Photo by Chris Barbalis on Unsplash

Author: PhD Giulia Netti

Over the years the concept of sustainability has become more and more conscious in the hearts of Italians, so much so that, nowadays, communities change lifestyles and are increasingly concerned about environmental conditions, issues such as pollution and of social problems. This path to sustainability is clearly visible.

As shown by the data that emerged from the 2019 Lifegate Observatory, over 67% of Italian citizens - about 34 million - daily confronts themselves with the issue and with issues related to sustainability, the Observatory's data show that from year to year year a growing attention to sustainability issues is developing, accompanied by an increasingly mature and conscious awareness of the meanings of the term sustainability. In fact, observing the small summary table of some of the factors analyzed by Lifegate, and comparing the historical data found, the confirmation of the positive tendency in favor of greater attention and social responsibility in terms of sustainability emerges.

Source: personal elaboration on data of 4^thand 5^thNational Observatory on Sustainable Lifestyle, Lifegate.

These are just some of the data that emerged from the surveys of the National Observatory on sustainable lifestyles, which return satisfaction for the work carried out by all the subjects who are daily involved in actions to raise awareness and promote social, economic and environmental sustainability, while in the knowledge that there is still a long way to go.

The merit of having achieved these goals is due to the initiative of activists and associations, who were able to put ideas and insights into a system, giving life to wonderful projects thanks to which we were able to promote sustainability; think of all the projects that are implemented by Legambiente to improve the quality of Italian beaches and seas.

Even smaller associations not belonging to the environment league, in different Italian cities, have been busy for the whole of last spring to restore and reclaim the beaches - as for example happened on the sea coast of the city of Brindisi, in Puglia, where groups of boys they met on the beaches and, "armed" with good will and biodegradable bags, in order to clean up the beaches of the coast. After the first meeting, the event called "Let's clean the sea Brindisi", has acquired an increasing number of volunteers, so much so that it has become a recurring appointment that is always enriched with new ideas and new participants.
Social media awareness work is also producing significant results. In fact, how can we forget how much the heart of many Italians has throbbed and how much emotion on Facebook, the story of an "extraordinary" solidarity of some Italian women, in favor of a Senegalese seller and her little daughter, caused in severe difficulty and suffering under the infernal sun that hits the beaches of Sicily, burdened by the superhuman load of material to sell, with his creature in his lap, hot and hungry, also exhausted from the heat wave.

This small but significant episode that took place in August 2019 on Sicilian beaches - for some time protagonists of other wonderful examples of social solidarity - speaks the language of a sensitivity towards integration issues, which can no longer be postponed, with respect to which there is an ever-increasing initiative from below, directly from the people, where government initiatives sometimes betray some delays.
Data, facts and stories show us how sustainability has now become part of the heart and mentality of Italians. However, we must consider this as a good starting point, but we still need and can do a lot!