Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Expanded this year to all 125 lower secondary schools, state, private and private

Milan, January 23 2020 – Born on an experimental basis in the 2018-2019 school year, the #AmbienteaScuola initiative this year reaches all 34 thousand students of the 125 state, private and private secondary schools in Milan. The project is also enriched by a new experimentation, which will involve some secondary schools, with the aim of raising awareness of the conscious consumption of public water.

The Administration has approved the guidelines for the dissemination of the project to raise awareness of environmental issues - which last year involved over 12 thousand students from 11 Milanese institutes - and the remodulation of the methods of separate waste collection by Amsa spa , A2A Group. As part of #AmbienteaScuola, in 2018-2019 cardboard containers for separate waste collection were distributed in the participating secondary schools, several training meetings were organized with ATA staff operators and awareness raising meetings for teachers, educational videos were created on the waste cycle, energy and the environment and the educational contest "Baskets in search of an author" was held for over 300 classes.

Given the results achieved, therefore, for the 2019-2020 school year it was decided to extend the project to promote the culture of sustainability, respect for the environment, sustainable use of resources and energy in an increasingly widespread manner. , of the most correct methods for separate waste collection and for the use of urban spaces. The project also intends to achieve some of the 'Sustainable Development Goals' (SDGs), defined by the United Nations and to be achieved by 2030, which will be reported in each project action.

“The sensitivity that students are demonstrating towards environmental issues is particularly significant – declares Education Councilor Laura Galimberti -. Schools too, therefore, must provide them with the right tools to adopt increasingly sustainable lifestyles and reduce, with concrete actions, their impact on the environment: children and young people thus spontaneously become ambassadors of good practices even within their families. With the same objective, the Municipality gave all primary and secondary school students, on the first day of school, 100.000 water bottles to reduce the consumption of disposable plastic and educational courses in schools also started from here".

The distribution of approximately 3.400 containers in all schools, which will be placed in every classroom and common areas, and 1.700 information posters, has begun and will be completed by the end of the school year. Furthermore, the training meetings of Amsa spa, A2A Group, are already underway with the administrative, technical and auxiliary staff of the schools involved, to promote correct waste disposal practices, and with the teachers, to present all the offers and educational opportunities developed within the project, including educational videos (climate change, energy, waste cycle and correct use of urban spaces).

Finally, this year's contest will be called "A mural for the environment". To participate, each class will have to create a design sketch for a future mural, creatively developing the theme of environmental sustainability: the 3 winning classes (one for each of the three years), selected by Amsa spa, A2A Group, will participate in a course with ecodesigner aimed at creating the mural.

Another novelty this year will be the experimental project on water, born together with the Food Policy offices of Milan and in collaboration with MM and A2a, to promote knowledge of the water cycle, the quality of public water, the use more correct so as not to waste it, the importance it has for the territory and to learn how to reduce the use of disposable plastic. This experimental project will initially involve some secondary schools, including the Alessandro Manzoni Civic School Centre.

“Water is one of the fundamental elements for Milan's Food Policy – ​​comments deputy mayor Anna Scavuzzo – and has also always characterized the history of our city. The immense hidden network of canals and canals that connect the city to the surrounding countryside, the goodness and care for 'the Mayor's water', the attention to consumption and the reduction of waste. In an important project like this, issues related to water cannot therefore be missing: educating young people to drink a lot and not waste, telling them how to take care of the environment, sources, waterways and together infrastructure, drinking water, analysis, purifiers. Good and healthy water, water for everyone, water is life from the irrigation of the fields to the jugs on the school canteen tables."