Why a round table on sustainability
For the European project MACHINES FOR GOOD, between January and May 2023, Sineglossa led a series of sustainability education workshops in several schools in Ancona and Bassano del Grappa.
In November, the project ran with an overview of the topics that emerged from the workshops, and the collection of the activities that associations in Ancona dealing with civic participation, environment, and education, are working on. This state-of-the-art was presented to the Environmental Councillor of the Municipality of Ancona during a roundtable facilitated by Sineglossa, and joined by 2Hands, Il Pungitopo, WWF Marche, and Impronta Animale, with representatives from the Marche Polytechnic University and the Ancona Port Authority.
The “Sustainability in policymaking” event is part of MACHINES FOR GOOD, a project conceived and coordinated by Sineglossa, in collaboration with Baltan Laboratories (Netherlands), Ohme (Belgium), FZC – Fundacion Zaragoza Ciudad de Conocimiento (Spain), co-funded by the European Union within the CERV program.
What emerged from the meeting
The meeting aimed to create a space for dialogue, and mutual shared knowledge between young representatives of environmental associations and administrative and political representatives of the Municipality of Ancona. Starting from the macro-themes regarding green education, the need for a shared meeting space, the care of the city and its greenery, they discussed proposals such as:
- setting up a database with a list of school contacts that associations could use to involve children in the educational activities proposed by the nonprofit sector;
- the collaboration between different associations in organizing events and managing spaces to strengthen governance networks;
- the creation of public-private partnerships as a new tool for financing projects.
What emerged from the roundtable was the common interest of the associations and the municipality to establish opportunities for getting in touch or initiatives for debates with the citizenry. In addition, the municipality proposed to use its social media channels to enhance the activities that environmental associations carry out in the area.
The proposals discussed will be the subject of a permanent round table between the municipality and environmental associations, also open to other political and technical stakeholders involved in the sustainability field.
