The degree can wait. But Giulio is certain: sooner or later, that will come too. "I'd really love to, truly. But it's not easy to study in spare moments. And here –" he says, gesturing towards the field behind him "– the work never ends." Giulio Gargani is 27 years old and for the past couple of years – in addition to being a part-time student – he has also been a full-time farmer and entrepreneur. In 2014 he founded Agrimé.it, a food production and distribution company specialising in organic farming.

The heart of the business is in Rifredi, one of the most densely populated neighbourhoods in Florence, where Giulio took over a field of around five hectares. But this is just one of the many faces of Agrimé; the company's real business operates online.

How Agrimé works

Agrimé.it works like this: you visit the site, register, and start doing your virtual shopping (fruit, vegetables, but also meat, honey, cheeses and everything else offered by the partner businesses listed on the site). Then, once you've completed your order, all that's left is to collect your goods from the designated pick-up point. In short, a kind of Amazon in organic form. Without the courier, though.

"We chose not to offer home delivery for two reasons. The first is obviously economic: it wouldn't make sense to have our customers pay 5 or 10 euros to have a crate of courgettes delivered to their door; and then, second, because we want to have as little impact on the environment as possible."

Zero-kilometre, seasonal and organic products

This is the philosophy of Agrimé, a small company that today has six employees, almost all under 30. A company that makes sustainability its guiding model. "The first form of sustainability is economic sustainability," Giulio clarifies straight away, as any good entrepreneur would. Almost as if to underline that a company, above all else, must think about balancing the books. "Also because at the end of the month the employees have to be paid. And when you give work to young people you do something important not just for them, but for society as a whole." But that's not all. "We chose to grow and distribute organic products not only to have less impact on the environment, but also to rediscover the traditions tied to the products of our territory."

This story is about a young entrepreneur and his small company. But it also tells us something more: a new way of doing business, mindful of the environmental and social impacts of its own actions, which is today gaining ever more ground among the new generation of entrepreneurs. The path of sustainability runs through here too.