article published on 8th July 2011 on Italian newspaper “Il Fatto Quotidiano”

by Luca Mercalli

All we ask why in Naples the waste is in the streets and why it seems impossible to solve the age-old emergency. As it is not possible to give trivial answers, I ask for help to a waste expert, Roberto Cavallo, president of the cooperative ERICA of Alba (North-West Italy), a quite young business of excellence in this field.

Mr. Cavallo, lets start with a local context, what happens in the capital of Campania?
The situation of Naples waste is made more complex than elsewhere by three abnormal conditions: high production per capita , low waste collection, but also the presence of organized crime, particularly in transport management. This situation, as highlighted in a study by the European Commission last December, not only have serious environmental repercussions, but it also causes a significant negative economic impact. This deficit is mainly due to direct causes, such as failure to recover the market value of materials (paper, glass, plastic, metals) and indirect causes such as the negative impact on tourism.

But at this point how can you move to find an effective solution?
Providing exit routes risks to be to an exercise of pure theory. Some positive notes allow us to foresee optimistic scenarios. The first ingredient is in the city of Naples itself, in fact, almost two hundred thousand Neapolitans for the past two years are served by a waste collection service at home that allows them to separate the two thirds, overpassing the 65% of recycling. The second ingredient is the people to whom the mayor De Magistris is entrusting , in particular the Councillor Tommaso Sodano, the confirmation of Daniele Fortini as CEO of ASIA and the nomination of Raphael Rossi as president of the municipal firm. The third ingredient is the increased sensitivity accompanied by as much desire for redemption of the Naples citizens where you can find evidences through the several blogs and websites.

But hthe years pass and the problem is not solved ...
Already in 2008 and January 2010 we faced the waste crisis in Naples. Among the proposals I made that time I would try to relaunch one: for a few months, all volunteers of the civil service, lets focus in Naples aided by volunteers from the civil protection and environmental voluntary, spread to all households containers and bags how the properly separate collection works. Meanwhile ASIA, in collaboration with other public companies united in Federambiente, carries the differentiated recovery materials to platforms indicated by CONAI and the Italian Composters Consortium, all under the supervision of Italian Government and the Judiciary power in order to exclude the Camorra from the waste cycle.

And if the other regions oppose to accommodate into their boundaries loads of waste from Campania?
Who would object to the transfer of already differentiated waste to the north, I remember how Naples landfills are full of dangerous waste coming also from the north; as an example I quote the 500,000 tons of hazardous toxic sludge resulting from the land reclamation of Acna of Cengio, between the provinces of Savona and Cuneo (north-west Italy), buried in the Pianura landfill.

In Italy remains the problem of the enormous amount of household waste that we produce: about 540 kg per capita per year, 1.5 kg of garbage per day. If we take away 30% of organic waste that could be readily composted in orchards, gardens and close plants, it remain almost four tons to be be differentiated and disposed for each of us. How to face this problem?
Indeed, the waste reduction and the concept, to whom I dedicated among other things, my latest book, Meno 100 chili (Less than 100 kilos), namely the waste prevention. There are dozens of daily actions that each of us can take to reduce itheir garbage amount ... It is the waste that does not exist. That it it not ncesessary to collect and transport or treat, and finally the waste that even the Camorra is not able to touch.

Sixteenth edition for the International Summer School in Applied Environmental and Regulatory Economics

2011-07-20T09:13:00.002+02:00

by Silvia Musso

For all those among undergraduates, graduates and employees in the private and the public sectors who wish to deepen environmental economics issues, the Fondazione Ambiente of Turin (North Italy) offers you the option of attending a summer school.

The Summer School in Applied Environmental and Regulatory Economics, at its sixteenth edition, is organised by the Fondazione per l’Ambiente “Teobaldo Fenoglio” in collaboration with the Faculty of Politics of the University of East Piedmont "Amedeo Avogadro" and lasts two weeks, since 5th to 16th September.

The course is articulated into three parts: a theoretical module, an industry analysis of the businesses dealing with environment with reference to issues such as waste, water, public transport, sports facilities, etc. and, finally, a discussion of case studies. Students will conclude their path with a final report, the purpose of which is precisely the analysis of a particular story case. Students will be engaged in collecting economic data and financial analysis of the main legal instruments governing the sector.

Also this year, after sixteen years, the Foundation has wanted to offer a chance to study and teaching during the summer to allow as many people as possible to interface with these issues.

In this context, the course is designed to provide the students with the basics of the theory of regulation that are applied to real case studies for a deeper understanding of regulatory issues and debates. Main topics are information asymmetries, industrial cost analysis and tariff setting, regulator’s capture, quality concerns, mechanism design and incentive contracts, the links and trade-offs between environmental and industrial policies within the national and European legislation framework.

Fondazione per l'Ambiente, founded in Torino by 24 public and private partners operating in Piedmont - among which all the four universities present on the regional territory - is a non profit body that promotes research, communication and experts' training in the sector of environmental and regulation policies at local level.

Environment is in fact a common good and everybody has to have the possibility to approach to a proper environmental information and knowledge, up-to-date with the current political and economical changes in order to be able to communicate them .

To have more information about the Summer School: iss@fondazioneambiente.org.

With climate change, you can not joke but you can play!

2011-07-18T09:43:00.006+02:00

by Marzia Fialdini

Va.D.Di. (acronym of "Tell that to the dinosaurs") is the first role-playing game entirely devoted to climate change, an online simulation developed by ISPRA (National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research) to help high school students to reflect on one of the most urgent and serious problems of our days: global warming. Presented in May and consisting of a kit of teaching materials Va.D.Di. meets the aims of education geared to sustainability, as indicated by the Strategy for the Onu Decade of Education for Sustainable Development in progress until 2014, and it finds its origins in the organization by ISPRA of the National Conference on Climate Change of 2007.

The game-simulation is structured to teach students to deal with the issue of climate change firsthand, to enhance their civic awareness, encourage them to reflect on the climate issue and then bring them to identify their possible solutions. Each game involves 50 people and is set in the region Pycaia and its three main centres: Molaria (a seaside town), Naraoia (a major metropolitan city) and Santacaris (a picturesque mountain village). All places are named many fossils, so here explained the reference to dinosaurs in the name of the game.

Students can play the role of administrators (mayors, councillors, president of the region), ordinary citizens, experts and journalists to discuss and finally develop a plan for development of the entire region Pycaia, which prevents or minimizes the damage caused by climate change. Several issues must be addressed: the need to understand the responsibilities of human activity in climate-related problems (in fact, there are also the positions of the "deniers," those that define as natural cycles of climate changes occurred in the past), the need to combine economic development with reduction of CO2 through environmental education for citizens, budget and economic interests of industry. For each of the three affected communities, at the end of the simulation, it will also draw a profile of sustainability based on the choices of individual participants.

The distribution of materials to play the game-simulation will start with the beginning of the next school year in high-schools that request it. The teachers who decide to follow the project are required to participate in specific courses still in planning stage.

What future for the quiet Pycaia? And most importantly, what can the citizens do individually or working together? How do we need to change life choices and habits so that the environment does not become an enemy but can continue to be the ally of all time? We can therefore say that with climate change, you can not joke but thanks to Va.D.Di. you can play!

Re Boat Race: The Recycling Race on Lido di Ostia

2011-07-15T16:17:00.003+02:00

by Giuseppe Totaro

Creativity, genius and environmental protection: these were the ingredients of the Re Boat Race, the race of boats made entirely from recycled materials, which took place at Lido di Ostia on 19 and 20 June, in the sixteenth edition "From 100 to 1000 Sails - the festival of the sea of Rome".

The idea of eco-friendly first race of Italy came to Sunnyway and was a real hymn to the creative recycling: each team has built for themselves their own boats, and many have chosen to do it directly on the beach the day before the race. The materials used wewrw numerous: plastic, cans's aluminum or Tetra Pak used for milk and beverages.

The communication of the event was particularly effective, considering also the many people who attended it: constant presence among the media dedicated to the world of sailing, funny flyer and poster to promote the initiative and a really complete blog dedicated to the event, www.reboatrace .com. Apart the registration form and a series of images of similar initiatives around the world, were available all relevant information to make a perfect boat with recycled materials and a rich gallery of videos about other races taking place every year especially in the United States.

The Re Boat Race was not the first initiative in this direction. The most recent examples were the Plastiki, the catamaran made entirely of recycled PVC bottles that accompanied the Englishman David Rothschild in solo ocean crossing from San Francisco to Sydney or the Soap Kayak Race, the race with a cardboard canoe which was held in September on the river Adda.

The first "recycled" race is an example of how environmental initiative, created from a simple idea, if is right-communicated can give a big feedback to the themes of communication of reuse, especially if it is associated with a funny event of great impact as the Re Boat Race.

Go green, but with an eye to the wallet

2011-07-13T18:13:00.003+02:00

by Anna de Polo

A recent survey conducted by Accenture ("Revealing the Energy Values of the New Consumer") revealed that 80% of Italians are in favour of choosing an alternative provider for the supply of electricity and energy efficiency programs, as long as this will translate into savings on their bill. Not that there was need for a statistical survey to find out that virtually we all agree to reduce the personal impact on the environment, but in practice we are committed to do so only if it reduces, or at least does not increase, the family costs. For this reason there are many Internet portals that offer practical advices to consumers to direct their purchases towards products that maximize value for money and, at the same time, comply with standards of environment quality.

Among these, one is Topten, an online search tool that allows you to compare various types of electrical equipments and choose the best from the point of view of not only energy efficiency but also the energy cost of the product in its entire lifecycle, as well as of the price, the brand and the aesthetic. The different products are classified into categories (e.g. cars, household appliances, lighting and office equipment) and are selected according to the criteria of energy efficiency, quality and the impact on the environment and health. This allows on one hand to raise consumers awareness about the impact of their energy consumption on climate change, and on the other to encourage companies to improve their energy standards.

Nothing really new in reality: just think of the energy labelling scheme (eco-labelling), which has so far proved to be a useful tool for consumers and effective for the environment, thanks to its high potential for energy savings. The new EU directive on eco-label has introduced several new novelties, including the requirement for energy labelling of TVs. The eco-label also becomes mandatory in case of direct sales, rental and also in distance selling, i.e. on internet. This legislation is part of the energy plan of the European Union, which is introducing more and more rules to achieve the target of 20% for energy efficiency by 2020. On 22nd June they proposed a new European directive that combines into a single legal instrument the earlier directives on the management of energy supply and final energy consumption. "Our proposal aims to make more efficient the ways to use energy in our daily lives - said Gϋnther Oetinger, European Commissioner for Energy - and to help citizens, public authorities and industry to improve managing energy consumption. This should also lead to reduced energy bills".

In conclusion, if on one side consumers are proving willing to engage more '"green" behaviours, on the other the energy suppliers and manufacturers are more and more stimulated, precisely because of this trend, to improve the energy efficiency of their products, thanks also to EU incentives. It remains to be seen whether this situation will trigger a virtuous cycle that will allow achieving the goal of 2020, from which for now Europe is still far away.

Music is energy

2011-07-11T09:31:00.006+02:00

by Eleonora Anello

Music as a means to spread environmental awareness? Of course it is, when its use has low environmental impact.

A study of the Observatory on environmental sustainability and music, commissioned by Edison in collaboration with Renato Mannheimer ISPO, has shown once again that in Italy we declare ourselves in favor of the environment but then we do little to protect it. 70% of the sample says they are very sensitive to environmental issues, although 39% does not implement any environmentally sustainable behavior.

From the published data it appears that the bigger problems are in the field of public transport. Very few manage to do without their cars to get to a musical event. And there's more. Some genres are greener than others: the most virtuous are those who love classical music, while the black jersey goes to the metal heads.

In this light, Edison, to spread a music more in line with the environment and develop a culture of sustainability and energy conservation in this area, decided to do its part by launching Edison-Change the Music, a contest addressed to emerging bands. Who will prove to be more environmentally friendly will open the concert by Jon Bon Jovi in Udine, July 17th. The project has been joined by several members of the musical world including Piero Pelù, Elio e le Storie Tese, Enrique Iglesias, Annie Lennox, Omar Pedrini.

"There are many ways of doing business - said Andrea Prandi, director of external relations of Edison - With this project we believe that we can tie the theme of energy to that of environment conservation. Along with Legambiente we intend to convey to as many people as possible a message that encourages the sustainable use of energy resources. We chose music as a mean of communication, both in its popular expression and through more educated music. Indeed, we are also sponsor of the Prima della Scala. Edison-Change the Music has also become partner of the Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign promoted by the European Commission: this is a source of great pride for us".

If one energy company focuses on young people, another relies on stars, going on with well-tested projects. We are talking about Enel that, after the success of Safari Tour 2008, renews its collaboration with Lorenzo Jovanotti. "Ora in Tour Lorenzo Live 2011 - Music CO2 neutral" is a series of concerts across Italy, which began last April and will conclude at the end of this year. Its aim is to neutralize the emissions of the musical event with a program of reforestation and development in Cameroon. Each individual viewer may also directly participate in the initiative through the Compenso Positivo website, through which you can enter a raffle for a tree and give it its name.

"The collaborative project with Jovanotti -Enel says- is fully integrated in the commitment of the company to promote sustainability through a process that involves the use of renewable sources in energy production, the use of new technologies in the reduction and storage of emissions, measures of efficiency and energy-saving, the use of products with low environmental impact, information and awareness campaigns on the consumption of energy. In particular, the beginning of the tour of the singer coincides with the launch of "CO2 Neutral", the new Enel brand that identifies the services of Carbon Neutrality. Indeed we have been active for a long time in the volunteer market of the footprints for a wide range of services. Events, campaigns, sales of energy and other initiatives can be neutralized through innovative activities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, contributing in a concrete way to improve the life on the planet and to the fight against climate change".

For years, however, environmental groups have tried to highlight other truths on the production of Enel. So much that some singers have decided to side with the citizens who pay the consequences dramatically. In August 2010, during the event Correnti Musicali, Simone Cristicchi, pressed by the environmentalists, refused to sing in the coal plant "Federico II" of Cerano (BR), which is not surprisingly dubbed “the plant of death", because it not only affects the beautiful landscape of Salento, hitting its tourism, but also keeps claiming victims among the inhabitants of the district. A dossier of Legambiente of 2007 has shown that the kindly-named plant, a true eco-monster that is located on the beautiful Adriatic beaches, produces over one third of total national emissions.

All this ambivalence between what is communicated and what is done can only create doubts and confusion.

Councillor’s secrets

2011-07-09T09:24:00.002+02:00

by Daniela Zannetti

The human anthropic pression on environment and natural resources, in addiction to destruction of ecosystems, can generate threat against citizens health. Some environmental policies seek a reduction of the impact, acting on the waste disposal cycle. That’s the case of Rossella Zadro, Ferrara environmental councillor, which explains her initiatives on “reciprocity” for the reduction of garbage production, or composting to valorize organic matter without combustion.

Ferrara city councillor Rossella Zadro's "mutual" ambiental policies says «What keeps terms between entity and territories it's not money, whose create gradients, but is the "gift" that generate a common reciprocity». Zadro explains: «Recovering unsold goods at the end of the day, giving those to associations, helps to keep down the ammount of waste destined to dump». Zadro also support the idea of giving a TIA discount to sellers to gain a beneficial “gift” exchange for everyone implicated (Andrea Segrè’s Last Minute Market). «Or the recovery of still usefull drugs thanks to a public and private partership: universities, phamarcies and local governs , this operation allows a saving of 110 thousands euros on drugs and provide univeristary students formation credits. The result of this operation also gives to pharmaceutical companies the possibility of changing their "blister". We would like that companies are going to modify their production on the promise of wastage reduction».

“XI commandment should be: do not waste", a policy without hesitations for keeping up the demand of "ambient" from citizens. Like the "No" at Linea2 by multiutility Hera implant (waste and energy, water services) that were destined to burn 45 thousands Tons of biomass waste. «Mayors and municipalities should cleaning the air from the products of combustion- says the councillor- particulate matter (PM) emissions from Hera were destined to impact on an area already occupied by a petrolchimical implant and by a incinerator that dispose 130 thousand Tons of garbage».

It's a recent news: the petrolchimical implant will get a magistrature controlled activity after a citizens petition. A monitored territory where recovery is every day duty, even Hera is getting a tweak to reduce even more the emission that now are 10 times under the law's limits. «We cannot compute the social cost in terms of pubblic health wherever pollution is not controlled - explains Zadro who adds - Our rapports with Hera are good but even if burning biomasses is provided by the Regional Waste Plan we are shocked from the fact that in Bologna (Hera Ambiente) decisions are made by technicians without any policy evaluation. We work so hard on our the separate collection because we want it to be enhanced as compost and not as mere energy. Without this efforts we wouldn't give the 15% discount on the waste collection tax to those who practice composting, helping to reduce organic waste».

«Keeping in mind that we don't get any help from the national regulation, we designed some other projects with addictional TIA discount to merchants who utilize bulk water. We produce about 719 Kg pro capita garbage, with an experimental policy in a small area outside the center of the city, we detected a reduction of about 105Kg pro capita garbage which 45% is umid-organic waste. We distributed 1819 composters to citizens which 1270 of them asked for the discount, but we will proceed with some verification to assure there will not be pressures only on paying citizen. In our three-year plan with Hera- keep explaining Rossella - we setted some indicators to maintain and overcome the 65% separate collection law expected by 2012 on the 50% base achieved in 2010. Returning to Biomasses, there is an implant at Argenta, it's a short chain one and it's placed in open countryside. A 3MW impant in Ferrara would be unthinkable especially thinking there it would be a raise in truck traffic, already considerable, on the roads near the city».

Municipalities and national provinces should be doing universally recognized environmental pacts. Becoming low waste stakeholder with citizens. Agreeing on common ways between different administrations. Creating Life+ between Nord and South Italy Governs. Finally: building a sustainability net.

A better future on a human scale

2011-07-06T14:31:00.002+02:00

by Marzia Fialdini

Cycling is the most efficient means of urban transport: you can travel fast, non-polluting and it has beneficial effects on health. Nevertheless, in Italy it remains a vehicle neglected by most citizens, as evidenced by the last place recently "won" by our country in the European standings on its use.

In recent years, however, bicycles are penetrating the country, along the lines of foreign events, initiatives to promote mobility on two wheels. In particular, the campaign Bike to Work, after being successfully implemented in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein since 2007 it is also present in Italy and precisely in the town of Bolzano and in Trento. The initiative aims to involve companies and their employees so that they use the bicycle to travel together to work, and to encourage the adhesion there are prizes for those who "pedal" for at least fifteen days in a month.

There are many differences between the Italian campaign and those of other European countries, because there are different contexts and cultural background in which they are made. In Switzerland, to promote the use of bicycle, the administration not only counts on health benefits, but also to create a team spirit among colleagues, who gather every morning in small groups of "bikers". In this way it is possible to improve both the working environment and company image.

In Italy however, where there is still much to be done to promote the use of transportation alternative to the car, the focus of the communication is on spreading the culture of "cycling" and environmental issues. The slogan of the campaign of the Municipality of Trento, for example is: Burn calories not oil.

Finally, another fact that emerges clearly from a comparison of the various campaigns is on the membership of companies: in Italy are mostly public and limited in number, while abroad also private companies participate in very significant numbers, only in Switzerland this year were 1,346 companies in the canton to join the project.

Encouraging data on the second National Bike Day, an initiative promoted by the Ministry of Environment, which was held last May the 8th. The bicycle mobilizes man! this is the slogan designed to know people that ride in town is an environmentally friendly choice and may actually be feasible. The event organized in collaboration with ANCI (Association of Italian Municipalities) and the Italian Cycling Federation, was attended by 1,096 municipalities and the closure to traffic of 1.932.3 kms of local roads: an encouraging start for a better future on a human scale.

Going on holidays to work

2011-07-04T12:45:00.002+02:00

by Anna de Polo

For those looking for an experience outside the box for the next summer, the French organization APARE ("Association pour la Participation et l'Action Régionale”) offers an alternative and “useful” holiday. The association, recognized by the European Union, organizes each summer work camps and campuses in the Southern Alps and the Cote d'Azur, but also in countries around the Mediterranean such as Algeria, Greece, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia.

In the work camps, volunteers of various ages and nationalities are actively involved in the protection and enhancement of natural and the cultural heritage of rural Mediterranean areas.
Over a period of 2-3 weeks, experienced professionals introduce the volunteers to the art of restoration and stonework. It is thus possible to benefit from an educational experience on the professional level, but also on the human level, thanks to the opportunity to know and work with people of different cultures and origins. There are also moments of leisure, where participants can relax with sporting, cultural and artistic activities: it is indeed a holiday, although different because useful and adventurous. The peculiarity of this kind of experience is to offer an opportunity that is diametrically opposed to the “pop” divertissement we're used to use to distract us from the worries of everyday life, but also, at times, from ourselves. Holidays are often an escape from routine life and the box in which we live most of the year, but this should not necessarily results in a kind of fun that in the end leaves us empty and tired. It can be rather surprising to find that the practical and manual work, carried out in contact with people different from us, the physical and mental engagement with something that has practical use and a noble purpose, can be much more satisfying and refreshing than any holiday of "pure fun".

The offer of APARE is just one of several proposals for environmental and archaeological work camps for young students or enthusiasts who want to share an experience of solidarity, civic participation and education. Also Legambiente offers each year volunteer camps focus on different topics, from biodiversity protection to the enhancement of the local cultural heritage. One of the work camps proposed for summer 2011 is about the environmental rehabilitation of territories affected by crime. «Legambiente has always been deployed against the eco-mafia. Since 2000 it’s working with Libera to realize work camps where environmentalism and legality meet together in order to become concrete projects - explains Luca Gallerano, head of the Voluntary Sector of Legambiente. The goal is to spread a culture based on citizenship that might conflict with the culture of privilege and blackmail, which is typical of the mafia in Italy, and thus prove that, even in places where the mafia has lorded, it is possible to reconstruct a social and economic society based on legality and on the respect for human beings and for the environment».

An alternative summer, after all, full of practical work, cultural exchange and environmental and civic engagement, to meet different people and discover something new about our territory, our culture and perhaps even about ourselves.