Dear Reader,
A few months to my second degree in Environmental Sciences, and with a thesis developed on environmental sustainability for flexible packaging, I'm running into a paradox: everyone is talking about environmental sustainability and what is, or isn't, ecological… But really everyone knows the meaning of sustainable? Or about ecology?
Based on my experience, I feel like answering that these concepts are still little considered and explored, both by ordinary people and by a large number of companies. These topics are often considered difficult to administer or of secondary importance.
Others consider them boring and as soon as they hear the term "environmental certification" or "Life Cycle Assessment" they look at me frightened and ask me for an explanation: partly because they don't know exactly what it is about, partly because they try to "pass the hot potato” to the first intern.
Obviously, to be approved on a scientific level and have a value on an industrial and market level, the certifications must be verified and validated through the use of algorithms and mathematical tools. To carry out these elaborations, data of various kinds are necessary, from my point of view difficult to find. It seems that the important thing for a company is to sell a product, even without the slightest awareness or interest in its environmental fate.
It is a pity that the possession of correct environmental and product sustainability certifications could also be of great advantage for sales activities. Not to mention that, sooner or later, these certifications will be made mandatory for the sale of any product ... So why continue to be skeptical or postpone the fulfillment of these rules, when there are experts ready to provide advice and assistance?
At the university level, there is in-depth knowledge of environmental and research matters, but it seems that the outside world does not want to know about it. Everyone has the word "environment" on their lips, but most are not really involved in it or do not have the knowledge to discuss it in a conscious way.
Very often I find myself fighting with people who are convinced that my course of study is the same as Biology or Chemistry, or that "when I grow up" I want to work for Greenpeace or with Greta.
I answer with a circumstantial smile, explaining that the degree course in Environmental Sciences should be better known and sponsored, on a par with degrees in Medicine and Surgery. This is because, before man, comes the environment in which he lives: man must not prevail over the environment, but must learn to know and respect it.
In its own way, the environment is crying out for help and it is only up to us to hear its cry of alarm. At least let's try to listen to the voices of the "doctors of the environment", who after years of study and specializations risk being ridiculed by contemptuous heads of state, by possessed teenagers or by rules and taxes of questionable value and meaning.
Obviously, when all preconceptions disappear and man truly develops an environmental awareness, it will be possible to intelligently discuss ecology and environmental sustainability, recycled and recyclable products. Concepts that still today seem to me to remain abstract and often even confused.
I hope to be able to witness a new "industrial revolution" soon, which places the environment at the center of all industrial or corporate activities, but above all contributes to raising awareness of the conscience of individuals. Of all of us.
Letter published by Ms. Giulia Montaguti in the magazine «ItaliaImballaggio - January-February 2020»
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