17 Passi Verso La Sostenibilità: GOAL 12 con Gianluca Bufo di Iren

Hello, good evening everyone. So, it is a fundamental goal because the principles of environmental sustainability, the value of environmental sustainability, are increasingly relevant even in the business world. In particular, the production chain, the consumption chain: once they were two separate activities; today instead we think of producing products and things already facilitating a use that respects the environment, and on the other hand, products that respect the environment are demanded of us, having to modify the production phases. So what were once two distinct things are now the same side of the coin. And speaking of environmental sustainability, I like to think of a gold medal to achieve this.

But I will speak to you in particular about the world of companies that I represent. Companies today are increasingly committed to environmental sustainability, and there are basically two main reasons behind this commitment. First, companies have a critical mass. All together, companies are a lot of stuff. So if companies begin to embrace and adapt to the principles of environmental sustainability, things happen. Let me give an example. Today each of us is used to listening to music through headphones, maybe on our smartphone. But in my time, which was not so many years ago, in my time there were music cassettes, there were vinyl records. Think about how technological progress and digitalization brought by some companies has made it possible that today music is accessible everywhere. I don't have to, as I did when I was a kid your age, take (I don't know if you maybe don't ride a scooter yet, the scooter, so I was a bit older than you, so I smoked, I went to the store, I bought the music cassette, which was made with a plastic wrapper, it was all plastic, it had to be placed in the plastic tape player. Today all this, including the exhaust of my Vespa, is gone. So this whole chain is gone. So companies have critical mass, they can change things. Moreover, companies have an educational role because if companies that are based on an economic principle embrace the principles of environmental sustainability, then it is easier to think that environmental sustainability is a value, even more so, companies pursue it because the spirit of every company, the goal of every company is to generate value.

We citizens play an important role. First of all, I would like to talk about the topic of citizens, meaning that we live in cities. Now, all data shows that in future years, we will increasingly live concentrated in large cities, in large urban metropolises. So all the demographic growth that will occur worldwide will be increasingly concentrated in particular on large cities that will continue to grow. Then, if citizens in their habits, therefore in living in the city, not only in living in their own homes, but in living the city, they require, they impose models based on environmental sustainability. Think about transportation: means of transport that will increasingly move towards formulas with electric transport, whether it be the scooter, the scooter, the cars, or electric public transport. If in living the cities we will redesign all those services, think about the issues of collection and reuse, where cities will become promoters of this revolution. We will radically change things because the cities will be the heart increasingly of where things happen, and this reason is truly added.

But I believe and I hope that this goal has never been reached, which seems like a terrible thing to say. Actually, I think that the goals of environmental sustainability, the goals of responsible and conscious consumption, should not be lived as a goal to achieve that is far away and that is one and only one. I think it must be a continuous adjustment of balances in our daily lives. And then we will live the themes of environmental sustainability truly as something that is part of our daily lives and our reality. Of course, we still have to do many, many things before reaching this type of scenario. Today, look, I think this is the most beautiful question of all. I thought about it a bit and I have to tell you that the wish I make for the young people of today is to be able to live the themes of environmental sustainability not only with the commitment that you guys always put in when you believe in right causes, you believe in themes that somehow must be pursued, but to be able to live it with a passion that brings happiness. If the themes of environmental sustainability will make you find a world around you and you first in such a way that happiness and satisfaction are generated in facing these themes, then it means that we are truly in that better world and with that balance to manage every day. And these themes will also become one of the many beautiful things that we could say that you guys have obtained.