Sustainable Campus
As all the top international universities, one of PoliTO aims is indeed to increase the awareness of its social role in the city and the whole, as individuals and institution able to drive the change toward a more sustainable future. Being already sustainable in the fields of research, education and administration, PoliTO wishes to develop a campus model that addresses global challenges via solutions in harmony with nature, technology and human beings, leveraging on collective knowledge and transmitting the results into the urban connective tissue nurtured by the presence of PoliTO in the Torino metropolitan context.
A dedicated team, named “Green Team”, an internal group of professors, students, administrative staff and researchers that encourages PoliTO to address environmental and social challenges, was established in 2015.
This team is intended to lead the PoliTO towards the university sustainability mission, as stated in the Horizon 2020 strategic plan: a comprehensive integration of sustainability into the university research, teaching, outreach and operations that prepares students, faculty and staff to be sustainability leaders in their professional, personal and civic lives.
Two members of the DIST are involved: prof. Patrizia Lomabrdi as coordinator of the green team and responsible of the action field named “urban outreach”, and dr Giulia Sonetti, carrying active research on the transversal theme of campus sustainability.
The urban outreach action field includes two fundamental focuses: a first one, towards the city and the society, and a second one, directed to PoliTO’s internal community.
With regard to the first one, a strategic point of the urban outreach strategy of PoliTO is the preservation of existing facilities and buildings as well as to increase the recognition of urban places used by university users (buildings, paths, bars, study rooms etc.) and to strengthen of the sense of belonging in the city of Turin. PoliTO’ sites are located all over the metropolitan area, offering a widespread and multi-polar system of services, which are highly interconnected and permeable with the local resources, including public and private companies and institutions of all levels. The dialogue between university and local authorities is encouraged by PoliTO’s board of directors in order to support the development of common strategies to feed local service companies and services to the city users, especially the students enrolling every year from many different countries.