The pitch day of the initiative How much do you know about sustainability? (Quanto ne sai di sostenibilità?) took place on Friday 5 May 2023, organised by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment of the University of Pisa (UNIPI), Italy. In its second edition, the event gathered students, lecturers and representatives from several NGOs to explore possible solutions to local social, environmental and economic challenges.
The initiative was held in the framework of the Erasmus+ project NEMOS- A new educational approach for the acquisition of sustainability competences through service learning” co-financed by the European Commission and in which the University of Pisa is a consortium partner.
Director of the Nutrafood Research Centre at the University of Pisa, Prof. Lucia Guidi stressed the importance of the initiative as a training opportunity for students, who are encouraged to use the knowledge acquired during their academic path to address existing needs within their community.
Member of the UNIPI’s Commission for Sustainable Development (CoSA), Prof. Daniele Antichi highlighted how the event’s goals and philosophy were totally in line with the initiatives promoted by the CoSA’s working group, founded in 2019 with the aim to enhance the role of the University in the sustainable transition.
The true protagonists of the initiative were 40 students from the Agricultural Science and Viticulture and Oenology bachelor’s degrees, and the master’s degrees in Plant and Microbial Biotechnology, Biosafety and Food Quality, Planning and Management of Urban Green Areas and Landscape, and Agri-Food Production and Management of Agro-ecosystems. Following three weeks of in-depth activities, including seminars (14 and 21 April 2023), group work, interviews and thematic research, different groups of students presented their solutions to the identified challenges.
The group projects ranged from planning a sustainable vegetable garden for a social assistance centre, to ensuring food and energy sustainability in the urban setting; finding innovative agro-solutions to tackle land subsidence; identifying effective ways of actively engaging young people in associative activities; or organising a European event combining football and wine culture in a sustainable way. All proposals were presented as fundable projects detailing the aims, activities and resources needed to carry them out, and highlighting their contribution to the achievement of the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
The NGOs involved in the initiative warmly welcomed the students’ proposals and offered practical advice on how to implement them. Attending organisations included:
- Slow Food Toscana, represented by Silvia Rolandi;
- Legambiente Pisa and Semi di Scienza, represented by Yuri Galletti;
- Dopo di Noi a Pisa – ONLUS Foundation, represented by Angela Spigai and Alessandra Luisi;
- Consorzio di Bonifica Toscana Nord (Land Reclamation Consortium), represented by Nicola Silvestri and Antonio Di Fonzo;
- 11 del Vino Association, represented by Paolo Pacini and Riccardo Gragnani.
Great satisfaction with the outcomes of the initiative was expressed by academic tutors and lecturers too. They recognised how these activities can also contribute to strengthening the students’ skills in terms of public speaking, teamwork, and respecting a tight timeline to achieve significant results in a short span of time. This approach allows the academic setting to keep in step with the times and promote forms of training that are based on real-world, hands-on experiences. Hopefully, it will also boost an increased collaboration between the university and the local organisations, with a view to the internationalisation of such activities, already included in the ASVIS Sustainable Development Festival 2023.
What is certain for now is that the How much do you know about sustainability? initiative contributed to create a more structured community devoted to service learning at the University of Pisa, led by professors Alessio Cavicchi, Lucia Guidi, Silvia Tavarini and Andrea Lucchi, postdoc researchers Sabrina Tomasi and Annapia Ferrara, and supported by the commitment of a lively student community coordinated by tutors Sofia Fiorentino, Marzia Bianco, Eugenia Ronga, Tiziano Greco, Bruno Bighignoli, Alfonso Boccia, Valentina Gallo and Giampiero De Simone.
Finally, several research tools to assess the initiative have been applied. Students filled out a priori and post-experience questionnaires to self-assess their sustainability competences (GreenComp), and check if they acquired new ones or strengthen the existing ones at the end of the initiative. The reflective journal tool was applied to each phase of the learning experience: students, individually, objectively described the activities and expressed their personal thoughts, while commenting on the integration of their previous knowledge with the new insights deriving from the learning experience. A rubric per student will be then completed by the researchers to assess the effectiveness of service learning.
The NGOs involved will give their feedback on the experience through a dedicated reflective journal. Moreover, a focus group will be organised with tutors and lecturers: the rubric will be applied as an interactive collective assessment tool. The results of such an analysis will be presented at the next NEMOS Multiplier event in Pamplona, on 6 June and during the SIEA – Italian Society of Agricultural Economics Conference 2023 on 15-16 June, in Venice.
About the NEMOS Project
The NEMOS project acknowledges sustainability as an increasingly crucial skill for graduate and post-graduate students to tackle important global challenges such as climate change, food waste and the loss of biodiversity in their professional future. Therefore, the project aims to define a new educational model to integrate sustainability competences in the curricula of food-related degrees by means of service learning.
Co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, the NEMOS project is led by the Public University of Navarra and includes the following consortium partners: Technological University Dublin (Ireland); Technological University Graz (Austria); Rhône-Alpes Higher Institute of Agriculture (France); University of Pisa (Italy); and IGCAT.
More information at www.nemosproject.com
