Project "Ecosportello"

Project

297375

Status

Submitted

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NEW EUROPEAN BAUHAUS AWARDS: existing completed examples

Project title

Project "Ecosportello"

Full project title

Description

Our project has been created to reactivate the path towards spaces and parts for the economy of solidarity, involving people, economic entities, institutions and organizations sensible to the themes of critical consumption and eco-friendly lifestyles. 

What was the geographical scope of your project?

Does your project address mainly urban or rural issues?

Does your project refer to a physical transformation of the built environment or other types of transformations?

Has your project benefited from EU programmes or funds?

Has your project won an EU prize?

Your project is fully completed?

When was your project implemented?

How did you hear about the New European Bauhaus Prizes ?

On whose behalf are you submitting the application?

Please provide a summary of your project

In the last years, the interest for sustainability and our lifestyle from the citizens, especially the younger ones, only grew more and more. However, a thirst for knowledge and information on themes of critical consumption and sustainable lifestyles are still present, and regarding the recent events regarding, for instance, the climate emergency and the still-present sanitary situation.
These are themes that are not only close between them but also we, as an organization, tried to tackle and explain with this project that will try to combat waste and to promote recycling, reusing goods and materials, with the promotion of critical consumption and responsibility in a day-to-day manner. 

We have implemented these ideas with two different actions: offer quality information that would generate interest and interactions within the users: consumers, producers and volunteers and create opportunities for sharing content that will generate connections between the realities of circular economy, consumers and the education system. 

Please indicate the main themes of your project with 5 key words

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of sustainability (including circularity) and how these have been met.
Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context

Our project has implemented 6 events, specifically fairs, on the territory of the municipality of Trento, that has given subjects the possibility to look out to circular economies examples and made people come in contact with new realities, that we as creators of this project support; themes such as combating waste, giving incentives to recycle, reuse of materials and goods, promoting sustainable and circular economy. 

We wanted to expand the horizon where these little projects and economies are born, taking the general public and showing them new possibilities with non-conventional and modern methodologies, a winning asset that set up apart from other projects. 
The activities comprised, for instance, cooking workshops using food wastes to promote ideas about auto-production, seminars on lifestyles on critical consumption and sustainable lifestyles, minimarkets to share and sell local products, a photographic exhibition and contests on the themes of the fair and exchange markets. 

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience beyond functionality and how these have been met.
Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context

In terms of aesthetics and quality of experience, our project has created a section solely dedicated to the media coverage of the activities, going from interesting news, focus articles to videos, photographic reportages and infographics. These have been provided with: 

• creation of partnerships with local media partners through memoranda of understanding
• site update with the weekly publication of 5 media elements
• production of graphics (cards) for social media
• creation of a monthly newsletter to share the most important media contents of the site and to promote events connected with the themes of the project
• management and maintenance of the platform falacosagiustatrento.org
• insertion of new local realities linked to the project on the geo-referenced map on the site
• plan for the expansion of the site foreseeing the section ECO-shop, dedicated to the sale of products coming from the circular economy 

This has been made a reality with these results: 200 pieces of media content, comprising our own and those made in collaboration with the partners (articles, video interviews, photo reportages, infographics, podcasts) published on our site and shared on our social media (Facebook and Instagram); 40 graphic cards produced and published on our social media handles; 10 numbers of newsletters shared with a mailing list of 500 users; 200 vendors present on the geo-referenced map of the site.

Please give information about the key objectives of your project in terms of inclusion (equal opportunities, public participation, citizen engagement, co-design, universal design, accessibility, affordability, etc.) and how these have been met.
Please highlight how the project can be exemplary in this context

The key objectives of our project in terms of inclusion have been generated by: 

• the Fairs that have taken place all over the municipality of Trento (ManifestAzione Fa' La Cosa Giusta! Trento)
• free participation, both public and private

These have been met by creating activities that would include the active participation of the general public, together with the local producers. The Fairs are the main instruments for our project to share our ideas and the themes we are passionate about, with the never-ending support of local producers that, while being known by the general public, have the opportunity to integrate themselves into a new circular economy. 

This is why the requirements asked to participate in the Fair were made free in terms of costs, both for the general public that would participate as an active individual and for producers that would act in the interests of their commercial activity. 

In peculiar cases, we have had not only the public participation but the one provided also by associations: in the municipality of Ravina, the local administrative committee actively participated and in the case of the municipality of Rovereto, both the local committee "Borgo Sacco" and the "Festival Moltiplicazioni" (a young-participants festival for environmental sustainability) wanted to be included in our projects.

This was possible thanks to the interconnected and active community we, together with our partners, have created and reinforced over time, with the many opportunities that were established to make these themes more present and important in the lives of all citizens. We have to think about it as linked channels, all in communication with each other and through which the activities predisposed by our project were made possible.

Please explain how these three dimensions have been combined in your project.
Please highlight how this approach can be exemplary

After a profound analysis of the context of the Municipality of Trento, the 4 partner organizations have felt the need to multiple opportunities to meet, share experiences, necessities, dreams and values between the different actors that operate on the themes of combating waste, giving incentives to recycle, reuse of materials and goods, promoting sustainable and circular economy.

The idea was that of amplifying the scope of the Fair (Fiera Fa’ la Cosa Giusta! Trento) that is present on the territory of Trentino dating back 15 years ago and is promoted by Trentino Arcobaleno.

The "Ecosportello Fa' La Cosa Giusta!" foresaw to create a new point for sharing information, with different modalities from the past and that would include the use of new technologies on the internet, as well as the possibility of meetings within the territory. Therefore, this created a "phyrtual" platform, a reality both physical and virtual. The choice to use new digital technologies didn't exclude the possibility to share this information on the territory, by way of workshops, debates and other occasions for meetings with other interested people. 

Please give information on the results/impacts achieved by your project in relation to the category you apply for

In relation to the area we applied for, shaping a circular industrial ecosystem and supporting life-cycle thinking, we have reached the objectives with the implementation of a specific action plan: 

1. offer quality information that would generate interest and interactions within the users: consumers, prime circular economy actors and volunteers.  
2. create opportunities for sharing content, both in presence and online, that will generate connections between the realities of circular economy, consumers and the school world. 

The results have been extraordinary: more than 250 media content pieces were produced, more than 4.000 subjects were involved, considering both partnerships made and citizens taking part in activities, 6 schools participating in this project. These outputs have offered us the opportunity: to diminish the gap between circular economies realities and common citizens closer, giving them the opportunity to know local shops and their workers, face to face; to create an educational path in schools, to give the younger generation new inputs on the current themes of global citizenship and socio-economic sustainability. 

Please explain how citizens and civil society were involved in the in the design and/or implementation of the project.
Please also explain the benefits that derived from their involvement.

Generally, the activities of the project are thought out for and open to all citizens (consultation of the site falacosagiustatrento.org, events of the Fair, called ManiFestAzione Fa’ la cosa giusta!, walking wellness sessions).

The project aims to reach and involve people still distant from environmental themes, but the main recipients will be people that are reaching already for information and activities on these themes, meaning people that have participated in movements similar to #FridaysForFuture or events and socio-economic workshops in schools, universities and cultural centers, people who see the environment with care and attention, interested in addressing themes like the climate, sanitary emergency, critical of the traditional economic model. 

The following categories, so, have been identified as possible recipients for this project:

• Natural recipient: people (teens, students, adults and senior citizens) who already adopt practices of critical consumption or are trying to accomplish such actions are the most sensitive to these themes and may want to expand their knowledge, share information and personal experiences. 
• Generic recipient: people (teens, students, adults and senior citizens) who don't know yet these big generating themes: critical consumption and sustainable lifestyles. 
• Associations: associative realities, both at the institutional and the private level, that are interested in these themes and with which we, as partners, can create channels of information to share and multiply opportunities for interactions in the events of the Fair ManiFestAzioni Fa’ la cosa giusta!

Please explain what kind of global challenges the project addressed by providing local solutions

With this list of local projects:

• creation of partnerships with local media partners through memoranda of understanding
• site update with the weekly publication of 5 media elements
• production of graphics (cards) for social media
• creation of a monthly newsletter to share the most important media contents of the site and to promote events connected with the themes of the project
• management and maintenance of the platform falacosagiustatrento.org
• insertion of new local realities linked to the project on the geo-referenced map on the site
• plan for the expansion of the site foreseeing the section ECO-shop, dedicated to the sale of products coming from the circular economy

We have tackled the global challenges of combating food and material waste, expanding the knowledge on these themes of the general public, because as illustrated by the 53° Report Censis on the social situation of the State "only the 8% of Italian population worry about climate and environmental issues". 

Please highlight the innovative character of the project as compared to mainstream practices in the field of the project.

The innovative characters of the project are, firstly, that 4 organizations that are renewedly interested in the theme of critical consumption and eco-friendly lifestyles have come together to create a collaborative project and they have provided for their passion, professionalism, knowledge and experience in the sector. 

Secondly, the social innovation resides in the use of a new and innovative methodology, the "Educommunication", based on the teachings of Paulo Freire. This methodology considers the interrelation between communication and education as an active social field where to intervene. This is based on two assumptions:

• education is possible only as a "communicative act", because communication is the phenomenon present in all formative experiences for all humans;
• all forms of communication, namely the symbolic productions and interchange/transmission of meanings are intrinsically "educational activities".

For Educommunication, so, we mean as a whole the actions inherent to planning, creating and evaluating the processes, programs and products destined to create and reinforce communication channels, that have to be open, democratic and participative, addressed to make up for space for expression in society through a democratic management of the communication resources.  

For the activities on the territory, we strived towards reinforcing existing subjects and channels, that are specifically interested in the themes treated by the project, by nature different, but with the same final objective of deepening the knowledge on these themes. 

Please explain to the potential of transferring the projects’ results or learnings to other interested parties and contexts.
Please provide clear documentation, communication of methodology and principles in this context.

The potential of transferring the projects' results and learnings to other interested parties could create a channel of communication between associations, private citizens and volunteers. 

This would not only give the opportunity to collaborate between different cities and municipalities but also add a variety of objectives and activities that would reach the public, making themes like combating waste, critical consumption and eco-friendly lifestyles more known and near people. 

As for our project, this could be directed in social media and advertisement campaigns around the cities that would participate, creating communicative channels for those interested and providing events and services to those farmers and producers that would like to be known in a more sustainable and circular economy. This would extend both the scope of our project and also give the possibility to other associations to collaborate and create programs, fairs, workshops that are intended to give a real output to all ideas, projects and shops that operate in a local and sustainable mindset.

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