Search

The Italian shellfish industry mainly comprises clams, mussels, and oysters. While clam production thrives and Italy leads Europe, mussel farming faces economic challenges. Oyster production is relatively new and holds potential. Sustainable development is crucial for meeting growing seafood demand while ensuring resource conservation and food safety. This paper, part of the VALUE-SHELL project funded by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests (MASAF) as part of support activities for the National Strategic Plan of Aquaculture, combines desk research on industry structure and public interventions using a collaborative approach involving stakeholder interviews and focus groups with producers and local entities to assess the sector's most compelling needs. The collaborative process highlighted key challenges across the following four sustainability pillars: environmental (global warming, predator control, and pollution mitigation are critical concerns for ecosystem balance); economic (increased production costs and limited diversification opportunities affect profitability); social (fear of generational decline due to limited training and education opportunities poses a threat to the industry's future); and institutional (lack of a dedicated aquaculture law and fragmented governance hinder long-term planning). The project identifies policy bottlenecks hindering the sector's potential, caused by not fully addressing producer needs. Sustainable development strategies are essential for addressing these challenges and ensuring the Italian shellfish industry's future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the sustainability of the environment is a very much concerning issue for developed countries, the drive of the paper is to reveal the effects of nuclear, environment-friendly, and non-friendly energy, population, and GDP on CO2 emission for Italy, a developed country. Using the extended Stochastic Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) framework, the yearly data from 1972 to 2021 are analyzed in this paper through an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) framework. The reliability of the study is also examined by employing Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS), Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS), and Canonical Cointegration Regression (CCR) estimators and also the Granger causality method which is used to see the directional relationship among the indicators. The investigation confirms the findings of previous studies by showing that in the longer period, rising Italian GDP and non-green energy by 1% can lead to higher CO2 emissions by 8.08% and 1.505%, respectively, while rising alternative and nuclear energy by 1% can lead to falling in CO2 emission by 0.624%. Although population and green energy adversely influence the upsurge of CO2, they seem insignificant. Robustness tests confirm these longer-period impacts. This analysis may be helpful in planning and developing strategies for future financial funding in the energy sector in Italy, which is essential if the country is to achieve its goals of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education is recognised as an integral part of building the capacity of all ages to drive the transformation toward sustainable development. While the Hong Kong government aspires to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and has ramped up efforts to integrate sustainability into school curricula and raise public awareness through educational activities, this policy brief argues that Hong Kong's existing measures failed to empower and motivate individuals and the community to keep pace with its climate action ambition. Drawing on Sterling's framework of education for sustainability (EFS), this paper presents a diagnosis of Hong Kong's major problems in sustainability education policies and suggests that the Hong Kong government should learn from the Italian experience to take a more systemic, empowering, and democratic approach in advancing its EFS policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting energy efficiency is a key element of the strategic commitment of the European Community. Prominent among the binding measures established by the 2012 Energy Efficiency Directive to further this vision is the requirement for large companies to conduct energy audits every four years. After receiving the second cycle of energy audit reports in December 2019, a new description of the energy situation of Italian companies was made available. This presented the previously inaccessible possibility of comparing the two situations reported in 2015 and 2019 to assess the development of energy efficiency practices in organizations subject to the legislative obligation of energy audits in the country. To this end, in collaboration with the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), a project was initiated with the aim of developing the tools and methodologies necessary to assess in more detail the evolution that has occurred in the four years since 2015. In this paper, the findings of the analysis conducted on a significant sample of companies in Italy are presented. Through the design of a maturity model to assess the degree of progress achieved in a company's energy management, the results of the two situations were analyzed. The analysis was deepened by assessing the progress achieved in different aspects of Energy Management: "Strategic Approach", "Awareness, Competence, and Knowledge", "Methodological Approach", "Organizational Structure", "Energy Performance Management and Information System", and "Best Practices". Furthermore, the observed variations were statistically tested using a pairwise t-test to make statistical inferences about the maturity of the total population of Italian enterprises under legislative obligation. The results have shown an increase in overall energy management maturity in each maturity dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groundwater resource assessment and forecasting in mountain areas requires the monitoring of two conditions, local meteorological conditions, and springs' groundwater parameters. The reliability of the monitoring data and conditions are linked to the technical instrumentation, multiparametric probes, and sensors. This paper presents a set of attractive tools and sensors for springs' groundwater resource monitoring and assessment in mountain basins. Data from the combination of weather station sensors with spring flow-rate instruments, installed in the alpine Mascognaz basin, can guarantee an entire understanding of how one set of parameters can affect other results, defining consequential cause-and-effect relationships. Since a large part of the Alpine groundwater bodies are exploited for drinking purposes, understanding the evolution of their rechange processes requires making the right economic and instrumental investments aimed at using them according to forecast predictions and sustainable development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of a UNESCO Global Geopark (UGGp) itself implies that the integration of geological, biological and anthropogenic factors and related values, both tangible and intangible, are at the base of any interpretation, communication, educative practices and enhancement aiming at strengthening the sense of place in local communities, as well as guiding those areas toward sustainable economic growth. However, the measures and good practices codified for UGGps limit their impact on the properties' boundaries, sometimes neglecting the strong natural, social and cultural link between the listed areas, their surroundings and other serial geosites. The paper introduces a five-step study on selected examples of Geoparks and geosites in Italy, Japan and Tunisia, sometimes also including areas inscribed in the UNESCO list as cultural sites, focusing on the possible role of UGGps as drivers for sustainable development of geotourism. The research considers the contextualization of UNESCO UGGps within a broader territorial scale, introducing the concept of Diffused Geopark as a new opportunity in protection and management practices and as a driver for local economies and internationalization of lesser-known contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wilderness is an important concept in the discourses and policies concerning contemporary European protected areas, inherently challenging in terms of sustainability. Since its designation in 1992, the Val Grande National Park, located in northwest Italy, has been portrayed and promoted as a wilderness area, thereby enhancing tourism, whilst disregarding the historical signs of human activity. In this paper we explore the wilderness concept, focusing on the narratives developed in the area, that changed from a strict conservationist approach to a more utilitarian one, influencing the National Park's policy-making. The research is based mainly on the content analysis of several literary texts. We conclude that wildernessneeds to be reconceptualized so that contemporary European protection policies might become more effective, and we may use our knowledge of nature to promote sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular actions cannot be considered sustainable if their financial benefits are not demonstrated. While the environmental benefits of the circular economy have been widely studied, sustainable development from a financial point of view has been much less studied. In this paper we assess the financial benefits of circular innovations applied in the fashion industry that have been previously assessed as sustainable using the Life Cycle Assessment. The focus is on two innovative processes such as salt recovery and tannin baths reuse that reuse water, chemicals and raw materials in an Italian small company operating in the tanning industry. A cost benefit analysis was carried to evaluate the net contribution of these actions to the operating margin. Then we model a forward-looking cash flow projection in order to determine the fundamental value of circular investments. Through these practices, the company achieved an increase in operating profitability above 30% and the 10-year value of the salt recovery is 159,061.40 euros, while the reused tanning water equals just over one million euros. The results show unexpected and strong financial benefits that can leverage similar initiatives that would advance resource equity and finally promote a real and convenient industrial dedication to environmental guardianship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This VSI focuses on what cross-cutting insights might be gained from research to increase the energy/materials circularity and the contribution of eco-innovation, cleaner consumption, and waste management to produce a logical body of knowledge that may lead to increased resilience and a sustainable Planet. The articles' collection shows development trends of sustainable, cleaner production under the Special Issue: A Resilient and Sustainable World. Some selected d papers have been presented and emerged from the 10th and 11th International Workshop on Advances in Cleaner Production (IWACP), held in hybrid mode in Italy (Ferrata and Florence). The contribution of the articles in this Special Issue could be divided into efforts toward sustainable and cleaner production, aiming (i) Eco-innovation for cleaner production and circular economy, (ii) Proper monitoring and identification of cleaner production, circular economy, and eco-innovation, (iii) cleaner production, circular economy and eco-innovation targeting social wellbeing and cleaner environment, (iv) cleaner production, circular economy and eco-innovation targeting emission reduction, and (v) cleaner production, circular economy and eco-innovation targeting improved and optimized production processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local and Regional Authorities require indicators at the intra-urban scale to design adequate policies to foster the achievement of the objectives of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11. Updated high-resolution population density and settlement maps are the basic input products for such indicators and their sub-indicators. When provided at the intra-urban scale, these essential variables can facilitate the extraction of population flows, including both local and regular migrant components. This paper discusses a modification of the dasymetric method implemented in our previous work, aimed at improving the population density estimation. The novelties of our paper include the introduction of building height information and site-specific weight values for population density correction. Based on the proposed improvements, selected indicators/sub-indicators of four SDG 11 targets were updated or newly implemented. The output density map error values are provided in terms of the mean absolute error, root mean square error and mean absolute percentage indicators. The values obtained (i.e., 2.3 and 4.1 people, and 8.6%, respectively) were lower than those of the previous dasymetric method. The findings suggest that the new methodology can provide updated information about population fluxes and processes occurring over the period 2011–2020 in the study site—Bari city in southern Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islands are widely recognised as ideal pilot sites that can spearhead the transition to clean energy and development towards a sustainable and healthy society. One of the assumptions underpinning this notion is that island communities are more ready to engage with smart grids (SGs) than people on the mainland. This is believed to be due to the high costs of energy on islands and the idea that the sense of community and collective action is stronger on islands than on the mainland. This paper presents findings from a survey conducted to assess people's perception of, and readiness to engage with, SG and demand response (DR) in the communities of three islands taking part in a H2020 project called REACT. The main objective of the survey, conducted in 2020, was to inform the recruitment of participants in the project, which is piloting different technologies required for SGs and DR with communities on the three islands. The results show that many island residents are motivated to take part in SG, to engage with energy saving, and are willing to change some energy-related behaviours in their homes. However, the results also indicate that levels of ownership of, and knowledge and familiarity with, the SG and DR related technologies are extremely low, suggesting that the expected uptake of DR in islands might not be as high as anticipated. This brings into question the readiness of island dwellers for the SG, their role in the deployment of such schemes more widely and the validity of the assumptions often made about island communities. This has significant implications for the design of SGs and DR solutions for islands, including devoting sufficient efforts to build knowledge and awareness of the SG, investing in demonstration projects for that purpose and tailoring interventions based on island communities' motivations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]