The 2018-2023 Strategic Plan envisages the combination of research and technology in order to positively impact some of the most important societal challenges of the 21st century, first of all Sustainability and the Environment. These challenges include research and technological progress in water cycle/water remediation, waste recovery and biodegradability, sustainable materials by design, food traceability, and smart packaging.
IIT strives for sustainability in all areas, also with regard to the aspects that support the execution of the research activity.
For this reason IIT has an Environmental Policy aimed at minimizing its impacts through optimal management of infrastructures, tools and activities: in accordance with it, since 2015 IIT is provided with an Environmental Management System (EMS) compliant with the UNI EN ISO 14001:2015 standard and currently certified for the following centers: Center for Convergent Technologies, Center for Human Technologies, and Center for Robotics and Intelligent Systems.
Through the EMS, IIT ensures that sustainability is not only an aim of research, but also a means (infrastructures and operational management) on which the research itself is based.
In 2022 IIT carried out a new project aimed at monitoring its environmental impacts: the CCT Carbon Footprint calculation.
The Carbon Footprint is the total amount of Greenhouse gas associated with all CCT activities and consumption (reference period: 2021); the results are contained in an Inventory Report compliant to the ISO standard for reporting GHG emissions, verified by an independent certification body.
This work provides important and innovative information regarding emissions from research centers, given the multidisciplinary nature of the CCT; it was also awarded during the first edition of the Genoa Global Award, an event conceived by the Municipality of Genoa to reward the commitment to achieve the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.