It would take pages and pages to describe how much the world has changed over the last ten years — through changes of government, international tensions, a pandemic, shifting market trends, increasingly sophisticated technologies, and a climate crisis you can feel with your own hands. Against this backdrop, one need remains constant: to protect the planet's resources for the benefit of future generations. In a word, to make our development model more sustainable. It is therefore welcome news that the number of Italians who know what sustainability means, who care about it, and who are even willing to make small sacrifices to behave in the way they consider most responsible, is growing. A change that LifeGate's national Observatory on sustainable lifestyles follows step by step.

What is LifeGate's national Observatory on sustainable lifestyles

Ten years ago, LifeGate decided to survey a representative sample of the Italian population to explore knowledge, attitudes and behaviours relating to the main sustainability topics. It was the first edition of the national Observatory on sustainable lifestyles, conducted in collaboration with the market research institute Eumetra by Renato Mannheimer, and presented in May 2015, as Expo was getting under way in Milan.

Since then, as sustainability gradually made its way into the mass-media agenda, corporate strategies and political priorities, the Observatory has continued year after year to take the pulse of public opinion. It has also produced dedicated in-depth studies on young people from Generation Z and on the residents of Rome and Milan, the country's main cities. Some of the questions have remained the same throughout, to allow answers to be compared over time, while others have been enriched with the major topics that have emerged in the meantime: from artificial intelligence to the Piano nazionale di ripresa e resilienza (Pnrr), from possible responses to the energy crisis to corporate commitments on diversity and inclusion. In doing so, the Observatory's data have offered food for thought to be discussed with representatives from business, politics, the scientific community and journalism.

The tenth edition has received the patronage of the European Commission, the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, the Lombardy Region, the Municipality of Milan, and Confcommercio, and is made possible by the support of Gruppo Unipol, Jaguar Land Rover Italia and Henkel Italia. Media partner is E-Planet, Mediaset's green magazine broadcast every Sunday on Italia 1.

Ten years on, sustainability has gone mainstream

The first edition captured an Italy that was drawing closer to sustainability, but still showing a degree of immaturity. More than half of the sample, presented with a list of ten expressions (for example sustainable mobility, sustainable tourism and so on), said they had never heard of a single one. This gave rise to widespread scepticism: four in ten Italians dismissed sustainability as a passing trend.

Today the overall picture is very different. 52 per cent of Italians pass with flying colours when it comes to knowledge of the vocabulary of sustainability, 68 per cent regard it as a topic they feel strongly about, and almost 90 per cent call loudly on the country to invest in renewable sources and on companies to adopt sustainable and innovative production processes. Compared with ten years ago, the absolute majority of our fellow citizens pay more attention to the quality of food (88 per cent), and to the origin, raw materials and labels of the products they buy (86, 84 and 79 per cent respectively).

The Observatory also offers a vision of the future

But the true focus of this edition is on the future that awaits us. Looking ahead to the next ten years, 46 per cent of Italians believe the climate crisis will become an increasingly relevant issue, 27 per cent that it will be necessary to limit tourist flows to the most popular destinations, and a further 17 per cent that smart cities will guarantee a better quality of life. It is also interesting to assess the gap between what our fellow citizens would like and what they think will actually happen. 26 per cent hope that the world of work will become increasingly inclusive and fulfilling, and 22 per cent that there will be more food for everyone by replacing meat with plant-based proteins; yet the percentage of those who consider these prospects realistic is far lower, at 10 per cent.

During the presentation event held in the stunning Glass house of Villa Necchi Campiglio, speakers were invited to share their own vision for the next ten years. The audience also had the chance to have their say, responding to polls and questions in real time, thanks to the artificial intelligence technologies made available by Plesh, the event's AI tech partner.

77 per cent of Italians are engaged with sustainability

As knowledge deepens and attitudes become more favourable, behaviours — as a natural consequence — evolve too. The tenth edition of the national Observatory on sustainable lifestyles thus reveals that cost remains the primary barrier to conscious purchasing: 62 per cent of respondents say so, rising to a peak of 71 per cent among the very youngest members of Generation Z. Despite this, our fellow citizens are willing to make small economic sacrifices to purchase, for example, an efficient heating system (cited by 35 per cent of the sample), organic food (34 per cent), or a climate-change insurance policy (26 per cent). For businesses, this is undoubtedly an opportunity not to be missed — but on one condition: that they always act in a transparent manner. Because the number of people who label corporate sustainability initiatives as marketing moves is higher than those who regard them as genuine (49 per cent versus 44, and among young people the gap is even wider: 65 per cent versus 27).

Since its very first edition, LifeGate's national Observatory on sustainable lifestyles has processed all the responses provided and divided respondents into three categories. The first is the disengaged: in 2015 they accounted for 57 per cent of the total; now they represent just 23 per cent. Then there are the interested and the passionate: ten years ago they were a minority; today they make up 77 per cent. In other words, more than three in four Italians are engaged with sustainability. The direction taken is clear and unmistakable. But this is not a destination: the state of the planet and of the society in which we live demands that all of us — citizens, companies, institutions — do much, much more. This will be the challenge for the next ten years.

A multi-voice presentation event

This year too, the presentation of results took place at Villa Necchi Campiglio, an elegant historic residence in the very heart of Milan, before a distinguished audience of guests: Beppe Sala, Mayor of Milan, Marco Barbieri, Secretary General of Unione Confcommercio Milano Lodi Monza e Brianza, Enea Roveda, Chief Executive Officer of the LifeGate Group, Giovanni Mori, science communicator and speaker, Ferruccio de Bortoli, journalist and essayist, Mario Calderini, Professor at the Politecnico di Milano, Gianna Martinengo, President of the Scientific Committee of Musa Scarl, Marisa Parmigiani, Head of Sustainability at Gruppo Unipol, Stefano Paolo Corgnati, Rector of the Politecnico di Torino, and Davide Massetti, student, Giusi Viani, Head of Corporate Communication at Henkel Italia and member of the Sustainable Development Committee, Marco Santucci, Chief Executive Officer of Jaguar Land Rover Italia, Francesca Vecchioni, President of Fondazione Diversity and Diversity Lab. Data and trends were presented by Renato Mannheimer, pollster at Eumetra. The thematic panels were moderated by journalists Tommaso Perrone, Roberto Sposini and Emanuele Bompan. The event was hosted by Roberto Sposini and Simona Roveda, Editorial and Communications Director of the LifeGate Group.