Three million green jobs. 328 Italian companies (22%) in industry and services with at least one employee who have invested since 2008, or will do so this year, in green technologies to reduce environmental impact and save energy. This is what emerges from the Greenitaly report, presented today in Milan by Unioncamere and the Symbola Foundation, in which the agriculture case stands out. Almost half (49,1%) of companies with mainly agricultural production with employees, the report indicates, have adopted methods and technologies to reduce energy and water consumption in the last three years. The peak of 63% is reached in the sector of greenhouse crops and nurseries, where the consumption of water and energy is quite high.
Italian agriculture, recalls the GreenItaly report, is one of the most competitive at European level with records in value added per hectare (2.181 euros/ha, three times that of the United Kingdom, double that of Spain, almost double that of France, 1 and a half times that of Germany), agricultural workers per hectare (10,1 every 100 ha, three times that of France, Germany and Spain, almost 6 times that of the United Kingdom), exports around the world and food security. With regard to this last aspect, the report underlines, it is enough to think that the "Italian agricultural sector boasts the lowest number of agri-food products with chemical residues above the limit (0,3%), 5 times lower than those of the European average (1,5, 26% of irregularities) and 7,9 times to non-EU citizens (XNUMX%). Important results, achieved also thanks to the bet on quality and sustainability.
The green economy, according to Symbola and Unioncamere, is a new production paradigm that expresses, in our country, the propulsive part of the economy: in fact, those who invest in green, as we read in the report now in its fourth edition, are stronger abroad: 42% of manufacturing companies that make eco-investments export their products, against 25,4% of those that don't.
Positive signals are also coming from the national green economy on the issue of youth employment: 42% of the total number of under-30 hires planned this year by companies in the industry and services with at least one employee will be done by the 22% of companies that make green investments.
“GreenItaly – explains Ferruccio Dardanello, president of Unioncamere – tells us about an Italy that knows how to be more competitive and more equitable, because it is founded on a different production model. Where tradition and innovation, sustainability and quality intersect creating a new competitiveness. Italy is not one of the victims of globalization but, rather, a country that has taken advantage of it to profoundly change its international specialization, modernizing it, thanks to the green economy”.
