To overcome the challenge of climate change it is necessary to transform the way we produce and consume energy. However, this mission, which brings together institutions, companies and civil society, cannot exist without the active participation of the younger generations. Embracing and raising young people’s awareness about the environment is not enough: it is fundamental to also give them the necessary tools and skills to increasingly make them the protagonists of change.
The E-Project: Ecological Literacy 2023-2025 is a three-year program that was born out of this necessity. On Tuesday, March 14, it was presented to students and instructors in the auditorium of the Ennio Quirino Visconti High School in Rome. The project came from the collaboration between our Group and the Permanent Youth-Publishers Observatory, which aims to involve 1,000 high school classes in a common path of academic training and personal growth.
E-Project: Ecological Literacy 2023-2025 is not simply a way of educating young people on climate change issues, it is also a concrete initiative that pushes them to imagine feasible strategies for safeguarding the environment and the planet. This was the message delivered by our CEO and General Manager, Francesco Starace, and the President of the Permanent Youth-Publishers Observatory, Andrea Ceccherini, who, together with journalist Maria Latella did their best to answer the numerous questions asked by the extremely curious, interested and well-informed members of the audience.
“The objective of the energy transition is to improve people’s lives and create shared value, listening to the needs of the community and those who are a part of it. The commitment to a new model of consumption and production based on sustainability must rely on two elements: training and exchange of ideas, particularly with young people. Which is why we are proud to present E-Project, with the knowledge that just by opening up shared spaces for insight and reflection it is possible to bring about change while protecting the environment and involving those who can and must be the protagonists of that change.”
Starting from a series of specific topics, E-Project is an educational, proactive course that uses webinars, in-depth lessons and moments of training and debate to stimulate young people to find new solutions to facilitate the green revolution, even in everyday life. A task that will be supported by technological instruments such as the behavior ecological footprint calculator, an app that E-Project will supply to all participants to measure in real time the impact of their daily choices on the environment.
At the end of the three-year period, the 100 most outstanding proposals will the published on the Enel Open Innovability® website, while the top five most innovative proposals will receive a prize.
It is an extremely innovative project and Andrea Ceccherini says, “With it, we want to rally a generation that has demonstrated it has the environment at heart, to invite them to go from protest to proposal. Our project is aimed at making young people the true protagonists of change, the authors of a new deal, which we hope in our country can change the tune and leave a mark. It’s their turn to be increasingly actors and decreasingly spectators, to take the fate of planet earth into their hands because they, like everyone, rest their feet on it.”
It is also possible that, thanks precisely to this initiative, many young people will find a new vocation. After all, the energy transition constantly requires new skills and professions, and these new projects and ideas that energize schools today will be crucial for all of society tomorrow.