The project “Live close to home: a projection of a compact and responsive city for the central neighborhoods of the capital San José.” aims to propose a dense, compact, mixed city model that makes intelligent use and fair access to resources (soil, water, air) as a commons, to promote healthy, dignified lives for its inhabitants, and which reduces the impact of the effects of climate change. The project proposes to break with the city-countryside duality without falling into mistakes already made by other architects (eg, garden city) who proposed low densities and sectorization. It also meets the guidelines of the SDGs and the concept of the City as a Common Good.
The proposal was elaborated for the mega-block #11 in downtown San José, following these guidelines: A. Use of rainwater (thinking about climate change, flood/drought scenarios) B. Application of the concept of agroforestry (agricultural production in coexistence with forest for the livelihood of the neighborhood) C. Traditional proximity commerce, together with spaces for new jobs (spaces for teleworking, in co-working that integrate nurseries, libraries, municipal entrepreneurship accelerators, etc.)
This project participated in the international call for proposals of the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2021, entitled CROSSROADS Building the resilient city.
[Project Location: Between 20th ave. and the 14th ave. and 10th street and the 2nd street, in the southern area of the San José downtown, Costa Rica.]
Our goal for this year 2020 stage in the process of the Social Housing as a Commons project was to develop a strategy that could reevaluate landscape planning based on the redefinition of the parameters of urban life. This, proposing a more efficient and functional urban space, with reduced ground coverage, for the basic living and development spaces, which at the same time would represent a possible model to be developed in the future in other areas of the city that also suffered from inadequate planning, which manifests itself with phenomena of accelerated overcrowding and abandonment at the same time.
The compilation of information is an arrangement of parameters to analyze the economy, business, lifestyle, and overall usage of the common spaces. These parameters provide a broad look at the problems within community relations, which need to be countered against inadequate planning that does not address their needs.
The need for intervention in these spaces could also be addressed from the impact for its inhabitants, which would translate into the capacity of a new local economy based on a sustainable and empowered community, recognized for its sensitivity to the environment and a better sense of community experience.
Therefore, a strategy was proposed to intervene in a city area that suffers from inadequate planning caused by the accelerated overcrowding and abandonment in this specific area of San Jose, Costa Rica. This generally affects the population of the area, due to problems of access to affordable housing in their neighborhood and daily living in a highly polluted environment. Having an overcrowded population is a common problem in several cities. But the main issue is what this indicator of overpopulation does to a space that wasn’t ready in design for it.
The first marker is the inadequate planning of these areas that are visible in the unplanned streets and roads and the progressive growth in the use of vehicles in the city. The collapse of the different routes is just a small component of the overall issue. The lack of confidence in public transport linked to a not deeply rooted culture of it clearly translates into an excess of gas emissions for the capital.
Another pattern is the presence of redundant and little varied commerce in an area where there is no economy based on strong local products and where more generally there is a lack of areas for socialization. We observe a forgotten place, where the general economic activities are the result of a community without real empowerment.
These two markers are the representation of a society in need of urban intervention to give these communities the necessary infrastructure to rehabilitate.
Dragging the problems of overgrowth, for a community that has been neglected by public policies, has caused a fracture of the urban system and, at the same time, the dissociation of the resident community. Because its local commerce is not varied enough, the economy in this area is static as well as its community that lacks social and cultural spaces to develop a well-built sense of community. The overall planning and infrastructure of this sector require a change to develop a strategy that gives this population affordable housing in a thriving environment.
For the development of the proposal 3 mega blocks were chosen previously zoned where each of them has dynamics particular social networks that make them function as such. The choice of the blocks was made through an analysis to determine which were the areas with the greatest urban potential, diversify the uses for the development of different proposals that can have a positive impact on the site and be able to evolve the conceptual programming by means of a physical spatial design.
The design of an urban conception is part of a strategy that goes along with projections and indicators that parametrize the design to have a successful intervention in a long term. These strategies of intervention would give the right infrastructure to these communities, planned roads to give pedestrian mobility by proximity. The main modulation of the building spaces is fundamental through a multi-position floor array building, and by acknowledging the revalorization of cultivation spaces and the hydrology mechanisms that it needs to thrive in the city to form a dynamic society and a new local business income. The new infrastructure will be able to provide heterogeneity for the local commerce to have local and cultural products with a stronger sense of nationality that will propel the economy.
We look for a better way of living in the city and at the same time, we deal with the problems that modern life brought us. Concerned about traffic and pollution, we need to create a system to get closer to a real urban solution for a problem that concerns us today but is growing unsustainably day by day.
Regular communication with the community is an important need to have a broad vision of the problems of the context. For this project, we set out to know the customs of the neighbors with respect to their environment, the people who characterize the neighborhood, and the rhythm of daily activities was the key to a contextualized project.
The planet demands that we listen to it. For this, we also have to give a voice to the people who demand a better standard of living. The quality that architects, urban planners, and decision-makers can provide to the Social Housing and its immediate context is the basis for change.
CROSSROADS Building the Resilient City CALL FOR PROPOSALS SEOUL BIENNALE OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM 2021
“Our future success is directly proportional to our ability to understand, adapt and integrate new technology into our work” (Sukant Ratnakar, 2011). Understanding the possibilities that innovative systematic solutions can offer society is the first key element in the process of promoting a circular economy. Circularity is an essential part of a wider transformation of the industry towards climate-neutrality and long-term competitiveness. Executed effectively, it can deliver substantial material savings throughout value chains and production processes, generate extra value, and unlock economic opportunities in several fields (European Commission, 2020). In contrast to a linear economy, in circular processes, the value and life-cycle of products are maintained as long as possible to minimize actual waste.
The construction sectors produce the largest amount of special waste in Italy. According to the last ISPRA (Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale) report from 2018, construction special waste represents 42,5% (about 60,7 million tons) of the total amount accumulated in Italy in 2018. With Directive 98/2008/CE, the EU set a 70% target for recycling of construction. Quantities of wood waste in the Lombardy region reach nearly 1 million tons a year, adding up to 4,4 million tons of wood waste for Italy as a whole (BioReg, 2020). Given the long lifetime of construction and their impact on the environment, reusing these materials for new construction is vital to increase the life cycle of products, while decreasing material waste and saving raw materials. In the long run, this may contribute to rise self-sufficiency of selected raw materials used in production processes.
Secondary raw materials still account for a small proportion of the materials used in the EU, which means that significant economic opportunities get lost. This is partly caused by the uncertainty of buyers who might have doubts about the quality of recycled materials as a basis for their production purposes. In reality, the potential for innovative solutions to produce high-quality standard products is immense. Recycling of materials and products is a key element in the transition towards a circular economy. New initiatives and platforms aim to improve standards of circularity by making waste recycling a community effort to insert it back into the economic cycle, create further value, and extend the life-cycles of products.
To
protect the environment, firms, industries, plants and other entities all over
the world have been implementing several solutions towards a transition of a
zero-emissions-society. From 2015 numerous actions were taken concerning the
goal fixed by the UN under the ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ (SDG).
SDGs serve as blueprints to achieve a better and more sustainable future.17 goals, 169 targets, 1034 events,
1221 publications, 5285 actions are an essential history’s part to tackle
climate change and preserve our oceans and forests.
Small steps can sometimes do a lot. Decreasing CO2 emissions and reducing the global world temperature has been on the EU agenda for the entire 21st century. Ensuring sustainable consumption and production pattern as stipulated through Goal #12 of the UN SDGs can be promoted by efficient upcycling methods of waste. Our economy uses raw materials, either extracted domestically or imported. In a circular economy, raw materials are from virgin or secondary sources, therefore, new models are needed to optimize waste management and extend the life cycles of products. Speaking in practical terms, it is essential to recover the odds of not yet recycled wood (58.8% in EU in 2017).
New and innovative solutions in this field have had a tremendous impact on the environment, communities, and cities. Therefore, we would like to emphasize that some of Europe’s most interesting approaches to recycling and waste management have inspired our initiative and served as important examples of best practices on upcycling.
Rilegno, was founded in 1997, could be striking examples of modern management systems, focused on separate collection of waste. Over the last 20 years, the company is the ground stone of a mechanism that allows them to monitor the life cycle of wooden products from their first harvesting, over first use production for packing usages such as wooden packaging, pallets, or loading units, until it’s upcycling to serve as a new product and extend the woods life cycle. In detail, the firm manages to do so, through its simple but very effective supply chain strategy. Involved in the process are different companies, platform, and communities that all contribute to achieving a circular economy system from wood deforestation, usage, collection of wood waste, upcycling and regeneration method until the Research Center if Wood Packaging and Logistics (CRIL) evaluates upon the quality of the wooden packaging.
Even younger knowledge-intensive realities take the field. Waste Hero, just like LabGov.City, emerged right at campus. One of the students at Aarhus University recognized the need for more efficient and sustainable waste collection management, which eventually led to the foundation of Waste Hero. The Danish technology-driven method focuses on waste management and collection in a global scope by eliminating unnecessary pickups and collections to save costs and simultaneously lowering pollution. The founder’s technology-driven business model and strong skills in engineering and machine learning led to a successful company that promotes sustainable and community-driven waste management currently established in 11 cities and constantly growing.
One more practice that is worth mentioning is ISVE S.r.l. Italy. It has experience in innovation technologies since its foundation in 1977 and made it to its mission to develop collaborative solutions to improve wood, waste and recycling strategies. They have successfully established a large portfolio of customers to whom they offer design, construction and marketing of plants in the wood recycling or treatment sector. ISVE makes machines that optimize recycling processes from small grinders up to all kinds of industrial waste. Their network allows integrating structural processes that entirely serve the purpose of promoting the quality of recycled materials and the environment.
Through initiatives and technologies like these, member states in Europe have managed to reduce the Carbon footprint of regions by influential numbers that contribute to the Unions 2030 goals. In addition, the UN Sustainable Development targets create a platform to further integrate new solutions and corporate within sectors. A multidisciplinary approach when tackling the pressing issue of climate change has become increasingly vital in Europe. These EU and UN initiatives, therefore, offer a perfect arena for companies, scientists and entrepreneurs to compete in the race to jointly fight for the necessary change in actions.
This article has been written by the students of the Luiss new Msc in Law, Digital Innovation and Sustainability in the context of the class of Law and Policy of Innovation and Sustainability taught by Professor Christian Iaione. The cluster “Industry and Manufacturing” is composed of the following students: Simone Galvagno, Valentina Defrate, Clara Wrede, Margherita Perrone, Selen Erkenci and Tommaso Desiderato.
References
Bilitewski, B.
J.Wagner, J. Reichenbach. J. (2018). Best Practice Municipal Waste. German Environmental Agency.
BioReg (2018). BioReg Project:
Absorbing the Potential of Wood Waste in the EU Regions and Industrial
Bio-based Ecosystems. Retrieved November 14, 2020 from http://bioreg.eu/.
Commission
of the European Communities (2019). Communication from the Commission to the
European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the European Economic
and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. The European Green Deal. Brussels: European Commission.
Commission
of the European Communities (2020). Eurostat: Circular Economy. Brussels:
European Commission.
Commission
of the European Communities (2020): Demonstration of systematic solutions for
the territorial deployment of the circular economy. Brussels: European
Commission.
Feleki,
E. (2020). Transition to circular
economy: the “power” of the building sector towards better cities.
Retrieved November 17, 2020 from https://urbact.eu/transition-circular-economy-%E2%80%98%E2%80%99power%E2%80%99%E2%80%99-building-sector-towards-better-cities.
ISVE
Group. Competitive Sustainability. Italy. Retrieved November 10, 2020 from https://www.isve.com/it/.
Ratnakar,
S. (2011). Open the Windows: To the World around You.
Rilegno.
The wood of today is my world of tomorrow. Italy. Retrieved November 14, 2020 from http://www.rilegno.org/.
Total Wildland Fires and Acres
(1926-2019). National Interagency Fire
Center. Retrieved November 15, 2020 from https://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/fireInfo_stats_totalFires.html.
Waste
Hero. Netherlands. Retrieved November 15, 2020 from https://www.isve.com/it/contattaci/.
By 2050, the UN estimates that 68% of the world’s population will live in urban areas. For this reason, the European Green Deal calls for the transition of cities to smart cities – cities which, by leveraging technological strategies, manage to make public services more efficient and thereby improve the quality of life.
Throughout the world, many urban projects have claimed to be exemplarism of green smart cities, but are they really under every point of view? One of the grandest and daring innovations is known to be the Songdo International Business District. This is a $40 billion smart city project developed by Gale International and POSCO E&C in collaboration with Cisco and other international tech companies. It has frequently been touted as a smart, green, low-carbon city, which istechnologically efficient and saves large amounts of energy at one time. Songdo IBD was built following a high-tech utopian dream, but unfortunately the results have not exactly been up to expectations. In fact, Songdo not only is still partly incomplete, but also is very sparsely populated. This is not only due to the low number of citizens, but also for the relatively little relevance given to the so-called “human factor”.
Credits: Pixabay
If smart cities are conceptually devised with the only focus of implementing cutting-edge technology for more efficient services, there is the risk of creating an environment prone to the alienation of citizens. Hence, a pivotal aspect to take into consideration is the necessity of preventative and thorough ethical assessment to be carried out when developing smart city projects. A plausible path forward may then be that of giving precedence to human-centred design in any smart city project. In fact, by emphasising the human factor, there would be greater chances of containing the excessive intrusiveness of technological surveillance, a-moral automation and techno-control.
What is a “smart city”? For some, it is defined as a city which, by combining architectural and technological strategies, manages to create innovative and optimal solutions for public services. For others, it is an ambition towards more democratic and sustainable communities. By 2050, the UN estimates that 68% of the world’s population will live in urban areas. For this reason, some supranational policies such as the European Green Deal call for the transition of cities to smart cities. In these terms, a smart city is often seen as a hub of sustainable innovation and social inclusion. For instance, a study undertaken by McKinsey Global Institute found that smart city technology can enhance quality of life by 10% to 30%.
Throughout the world, many urban development projects have claimed to be exemplarism of green smart cities, but are they really under every point of view?
In this respect, one of the grandest and most daring innovations is known to be the Songdo International Business District. This is a $40 billion smart city project aiming at the creation of a completely smart, green and low-carbon city. Interesting to notice is the fact that, only 10 years ago, it was just a pile of sand, and that the location choice was mainly based on the distance from crucial business areas in the greater city, not giving much attention to the local communities’ needs. The project was developed by the Manhattan-based Gale International and POSCO E&C of Korea, who have engaged world-class experts in international architecture, engineering, design and technology such as Kohn Pedersen Fox, Arup and smart city leader Cisco.
To this day, the city is more than halfway through construction and hosts around 70’000 people, even though the project is still partly incomplete due to some difficulties in getting off the ground.
The promise is to dedicate at least 40% of land to green areas equipped with self-sustaining irrigation systems, such as a 101-acre Central Park (yes, like the one in the Big Apple!), and to be the city with the greatest number of green buildingsin the world. The city has already achieved the milestone of constructing 22 million square feet of LEED-certified spacein 118 buildings. It is impressive to notice that, by end of this year, the city should also manage to achieve a 76% rate of waste recycling. This would amount to yet another significant “sustainable” accomplishment, also taking into account that the overall energy use per person in Songdo IBD (40%) is up to 40% less than in other cities.
However, the city of Songdo was built following a high-tech utopian dream. The urban environment, packed with highly sophisticated sensors which capture pollution levels and even citizens’ movements, resembles a sci-fi movie set. In fact, the city hosts fewer citizens as compared to those originally expected. Some overly critical people have even compared it to Chernobyl for its sense of emptiness (Pettit and White, 2018).
Here is how Songdo represents a radically new concept of city: designed with extreme efficiency, totally artificial, apparently without poverty or degradation.
Credits: Pixabay
The Songdo project is a revolutionary one in the smart cities’ scenario, in its peculiar attempt at realising “the city of the future”. However, Songdo is still seen as a “cold” city by many of its inhabitants. This is not only due to the low number of citizens, but also for the little relevance given to the “human factor”. In fact, along with significant improvements in the urban technological infrastructure (e.g. sensors, IOT’s, AI devices), we should consider at the same time the quintessential role played by the citizens’ community in the urban environment. If smart cities are conceptually devised with the only focus of implementing cutting-edge technology for more efficient services, there is the risk of creating an environment prone to the social alienation of citizens, who may gradually get used to pervasive technological control and lack of human interactions. Hence, a pivotal aspect to take into consideration is the necessity of preventative and thorough ethical assessment to be carried out when developing smart city projects. A plausible path forward may then be that of giving precedence to human-centred design in any smart city project: by emphasising the human factor, there would be greater chances of containing the excessive intrusiveness of technological surveillance, moral automation and techno-control.
This article has been written by the students of the Luiss new Msc in Law, Digital Innovation and Sustainability in the context of the class of Law and Policy of Innovation and Sustainability taught by Professor Christian Iaione. The cluster “Urban regional development” is composed of the following students: Piero Inghirami, Benedetta Pontecorvo and Francesca Vetturini.
Consumer’s environmental and social awareness has increased over the years and this is clearly reflected by the increasing demand for environmentally sustainable products. Unfortunately, this has often been considered by companies more as an opportunity to increase profits than an actual urge to shift the production toward more sustainable patterns. Greenwashing, the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company, dates back to the ’60s and since then it had a negative impact not only on consumers but also on effectively virtuous firms that see their efforts vanished in unfair competition. In this article, we aim at presenting a brief excursus of the path toward an effective regulation on greenwashing focusing on the main difficulties and obstacles faced, and also on possible solutions. Our analysis is conducted as a literature review. Our assumptions are based on the work of recognized experts of the sector, then enriched with our considerations arising from various reflections on the theme due to a recently started research project. What emerges from our analysis is that the main problem when dealing with greenwashing is the lack of clear and universal legislation. In fact, in a reality where companies act on globalized markets regulations should not know boundaries. Otherwise, as shown in the article, the same instruments theoretically created to avoid greenwashing become the ideal vehicles to pursue it. We analyzed both legal (ESG ratings and certificates) and financial tools (GreenBond). The first two present problems concerning the absence of universal standards and a superficial understanding of the company’s functioning and structure while the second lacks international alignment. The main conclusion we present is that enforced regulation is the most effective means to address the problem of greenwashing and in this regard, the European Union positions itself as a leader. With the Taxonomy Regulation of 2020, an important step has been done. Unfortunately testing its effectiveness is a long run and, in the meantime, other actions are needed. We wonder then whether a mechanism acting on the prices of the certifications (tailored considering the impact analysis of the single companies) could represent a valid intermediate step.
single-use plastic is harmful to the environment.
Consumers are increasingly demanding environmentally sustainable products. Market analyses show that products featuring on-pack sustainability claims increased by 2.3% of the market from 2013 to 2018 (Whelan & Kronthal-Sacco, 2019). However, these results show that consumers’ awareness has increased over the years, not necessarily that production has shifted towards more sustainable practices.
Greenwashing, the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company, is not new. Its use has increased over recent years to meet consumer demand for environmentally friendly goods and services. Indeed, despite greenwashing emergence dates back to the 60s, proper regulation and a specific legal framework have never been implemented. In this article we present a brief excursus regarding the path toward an effective regulation taking into consideration the main difficulties that policymakers could encounter, indicating also potential solutions. As a matter of fact, what is designed precisely to fight greenwashing has become firms’ perfect instrument to pursue it.
One of the main instruments used
to understand whether a firm is effectively sustainable or is just simulating
sustainable efforts are ESG (environmental, social and governance) ratings. A recent
study conducted by Berg et al. (2020) underlines the significant discrepancies
between the evaluations performed by different rating agencies such as Vigeo Eiris,
RobecoSAM, Asset 4, KLD and Sustainalitycs, when evaluating the same firm. The
reason behind this gap comes from the absence of documents featuring legal
stature that universalize how this kind of assessment should be processed. The
result is that ratings are not reliable. What could provide reliable
information is a deep analysis of the firm under assessment (Edmans, 2020).
Another way to address this problem could be restructuring the way these ratings and certifications work, increasing both the transparency of environmental performance and the knowledge about the topic. This can be effectively done by aligning intra-firm structures, processes, and incentives. Indeed, the roles of managers and NGOs should be considered critical to reducing greenwashing in the current regulatory context.
Until there is no legal framework
assessing matters such as greenwashing, ill-intentioned firms will systematically
find a way to present their productive activities under a more appealing guise
for the public.
Green Bond, for instance, serves as a clear example of this phenomenon: introduced in 2007, this financial tool still does not figure in any law provision nor code, giving a rich opportunity to many countries and corporations to crowd in funding that will only apparently be channeled into sustainable projects, when in reality, the true nature of their investments shows to be far from green. No wonder that, between 2016 and 2020, China managed to sell financial tools defined “green bond” that were only partly aligned with the international environmental, non-legal, standards (Yamaguchi & Taqi, 2020).
To provide the reader with a better understanding of the problem, we can draw the following conclusions: first, it is clear that, as stated by Delmas et al. (2011), enforced regulation is the most effective means to address the problem of greenwashing. An important step has been done by the EU Commission with the creation of the Sustainable Taxonomy Regulation in 2020, but testing its effectiveness is a long run. In the meanwhile, the role of managers and CEOs could be pivotal in increasing transparency and transform the companies’ business model. Independent certifications could also play a fundamental role in encouraging companies to adopt transformative changes. This could be done by tailoring the prices of the above-mentioned certificates according to the specific business models and impact of the companies. Driven by the desire to cut costs, firms could be enticed to make changes so as to comply with the parameters of a desirable legal framework on the subject. Indeed, we all know that what truly drives change for firms, is generally profit. All this being said, it is evident that further research in this direction is needed.
This article has been written by the students of the Luiss new Msc in Law, Digital Innovation and Sustainability in the context of the class of Law and Policy of Innovation and Sustainability taught by Professor Christian Iaione. The cluster “Earth” is composed of the following students: Alessandro Ciro Cimmino, Chiara Fusari, Margherita Frabetti, Giannandrea Ingallinera and Omolola Akinniyi
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Whelan, T. and Kronthal-Sacco, R., 2019, Research: Actually, consumers do buy sustainable products, Harvard Business Review. Berg, F., Koelbel, J.F. and Rigobon, R., 2020, Aggregate confusion: the divergence of ESG ratings, Available at SSRN 3438533. Delmas, M.A. and Burbano, V.C., 2011, The drivers of greenwashing, California management review, 54(1), pp.64-87.
When entering the job market, most people will find themselves in an indoor workplace. Indeed, we spend 90% of our lives indoors, in buildings with air quality that is, on average, five times worse than the air quality that can be found outdoors. According to the UN Urbanizations Prospects, 55% of the world population lived in cities in 2018. This makes one’s life easily disconnected from nature. Such disconnection has a heavy impact on wellbeing even though people are not completely aware of it. Yet, one does not necessarily have to escape from their city life to regenerate their soul with the help of nature: vertical farming technologies, IoT and biophilic design can bring nature directly into the workplace and thus improve productivity, as well as personal and professional satisfaction. It is still rare to think about employees’ well-being as something important to reach greater success for firms and businesses, which is why this article will explore the link between company performances and the environment that can be found in workplaces.
Introduction
Employers and business managers are starting to acknowledge and embrace the importance of wellness at work and the economic benefits of working in a place that is somehow more connected to nature. The growth of such a connection can not only help create a greener future for businesses but also have a positive outcome on people’s wellness. When talking about their wellness, 76% of employees report a struggle with wellbeing. After entering the job market, people pass half of their waking hours at work. As a consequence, the office space is often perceived as being the biggest source of stress in a person’s life, thus impacting their health and lastly the business financials. When organizing their human resources, many firms do not take into consideration their employee’s wellbeing, even though they are connected to 90% of their expenses. On the other hand, many studies have shown that improvements in staff’s physical and mental health have a positive financial impact. In economic terms, the loss brought by an unhealthy employee is roughly €25K per year and on average there is a rise of 37% in the costs for an unhealthy workforce. On the other hand, the loss for an overall healthy employee is only of €5K per year. Healthy employees have more energy, can get more work done in less time and are more likely to be engaged and in a good mood when they are at work.
Methods
The theory of biophilia, created by Edward O. Wilson, demonstrates that human beings possess a biological need of being connected to nature from a physical, mental and social perspective. When people lose such a connection, then their personal well-being, their capacity to socially interact with others and thus also their job performance are all negatively impacted. Still, people are not aware of identifying these negative consequences straight away. Over the last few years, different case studies have demonstrated the advantages of incorporating nature into the work environment through biophilic design, including improved stress recovery rates, cognitive functions, mental health and focus, better mood, and an increased sense of belonging along with higher learning rates and bigger productivity. These metrics can be easily linked with monetary values and thus can be translated into cost savings for every business. As previously stated, 90% of businesses’ expenses are linked to human resources: biophilia and biophilic design can recover the losses from unproductive behavior, which comes from the workplace, and also eliminate health-related issues which undermine the total profit per year of a business or firm.
Results
Hence, studies show that when employees are happy, there is an increase in the company’s overall productivity by 31%; the increase in sales is by 37% and the capacity to achieve goals goes up by 19%. The presence of plants and edible nature improves self-reported wellness by 15%, productivity by 6%, and creativity by 15%. Lastly, absenteeism goes down by 10%, thus biophilic design stimulates workers to show up at work and allows businesses to save up to €1.8M every year. The presence of natural elements increases wellbeing by stimulating each of the five human sense, reducing stress levels, blood pressure and Sick Building Syndrome symptoms, the latter being a disease, where people in a building suffer from symptoms of illness or become infected with chronic disease from the building in which they work or reside.
Best practices – Italian and international companies investing in corporate gardens
Timberland Headquarters, New Hampshire
source: Timberland website
Timberland created Victory garden; a 112 square meters garden run by its employees. The garden is operating since 2008. The employees are welcome to purchase the fresh produce in exchange of a donation. All Victory Garden donations support the NH Foodbank, a food bank that distributes food to more than 425 non-profit organizations throughout the state.
Unicredit Tower, Milan
Since 2014,
there are two vegetable gardens located on the terraces of the two towers.
Here, the bank’s 50 employees who have joined the ‘Coltiva il tuo spazio’
initiative can cultivate a small plot of land and follow it throughout its
entire life cycle, from sowing to harvesting. Everyone can grow what they want
managing their space in total autonomy and can go to the garden at any time of
the day.
Bottega Veneta Eco-Food garden, Milan
Source: La Repubblica
In 2014, the
company created a green area of 2,400 square meters designed to offer employees
a relaxation space in contact with nature and at the same time to supply the
house company restaurant with fresh products at zero kilometer.
Google Super
HQ Central Saint Giles, London
In London,
the Giant created a garden on the 9th floor of a building designed
by the Italian architect Renzo Piano. Staff can sign in on the waiting list to
grow their own vegetables. Once they are in, they can nurture root vegetables
and herbs in small tubes made from responsibly-sourced timber and cook them at
home
Conclusion
It has
been demonstrated that a healthier workplace, in terms of the presence of
natural elements, brings many evident benefits
That is why a start-up, called Hexagram Urban Farming SRL, was founded in Milan in 2017 by a team of professionals coming from different work fields, such as engineering, agronomy, design, marketing, project management and gastronomy with an innovative idea: the Living Farming Tree. This team designed and developed the Living Farming Tree: an automated vertical garden characterized by a stylish biophilic design, which was made in Italy, that can be adapted and customized to any interior. Their system allows medicinal plants and aromatic herbs to grow three times faster and reduces water consumption by 90% thanks to aeroponics, which is the most advanced and sustainable indoor farming technique in the market. Thanks to the combination of IoT technology and indoor farming, their products offer a holistic experience to interact with the natural world. All of this is possible even if a person is hardly a green thumb type of individual.
This article has been written by the students of the Luiss new Msc in Law, Digital Innovation and Sustainability in the context of the class of Law and Policy of Innovation and Sustainability taught by Professor Christian Iaione. The cluster “Life and Human Kind” is composed of the following students: Julie Bernès, Chiara Cirucca, Julianne Heusch, Mothas Anwar Modier, Lorenzo Murgo, Desideria Pezzella and Francesco Trombetta
