21 Jul “Stories of sustainability” … one month later

A month has passed since the Stories of Sustainability event, let’s review together the most salient points addressed by our speakers:

Claudia Coscarella, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager @ Fercam Echo Labs
Manuela Melucci, Researcher @ CNR – ISOF
Matteo Morolli, PhD student in Industrial Research @ UniBO Department of Mechanical Engineering and Turtle srl.
The panel discussion was introduced by a brief presentation of the circular economy projects Life Remembrance and Fercam Echo Labs, and the VIVACE model, a tool for measuring sustainability.

Then, based on questions from moderator Anna Sagnella, Sustainable Materials and Processes Researcher @ MISTER Smart Innovation, the speakers highlighted the actions to be taken to support the realization of an ecological transition that can involve society at 360 degrees.

Research and Enterprise. It is important that the worlds of research and enterprise “speak a common language,” or rather sustainable language, with the aim of overcoming the many difficulties encountered during the development and implementation of a sustainable project. Research and business must talk to each other, understand each other, and address technical issues together, e.g., for industrial scalability, regulatory and/or legislative, social and economic issues.

Measuring sustainability. Today, sustainability is no longer an abstract word that can be used haphazardly or only for commercial and marketing purposes. Sustainability is concrete because it can be measured both qualitatively and quantitatively. In addition to the sustainability of products, the sustainability of processes and businesses must also be measured, evaluated, managed, regulated and certified.

Industrial Symbiosis. Companies pursuing sustainability should begin to embrace this concept, seeking to implement within their business perimeter a circular economy project that allows them to exploit a waste or discard, part of their business model, into a new resource and/or a new product.

Networking. The whole roundtable shared the importance of networking, establishing partnerships and collaborations of various kinds, increasingly expanding the network of stakeholders: research, companies, schools, training institutions, associations, institutions, etc…. Only the union of multiple forces can truly foster a change in mentality by pushing society to adopt more responsible and environmentally conscious behaviors.

Anna Sagnella

If you were unable to attend and are interested in sustainability issues or would like to learn more about the topics that were the focus of our panel discussion, watch the recording ⬇️