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The Italian Ministry of Ecological Transition has spent many years, at national and international level, in projects aiming at promoting the transition to a low environmental impact economy in order to ensure a rational management and sustainable use of natural resources. Nowadays sustainability is a deep-rooted idea in the economic system and as far as territories management is concerned and it is an added value to firms, consumers, administrations and citizens.
Since 2011 the Italian Ministry of Ecological Transition promotes the National Program for the Environmental Footprint which targets the diffusion of sustainable production and consumption models, involving more than 200 entities such as firms, municipalities and universities.
In 2011, within the Program and through a bottom-up approach, the Ministry for the Environment launched VIVA, a sectoral experimental project: its principal purpose is the measure and the improvement of sustainability performances in the Italian vinicultural sector. VIVA is the result of a successful synergy between ministry, wine-growing firms, research institutes, universities and certification bodies, and it has become one of the most concrete sustainable development program aiming at the safeguard of environment and natural resources, protecting at the same time the quality and production of Italian wines and increasing their value on the international market.
The Ministry for the Environment takes an active part in the EU Program for the Environmental Footprint (PEF–Product Environmental Footprint and OEF-Organization Environmental Footprint), playing both an institutional and technical role, bringing national experiences to European round tables in order to update its programs according to the EU achievements. It is exemplified by the regulations “Made Green in Italy”, a national voluntary agreement to assess and communicate the products environmental footprint (as established by art. 21 Law n. 221/2015 on green economy and resources efficiency).
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OPERA is an independent research centre of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, already called the European observatory for Sustainable Agriculture and food-chain. It has the specific objective to contribute and improve (tanks to the know-how exchange and collaboration between stakeholders) solutions that reduce or mitigate risks and increase the quality of the production and safety of food, leading ultimately to sustainable agriculture and best practise. The aim of the research centre is to meet economic and environmental goals of a specific territory with social one.
OPERA is based in Piacenza for the national and international researching activities and training, while in Brussels it acts as think tank.
OPERA is an operational interface which transfers scientific knowhow (acquired thanks to the participation to many national and international projects on sustainability, i.e. EFSA, PSR, Horizon 2020), and it supports companies, governments and public administrations on subjects related to sustainability. Since 2011, OPERA is involved into the development of the institutional VIVA Sustainability and Culture project, regional project SOStain (Sicilia), project on best practices TERGEO, regional project PROINOS (Veneto) and Friuli Venezia Giulia regional project on sustainable wine.
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