Sappada is the first sustainable municipality in Italy

The "Sustainable management of communities" certification was delivered to the city in the province of Udine.

The conference for the official delivery of the "Sustainable management of communities" certification to the Municipality of Sappada took place this morning in the Sala Donghi of the University of Padua, the first in Italy to achieve this important milestone. Present at the event were Mayor Manuel Piller Hoffer, former Minister of the Environment, Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, Professor Antonio Scipioni, head of the pilot project and Dr. Maria Chiara Ferrarese, Deputy Director and R&D Executive Manager of CSQA Certificazioni. The President of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, Massimo Fedriga, sent his greetings, congratulating himself on the achievement of this goal.

The ISO 37101 "Sustainable management of communities " certification is a standard created to help communities implement a sustainable development strategy including the economic, social and environmental context. It defines the actions that a Community must put in place to achieve development objectives more in keeping with the social, environmental and economic needs of the territory.

The Standard - which is structured on strategic and operational pillars - will lead the Municipality of Sappada to manage attractiveness, conservation and improvement of the environment, resilience, responsible use of resources, social cohesion and well-being.

“The implementation of sustainability - said Prof. Antonio Scipioni, of the Industrial Engineering Department - is becoming an ethical commitment of all administrations to ensure the well-being of local communities rather than a choice. The pilot project for the application of the ISO 37101 Standard has allowed us to organize the management of the Community according to internationally shared rules which have helped to identify concrete actions defined by parameters for improvement".

Together with the important research work of the University of Padua and the commitment of municipal employees and representatives of some local associations, a significant contribution throughout the design process was provided by CSQA, the independent third party body that issued the certification.

"The collaboration with the University of Padua and with the Municipality of Sappada - declared Maria Chiara Ferrarese of CSQA Certificazioni - has allowed us to develop a new certification service, particularly innovative and of great interest for the public administration and for the benefit of the community. This certification - a new step in CSQA's consolidated commitment in the field of sustainable development - represents an important milestone and enriches the proposals to guarantee citizens on issues of sustainability and social responsibility. We are proud to have opened a new path with this project and these partners".

The strategic choices made by the Administration during this process, led by Mayor Manuel Piller Hoffer , are driven by the awareness that sustainable development is the key to interpreting the challenges of the future. In practice, the certification will allow, for example, to plan public works with precise criteria and verifiable indicators from an environmental and economic point of view, in order to prevent them from becoming a burden over time and not a resource for the territory.

For Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio , President of the UniVerde Foundation, which for 10 years has been promoting the dissemination of ecological culture and, through the Green Pride campaign, the dissemination of environmental best practices : "Sappada will certainly receive Green Pride as a virtuous and far-sighted example of public administration. Environmental protection and sustainable development are the real challenges of the future and a sine qua non for the good of the communities”.

In this context, the Giro d'Italia, which will see Sappada as its fifteenth stage on 20 May, will be able for the first time to make use of a territory organized in a more competitive way and more attentive to environmental and sustainable development issues.