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On a global scale, because of the population growth, agriculture has to take on the challenge of how to increase food production without compromising the ecosystems and the natural resources of the same agro system. A sustainable agriculture can take on this challenge, taking into consideration the consequences that the current strategy can have on the agro system ability to face efficiently the same challenge in the future. Only preserving the ecological assets, the availability of goods and ecosystem services, indispensable for the agricultural production, the agro system will be able to reconcile productivity and protection of natural ecosystems. The sustainability of the agricultural industry, in its broader sense, represents the ideal balance not just between economic and environmental requests, but also social ones, the latter regarding the life quality of operators. For this reason, meaning sustainability as the situation in which the achievement of goals concerning both the economic and the social dimensions occurs in the respect of the environment, some indicators, pertinent to these three dimensions and related to the Italian regional agricultural systems, have been selected in order to calculate, applying the Data Envelopment Analysis method, an efficiency index for each regional agricultural system. Although a sustainable situation is also efficient, the efficiency, defined in relation to the indicators of the economic, social and environmental dimensions, has not been sufficient to find any regional system that can be defined fully based on sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, the concept of sustainable tourism development has become the focus of increasing attention amongst tourism theorists and practitioners alike. However, several studies in the literature have shown that sustainability values still fail to appreciably influence tourist behaviour especially with reference to the younger generation. Based on this consideration this paper aims to analyze the knowledge and attitude of the younger generation towards forms of sustainable tourism in order to obtain useful information both for operators and for public institutions in the implementation of educational and information programs that aim to promote sustainable tourism. For this purpose the paper presents the results of a survey conducted among a sample of 200 young persons, 18-35 years old, residing in southern Italy. Results presented in this paper emphasize the perception of the young generation for sustainable tourism and highlight the need for the tourism industry and public institutions to invest in specific activities of information and communication in order to attract them more strongly in this market segment providing several practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainability of development is a theme of global reach that raises many questions about the actions and strategies that should be implemented to its pursuit. Many are the challenges that society is facing, among them the energy issue is of primary importance. The energy challenge is difficult to face and overcome, that, starting from the environmental dimension, also ends up compromising the sustainable development in its social and economic dimension and especially the territorial and generational ones. Achieving the objective of energy sustainability stands as a real bridge through which to transfer wellbeing to present and future young generations. The debate on energy sustainability is directed more and more towards the recognition of best practices central role for stakeholders, identifying strategies for the promotion of sustainability excellence. The latter, such as exemplary models of responsible behaviour in the business, institutional, civil society, and research field, are the veritable levers for sustainability. Identifying an innovative new strategy capable of overcoming the energy challenge it was one of the major objectives of the present work that proposes a new approach that relies on innovation, aiming at the construction of clusters, as a real tool not only for competitiveness but also for sustainability. There are presented two case studies as examples of excellence in the energy field, both awarded with the EU Bronze Label, Lombardy Energy Innovative Cluster in Italy and Green Energy Biomass Innovative Cluster in Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important challenges facing humanity is the energy challenge to sustainability. The global energy framework is changing, with potentially far-reaching consequences for our society. In the context of the future scenarios rethinking the concepts of development, identify sustainable strategies of global equity and energy efficiency are the main objectives to be achieved. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to consider the Italian issue of ensuring energy efficiency in the agriculture sector through the analysis of the available data, trying to understand the main barriers to its implementation. For this purpose, the paper at first it faces the theme of the energy consumption in agriculture, after which it evaluates the energy production from biomass highlighting the energy potential of the agriculture sector, and then it proposes an evaluation of the main innovative supply chains, as tool for improving the energy supply problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The olive sector is an important part of agriculture in the European Union, particularly in southern countries, where it represents a significant share of the agricultural economy. Taking into account the international and national characteristics and trends of the sector , the aim of this study is to analyse the competitiveness and the environmental sostenibility of olive oil sector in Italy in order to understand the critical factors and possible competitive advantages. The environmental performance in the olive oil sector assumes a strategic importance, not only for environmental sustainability, but also as a distinctive element for the future competitiveness of Italian olive sector. This study focuses on the Campania region, chosen as an example in which this sector represents an important source of income for the local community. Even if this production has decreased considerably in recent years, it presents remarkable production excellence and this typology of cultivation, besides dominating the landscape of internal areas, offers an important contribution to soil conservation and the environmental preservation. The principal result from the analysis of this region is the presence of high professional specialization in the farmers that favours the extreme attention of firms towards environmental performance. In addition, more than half of the people interviewed said that they reached high level of innovation, even if could be increased allowing a better focus on quality. Lastly, is possible to observe a modest and often ineffective use of public support for environmental actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the well being sustainability elements respect to the social dimension concerns the issue of health. The nutrition is the main variable that affects the health of the individual. In the agrifood sector, new consumer trends have led to the development of products that support health: the functional products. The paper aims to identify the companies of "excellence" (Simone Cesaretti Foundation). The methodology used is that of focus groups and there are presented two cases: Barilla and Parmalat. The article presents the results of Maria Grasso Ph.D tesi and the project idea is part of IN.BE.SA. project of the University of Naples "Parthenope." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is now an indisputable challenge to the sustainability of human development. The effects of global warming, especially anthropogenic, affect all economic and productive sectors, stimulating a broad debate about the best and more suited tools and strategies to put in place to resist but also to overcome this challenge. European agriculture that is currently discussing on the trajectories post-2013, has a strong interest in the issue of climate change, not only because agricultural activities are directly dependent on climatic conditions, but because also agriculture contributes to the release of greenhouses gases in the atmosphere. Based on these considerations, the aim of this paper is to analyze the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the light of a new interpretive scheme of its future directions, in order to verify the actual effectiveness in the implementation of development strategies of the sector, able to ensure sustainability in its various dimensions: economic, social, environmental, territorial and generational. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper targets the area of commitment to the environment and the relation with the enterprises' competiveness in the context of a sustainable development. The paper attempts a theoretical explanation and an overview on the EU environmental standard and certification as competitive tools. A special focus is given to environmental management system implemented in order to improve companies' environmental performance and to Ecolabel as competitive communication tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italy is a country free of transgenic production, where traditional values are very important still: attitude toward genetically modified foods has become clearer in Italy after some publications, above all of the Eurobarometer series. This study starts just from these researches. Food safety has been the object of increasing attention in recent years as a major consumer concern and of particularly increasing interest is the purchasing behaviours towards genetically modified foods: as a matter of fact, it appears to be the cause of particular doubts and hesitations among Italian consumers. So, the main aim of the present study is consider the role of knowledge and information in the attitude of consumers towards genetically modified products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nutrition is the main variable that affects the health of the individual. In developed countries, diet-related diseases are increasing in all age groups of the population. In particular, young people have poor dietary habits because they eat too many foods high in fat or sugar. In the agrifood sector, new consumer trends have led to the development of products that support health as the functional products. Functional foods are found virtually in all food categories, however products are not homogeneously scattered over all segments of the growing market. The paper aims to understand the motivations of purchase and consumption for these products and deepen the knowledge of the relationship between diet and own health. The article presents the results of Maria Grasso Ph.D thesis and the project idea is part of IN.BE.SA. project of the University of Naples "Parthenope". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]