Among the proposals to make our cities greener and more resilient to changing climatic conditions, there is growing attention to urban afforestation projects. What are their advantages, and why should we focus on cities, where roads, pavements and parking lots make planting particularly difficult? What is the situation of urban greenery in Italy, and what measures will be implemented in the next few years? And above all, are there drawbacks to such popular measures? We try to answer these and...

What more eagerly awaited event for Italian design than the Salone del Mobile-Fuorisalone? Exceptionally scheduled for September 2021, in anticipation of the traditional annual appointment in April, this edition of the design kermesse had a very special flavour for us: VAIA set up its own exhibition stand in its incomparable setting, and presented its second object, VAIA Focus, to the world. Couldn't visit us? This post is for you: together we will explore the folds of our installation and of...

Ketty Paller is not just another entrepreneur. A humanist with a passion for wellness, hiking and nature, in 2016 she launched UpSens, a startup specialising in environmental monitoring technology. Today the company, which has its headquarters in Trentino, Italy and is part of the Optoi Group, makes hi-tech sensors and devices to help improve people's quality of life.UpSens' philosophy has little to do with that of many start-ups dreaming of Silicon Valley. The company is driven by values such...

Jacopo Tondelli is editor-in-chief and co-founder of Gli Stati Generali, an online news outlet based in Milan. A true Milanese, 43 years old and with a wealth of journalistic experience, over the years he has written for newspapers such as Il Corriere della Sera and Wired. He founded one of the first Italian online investigative newspapers – Linkiesta, which he directed from 2011 to 2013. Jacopo has also written several books, and above all has developed through the years – armed with great...

Ecological transition is not a mirage. Falck is a centuries-old venture based in Milan that produced steel until the 1990s and has since transitioned fully towards the production of clean energy from wind and solar. As well as doing business though, a company also has the moral duty of contributing to the community – as Irene Falck, Falck Foundation board member, explains us. The Foundation supported an important research project carried out by the Polytechnic University of Milan that led to...

Elisabetta Reyneri is Legal Advisor and Project Coordinator of the non-profit organisation Cittadini per l'Aria (Citizens for Clean Air). On 15 July she will be our guest at “Earth to Milan: trees and communities for the future”, a round table in which we will explore current and future projects for a more sustainable and people-friendly city. We asked her to tell us about the steps that the association has taken in its environmental advocacy action, in Milan and beyond. Meet Cittadini per...

There are now numerous international commitments to reforestation. The Billion Tree Campaign launched by the UN Environment Programme in 2006 was followed by the Bonn Challenge in 2011 and by the One Trillion Trees Initiative, launched at the World Economic Forum 2020. Planting a new tree is an important action that we fully support: to date VAIA has contributed to planting, in collaboration with our partner Etifor and the local forestry corps, more than 17,000 larch and spruce seedlings in...

The upheavals of 2020 have accelerated the changing pace at which we live and create new products and services.  In the background, stand two simple geometric figures. The line characterises supply chains that start with the extraction of virgin materials, and which ultimately see the product as waste. The circle accompanies the thought that every output of one production process is the potential input of another.  The move from the line to the circle is...

Recent months’ developments are testing our most ingrained habits, along with the production systems we rely on to provide for our needs and desires. The phenomenon, which had been announced by some, has lashed the world at high speed. Of the origins and potential causes of COVID-19 (acronym for COronaVIrus Disease 19) that have been floated in the last weeks, amid the incessant rhythm of daily bulletins, you probably have lost track already.  It is not easy to pinpoint the root cause of a...