“Salomone Sostenibile”: an Award to ‘Communicate’ the University's Leading Role in Sustainable Development

This paper illustrates the process of designing and implementing the “Salomone Sostenibile” award. This initiative was born in conjunction with important efforts by the University of Florence, the Center for Generative Communication (CfGC), and the “Ateneo Sostenibile” group over the last two years to enhance and communicate knowledge and skills related to the complex sphere of sustainability. The award is an initiative aimed to promote, aggregate and systemize the best practices, experiences and studies on sustainability matters. More than a simple award, Salomone Sostenibile is a true communication environment designed to aggregate the innovation and research generated by the University through their application in production processes and projects to improve well-being and quality of life at local and national level. The main innovative feature of this award is that it can create a community of interests, knowledge, competencies, and skills to innovate and generate sustainable behaviors at both individual and collective levels. In other words, not just a point of arrival and gratification for the best research and development experiences, but rather a starting point for identifying and creating relationships among the range of realities in education, research, production, associationism and civil society that contribute to promoting sustainable development. Thus, promoting this award, University of Florence can strengthen the leadership that universities have claimed for decades in this area. In this sense, the award reinforces the univerisity’s Third Mission and bolsters relationships and mutual exchanges with the territory and its economic, institutional and social actors. The award consists of four sections: • best thesis; • best project of a profit company; • best project of a non-profit association; • ambassador of sustainability.