The Elba Island Foundation celebrates its tenth anniversary by putting social sustainability at the center
During the celebrations at the Hotel Airone, for the tenth anniversary of the Isola d’Elba Foundation, a round table took place discussing various topics.
The objective of social sustainability of businesses, institutions, territories and communities represents the challenge of the future. This is the concept behind the interventions of the speakers called from all over Italy to discuss during the round table, organized by the Isola d’Elba Foundation, to celebrate the first ten years of activity.
“Sustainability – said President Marco Mantovani at the opening of the meeting – means the ability to maintain the value of products, businesses and organizations over time, producing shared value, engaging in constant improvement of not only economic but also social and environmental impacts.” But what contribution can companies make to sustainability?” The regulatory changes promoted by the European community – responded Caterina Carletti, professor and expert in corporate social responsibility, will entail the obligation for companies to present not only economic but also social balance sheets and environmental, which will push the change from the linear to the circular economy.”
“The regulations relating to the Third sector – underlined Giorgio Sordelli, expert in training and social planning – are favoring cultural change, starting from listening to the requests of the territories, to strengthen the ties of community and safeguard its identity. A paradigm shift in which the role of volunteering and associations will be indispensable.”
Marketing and social communication
Bruno Lo Cicero, an expert in marketing and social communication, highlighted the need for the third sector to dialogue more and more concretely with businesses and institutions, through new narratives and new tools, as indicated by the recent Third Sector legislation. The importance of knowing how to talk about territories and one’s experiences was underlined by Annalisa Galardi, professor of Business Communication and member of the Board of Directors of the A. Olivetti Foundation, citing the example of the story of Adriano Olivetti, an emblematic figure of a of doing business, visionary and innovative, which had the well-being of workers and the community at its centre. “No man is an island – began Annalisa Galardi – but also no island is an island”.
“In recent years, environmental issues have been and continue to be at the center of attention – argued Paolo Marcesini, journalist, founder and President of Italia Circolare – e take on an important role in the well-being of our communities. But today these issues cannot be separated from social ones. On the island – continued Marcesini – new ideas for the future are built and imagined and the Elba Island Foundation can be the incubator. Defining, listening, planning, sharing, measuring and communicating social responsibility are verbs that tell the new identity of a territory and a community”.
Elba is a fragile, beautiful and precious island
“As stated in the Faro Convention – Federico Ceschin, President Simtur, publisher and ambassador of the European Climate Pact took up the theme – a community recognizes itself in sharing those material and immaterial values which make it unique. Elba is a fragile island although beautiful and precious – continued Ceschin – which is facing the challenges of the double transition, ecological and digital, and can do with the levers of culture and sustainable tourism. The occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Isola d’Elba Foundation is extraordinary to celebrate the great heritage of agrobiodiversity and geodiversity, but also to enhance the infinite community experiences, between land and sea.” Alberto Improda, CEO of the law firm of the same name, president of the Fondazione Città Italia and of the Cross Route Impresa Study Center, spoke about the “economy of complexity” and the increasingly close relationship between companies and non-profit entities . “Both the former and the latter – said Improda – are called to play a leading role for the Territory, the Social and the Communities. This is the case of the Isola d’Elba Foundation which was founded on the initiative of entrepreneurs with a common ethical vision of sustainable development based on solidarity and inclusion, the recognition of intelligence and abilities, the valorisation and protection of the natural, environmental, historical and cultural history of Elba. An idea could be to involve the ISIA University Institute in a future project, with a particular Know How in Territorial Design. “A cultural and social heritage – the theme was taken up by Sabina Nuti, rector and teacher of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa – which cannot be lost despite the difficulties and depopulation of the internal areas or islands of our Region. We must deploy intelligence, technologies and human resources, also drawing on volunteering which has always been of great help in the social and healthcare sectors: the Island can become a model to be exported elsewhere. Sant’Anna has been collaborating with the Foundation for some time and we intend to continue making our contribution.
For the next ten years
But what are the challenges of the next ten years? This is the question posed to the audience by Patrizia Lupi, director of the Foundation, at the conclusion of the Round Table. “The Fondazione promotes meeting opportunities between public administration, third sector and businesses, to promote alliances of purpose and shared projects – declared Patrizia Lupi – as in the case of the latest projects financed by regional and national tenders. The first involves seventy subjects, dedicated to peasant culture, thanks to which workshops and meetings have been activated in all Elban schools to talk about the island, the crafts, the landscape, its peasant soul. The second, in the context of the digitalisation of cultural enterprises, aims to create an “Archive of Memory” drawing on private, association and ETS archives to reorder and register a vast collective heritage of images and documents”.
Numerous guests at the Elba Island Foundation meeting
The meeting – which was attended by numerous guests, members, friends, Elban associations and local authorities – ended with a promise: to meet again in a year to sign a community agreement between profit and non-profit of which the experts will be guarantors and facilitators. They will accompany the Foundation in this new course which will begin with the collection of social sustainability requests. Co-planning and co-programming projects can arise from the real needs of the community where companies, institutions and the Third Sector will together design a project for a sustainable future.
For information: Patrizia Lupi cell. +39 3396974753 – fondazioneisoladelba@gmail.com
