Green Economy

Economically viable, environmentally sustainable and socially fair: these are the three pillars on which, since the beginning of the century, the new economic theory – widely known under the name “green economy” – has been developing.

The full economic analysis started with the 2006 Stern Report commissioned by the UK Government, which attempted to calculate the damages caused by climate change on world economy.

The document proposed to consider the economic system not only in terms of the benefits of a given production system on Gross Domestic Product increase, but also in the light of the environmental impact produced by the raw material transformation process throughout the life cycle of a given product.

That level of insight is revolutionising the manufacturing system and is leading to the development of a number of initiatives to finally accomplish a drastic reduction of the environmental impact generated by human activities on ecosystems.

Further encouraged by international and European regulations, new “low impact” activities have been growing, often identified by other colours from green: white economy, focused on energy requalification activities; blue economy, leveraging technology mimicking nature to accomplish zero greenhouse gas emissions and, finally, circular economy.