Ten innovative dissertations for green growth

The circle is virtuous: rewarding deserving young people, harnessing valuable energies for companies in search of the skills needed to tackle the green transition, practising innovation. For the benefit of 'a future on a human scale'. This is the intent of the '10 theses for sustainability' initiative, promoted by the Symbola Foundation, the Luiss Guido Carli University and Unioncamere, with the support of Deloitte Climate & Sustainability, the patronage of the Ministry for Universities and the Chancellors' Conference and the collaboration of AlmaLaurea, the Network of Universities for Sustainable Development (Rus) and the National Inter-University Consortium for Materials Science and Technology.

Unity is strength: 2,062 students from 86 universities responded to the call. "An astonishing response," commented Luiss School of Law President Paola Severino, who, together with Bologna economist Stefano Zamagni, chaired the scientific committee that selected the ten best dissertations out of the one hundred (all of which can be consulted on the Symbola website) selected by a technical committee made up of the 21 participating universities. Opening yesterday's award ceremony for the winning theses, which ranged from economics to engineering, from chemistry to medicine to art, Severino recalled that "61.3% of all the research came from female students. The selection was difficult. The winning papers stand out for their rigour, innovativeness and potential environmental and social impact. Sustainability in its various dimensions is now a fixed point, against which governments and policy makers must guide technological evolution itself'.

If for the editor-in-chief of the Sole 24 Ore newspaper, Fabio Tamburini, who led the morning's dances, "sustainability has overcome the great risk of becoming a fashionable topic by asserting itself as a determining factor for companies and citizens", the president of Symbola, Ermete Realacci, recalled how the same conviction underlying the Assisi Manifesto inspired the initiative: "An economy more on a human scale is stronger. Being 'good' pays off. Companies do better, export more, produce more jobs'. This is why, according to Realacci, '10 theses for sustainability' is 'an opportunity to call together the Italy that makes Italy'. And also to summon the Europe that makes Europe. That EU which, as the outgoing Commissioner for Economic Affairs, Paolo Gentiloni, observed, 'has always been committed to promoting sustainable, inclusive growth models capable of safeguarding the environment in a balance between technological innovation, protection of natural resources and social justice' and which must not abandon the Green Deal.

Zamagni's message was poetic: 'The Nobel Prize winner Tagore wrote: "When the sun sets, do not weep, because tears would prevent you from admiring the sparkle of the stars. We live in difficult times, but we must not cry, because it would prevent us from seeing these young people, who are so many stars'. 'Clear, precious and beautiful,' recalled Father Enzo Fortunato, as in the Canticle of the Creatures by St Francis of Assisi quoted by Pope Bergoglio in his 'breakthrough' encyclical Laudato si'. Precious stars also for companies grappling with the difficulty of finding personnel to support them in the double green and digital transition. "Italy is hungry for ideas, for innovation, for skills," highlighted Unioncamere president Andrea Prete.

The real challenge? "Putting sustainability into practice and ensuring a fair transition," said Stefano Pareglio, president of Deloitte Climate & Sustainability, who warned: "It is not possible to transfer solutions to companies that are inferior to what science tells us. This is why universities are 'agents of change', as Patrizia Lombardi of the Turin Polytechnic, president of Rus, defined them. In the face of 'a suffering world', Minister Anna Maria Bernini said in a video message, 'there is one thing we have understood today: that the health of the planet concerns everyone. Research, the commitment of 2,000 graduates are the energy of change'. In the words of Realacci, paraphrasing Chesterton and his 'life is the greatest of adventures, but only the adventurer discovers it', the young scholars and in particular the ten winners who will receive the prize money - Alessia Del Conte, Giovanna Raia, Eugenio Parigi, Andres Calero, Andrea Fumagalli, Cristiano Lo Pò, Valeria Zanghi Buffi, Camilla Vitturini, Elisa Minchio and Matilde Emma Bettella - are the adventurers we need. Also to avoid imprisoning sustainability in a tired narrative. And bring it to life.