Natuna meeting in Milan among experts and industry leaders to promote sustainability in the building supply chain
A meeting attended by a specialized audience entitled “Culture and Sustainability in the Built Environment” was held at the Museo delle Culture in Milan on October 21 . Greetings from the Minister of the Environment Hon. Gilberto Pichetto Fratin opened the discussion of experts, institutions and industry leaders to explore operational practices of sustainable development applied to the construction supply chain and – more generally – the built environment, in order to promote a just, viable and profitable transition for people and the country.
Institutional speakers in the first panel and some of the main market players in the second, discussed crucial issues of the ongoing transition and discussed the integration and national best practices marked by Sustainability and ESG practices in the design, construction and management processes of building and infrastructure assets.
“Italy, with more than 20 million square meters of buildings, including certified and being certified in accordance with the main energy-environmental rating system protocols, is second in Europe and among the top ten countries in the world“-said Marco Mari, Sustainability and Policy Advisor-who opened and moderated the event-”today, with the many innovative experiences in the private sector and in green procurement processes in the public sector, our country, more than any other, is capable of combining culture and sustainability in urban regeneration, peri-urban and the many treasure troves of culture found in inland areas. We can be the architects of a new paradigm, “Heritage & Sustainability,” anticipating and interpreting the European frontier of the New European Bauhaus and the most recent EU directives, in an innovative, original way and respecting the characteristics and peculiarities that differentiate us from other member countries.” At the center of the debate is the New European Bauhaus EU, a European initiative that aims to combine culture, sustainability and social inclusion, and which is a response to the global challenges of climate change and the housing crisis, encouraging the creation of environments that reflect European values of beauty, sustainability and inclusion, but requires practices to be adopted for the entire life cycle of assets, not just for new construction.
“In our more than 20 years of experience in the Facility Management sector, we are called upon every day to face challenges in managing and improving the performance of even historic buildings,” said Luigi Cavallari, CEO of NATUNA, ”and, in following up on the increasingly frequent requests from Principals for compliance with ESG criteria and sustainability certification processes for real estate and infrastructure assets, we often see how many of the practices envisaged are already an integral part – sometimes unconsciously – of daily operations. In our view, it is a matter of restoring, through distinctive competencies, those practices that we used to refer to as “the good rule of thumb,” and addressing them in a structured way and with processes that enable accountability even to independent certifiers. We strongly wanted this event to share a positive reflection with all the players in the sector, and together with Dr. Federico Silvestri, CEO of Il Sole24Ore Cultura, we identified MUDEC as the perfect scenario capable of absorbing and amplifying an authentic and contemporary message of culture and sustainable development.”
Around the ideas that emerged, participants emphasized the need for our country’s institutional actors to listen to and bring to normative synthesis these best practices, in order to address the challenges of the sector and revive and sustain the leadership of the Italian built environment supply chain in the world. Collaboration between institutions, professionals and citizens is essential to make our built and infrastructural heritage truly sustainable and innovative, even and especially when it has historical-witness value. In this sense, the event organized by Natuna laid the groundwork for a concrete and effective dialogue.
The event, with media partners Il Sole 24 Ore and Il Giornale, featured an introduction to the proceedings by Dr. Luigi Cavallari, Ceo NATUNA, moderation by Marco Mari, Sustainability and Policy Advisor, and greetings by the Minister of Environment and Energy Security Hon. Gilberto Pichetto Fratin. Participants in the discussion panels were, in order: Carlo Zaghi, Director General of Product and Consumer Management, Mase; Franco Cotana Managing Director, Rse S.p.a. ; Federico Silvestri, Managing Director Sole 24 Ore Cultura; Emanuele Ferraloro, National Vice President Federcostruzioni; Giovanni Grifa, Director Asset Services Cushman & Wakefield; Francesco Rovere, Director Axa Investment Managers; Raffaella Moro, Managing Director, Reair S.p.a.; Bruno Villois, Professor of Economics Bocconi University.
