USI at the "Greenday 2024" sustainability festival

The sustainability festival will take place on 7 September in Bellinzona, at Piazza del Sole and Piazza Simen. Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) take part, thanks to the involvement of Quality Assurance and Sustainability Service and the Institute for Economic Research (IRE).

Greenday is an event organised by the association of the same name in collaboration with Società ticinese di scienze naturali (Ticino Natural Science Society). The event features interactive activities, stands, and stations offered by around eighty organisations and associations. It aims to explore sustainability and nature conservation in a festive, engaging, and fun manner. Through music, entertainment, activities, and experiences, attendees will gain insight into and examples of a more sustainable lifestyle.

Università della Svizzera italiana could not miss out on this annual event and will host its own stand. Greenday is, in fact, a significant event for bringing the population closer and encouraging the sustainable behaviour that has been promoted and pursued for several years at USI through the research and teaching activities of the academic staff and students, but also at an operational, logistical and organisational level through the "SostA... verso un Ateneo sostenibile" project, active since 2009 on the university campuses. The project aims to increase awareness and responsibility for sustainability within the USI community, encompassing environmental, economic, and social aspects. One of the primary roles of universities is to convey this important message to the public. It's essential for USI to actively contribute to promoting behaviours and lifestyles that prioritise environmental consciousness. This involves explaining clearly and simply why individuals, families, and groups must engage in environmentally responsible actions.

Representing USI and its SostA project in particular, will be Miriam Allisiardi, a member of the Quality Assurance and Sustainability Service, who deals with sustainability management on a daily basis. For the Institute for Economic Research (IRE), which has been following energy and environmental issues since 2017 through the Public Finance and Energy Observatory (O-FPE), Alessandra Motz, a researcher who has been working on the social acceptance of the energy transition for years, will be present.

Alessandra's research focuses on using special statistical models to measure which characteristics of available policies or technologies for the transition are most appreciated by citizens. She also aims to understand how certain behaviours or psychological attitudes of individuals can influence their choices regarding energy. We therefore asked her to explain the specific activities that USI will propose for Greenday: "The activity we will be presenting is the 'energy quadrilemma'. It's a game that focuses on energy transition challenges and the trade-offs in balancing different priorities. As we work to reduce emissions and shift away from fossil fuels, we face the task of choosing the most suitable energy sources. But how does one decide which sources to use? Or, in other words, which sources are best suited to reconcile safety, environmental sustainability, cost and, ultimately, acceptance of new plants by local communities? Visitors to Greenday will engage in the "energy quadrilemma", where they can test and evaluate various energy sources based on four specific criteria. They will also have the opportunity to explore alternative options and necessary trade-offs. Researchers will be available to help visitors compare their own beliefs with the most current scientific evidence." The goal is for this activity to impact those who participate significantly. "Energy transition is a complex and rapidly evolving process, conditioned by the opportunities and limits of technology, the availability of economic resources, but also the reactions of people and communities," - Motz continues - "In my role at the Institute for Economic Research, I frequently contemplate the challenge of reconciling these various dimensions, especially in relation to the impacts of national or supra-national policies on local communities and individuals. I really like the idea of offering visitors an opportunity to engage actively with the facets of energy transition. The transition is indeed a technological and industrial process. Still, it is also a human phenomenon in which the involvement and approval of people and social organisations play a key role. I like to think that, together with the visitors, we will try to answer the question posed thirty years ago by Alexander Langer: "how can an ecologically sustainable civilisation be desirable?".

The Green Day 2024 programme, complete with detailed proposed activities, is available for download in the attached document.