The goal of the meeting was to hold different generations together, confronting them on the urgency, costs and contradictions of the ecological transition. At the penultimate Parma Greenweek event, titled “The Future is in Our Hands. Dialogue between Generations,” yesterday morning, the hall was full and the audience cross. The event, moderated by Filiberto Zovico, featured Davide Bollati, chairman of Davines Group, Francesco Mutti, managing director of Mutti, and Veronica Tibiletti, professor of business administration at the University of Parma, who, prompted by questions from the Parma Giovani 2027 students, introduced by Emma Nicolazzi Bonati, tried to answer several questions. From transparency to the phenomenon of greenwashing. “That of sustainability is more of a universal issue than a specific one,” Bollati said, recalling the difficulty of decarbonizing in growth and the need to maintain a balance between market needs and philosophy. “Sustainability is not only a generational issue, but also affects different geographic areas of the world. Asian consumers, for example, are more interested in performance, and sustainability comes much later. In general, when it comes to communication, transparency and honesty-that is, saying even what you can’t yet do-pays off. We continue to learn every day.”
And while, often, the concept of energy transition is experienced as something that needs to be done and that someone will take care of, Mutti explained how “the average consumer expects these problems to be solved without impact.” “Once upon a time, the voice of young people was strong because, numerically, they were a determining and driving force, while today, in a country like Italy, the fact that they are a small minority takes away the lifeblood and the need to assert themselves in an important way,” the ad clarified. “We have to listen to them because even if they do not have the power of voice that they once expressed, they are carriers of ideas that represent an evolution toward the future.
For Tibiletti, who as an academic studies the impact that transition has on the economy (and also on the territory), although it has costs in the first phase, “in the medium and long term it pays off for entrepreneurs.” For the lecturer, this shift “is inescapable,” partly because the European Union is directing markets toward sustainability. “Financial institutions lend money to companies that demonstrate higher indicators in terms of sustainability, and banks are supporting, with Green Bonds, more and more companies that invest in sustainability,” the academic pointed out. Young people are there, they are asking to be informed accurately and they are asking universities to help them read these issues, avoiding fake news and clichés.”
For Nicolazzi Bonati, who had the role of coordinating the youth debate, conveying questions from peers, the issue of “receiving information is very important”: “We live in a world of fake news and, often, especially when it comes to greenwashing, we do not know who to trust and how to deal with these complexities. We are some of the young people pursuing the candidacy for Parma Youth Capital 2027, and we want to create a stable process that stays on the ground, regardless of who the finalist city will be next.”