Italy marks World Environment Day with 3 mln green jobs

05 giugno 2015

2 min di lettura

(AGI) Rome, June 5 - Italy has seen a boom in green jobs to anestimated 3 million in 2015. Despite the economic crisis 78percent of the public are willing to spend more for ecologicalproducts and services, said farmers' association Coldiretti onthe occasion of World Environment Day. The Day, promoted by theUN, was marked by the opening of a green innovation exhibitionat Coldiretti Expo Pavilion, at the beginning of the Cardo,South Entrance. Bucking the general economic trend, green jobopportunities have continued to grow during the crisis so thatItaly derives 101 billion euros of added value, or 10.2 percentof GDP, from the green economy alone, according to figures fromthe Symbola/Unioncamere report. Green initiatives rangefrom colours derived from vegetables, milk and eggs, used topaint houses or dye clothes, to agricultural detergentsentirely made with plants that after washing the floors caneven be reused to water the flowers, to the first kit forgrowing mushrooms on a base of coffee grounds, the commonestform of waste in Italian homes, but also to the beeswax usedfor natural vacuum storage of cured meats and furnitureupholstered with the pruning of trees. These are some examplesof clean Italian creativity displayed by Coldiretti. Then thereis the curious idea of creating of "agrifurniture", completelycovered by prickly pear fibre extracted from the blades whenstill green, in full respect of their life cycles, through aspecial, meticulous and largely manual process, completelyenvironmentally friendly and free from the use of anypollutants. One of the innovations is the use of plant speciesto produce hypoallergenic natural colours for use in textilesand clothing, leather and footwear but also in paints andvarnishes made from milk and eggs for interiors as well as foreducation and schools. Agriculture is one of the mostdynamic areas of green innovation - according to Coldiretti -where one business in three founded in the last decade has amarked tendency towards new emerging activities like theproduction of renewables (mainly solar and biomass), theplanning of parks, gardens, streets, landscape care,educational farms, recreational activities, social farming ordirect sales, and the transformation of production. The resultis that Italian agriculture has become the greenest in Europewith the largest number of food certifications at Communitylevel for products with PDO/PGI designation of origin thatsafeguard tradition and biodiversity. . .