Since the end of 2021, UPS has officially joined the Laudato Sì Platform of Initiatives, desired by Pope Francis to promote the values of integral ecology. Thanks to "Global Power Service", the university has already begun to install a system of photovoltaic panels on all the building’s roofs to produce clean energy that will replace the current 6 thermal plants with new generation equipment, less polluting and more efficient.
Translated into numbers, the University will save the environment 230 tons of CO2 emissions per year, equivalent to planting 580 new trees. However, this industrious academic community is also committed to reducing the use of plastic, dematerializing paper documents, and installing electric vehicle recharging stations. “To achieve all this,” says Fr Andrea Bozzolo, UPS Rector, “there is, however, a fundamental step needed: the conversion of behavior. Each of us is called upon to achieve ecology in our daily lives and to infect the environment in which we live with a new mentality."
A concrete contribution to the care of Creation, but also an important example to follow.
“For us believers,” continues Fr Bozzolo, “nature is not only the environment, but it is Creation, according to the beautiful biblical image, that is the work of God's hand. And as the work of an artist speaks of his style and personality, of his world, of his experience, so Creation is a Word to be listened to. Therefore, through the concrete commitment to the custody of the Common House, we want at the same time to work on the hearts and minds of our children, who are highly sensitive to environmental issues and eager to work, to generate skills, especially educational, so that a new relationship with Creation is born, takes root and spreads.”
UPS is not the first university in Italy to equip itself with a photovoltaic system, but it certainly is among the pontifical universities. “It was the Holy Father's encyclical,” continues Professor Fr Bozzolo, “that inspired our project, but this text inspires our work every day, especially in the perspective of an integral ecology, in which attention to nature cannot be separated from attention to and listening to the cry of the poor.”
The Rector Magnificus especially insists on the need to change our behaviors. “It is not only the big projects that make the difference but the small daily gestures that each of us can put into practice. This is also why we have decided to reduce the consumption of plastic, to change the water dispensers in the bathrooms, to move towards energy saving, the recycling of food waste.... Too often in our gestures, there is already an offense to the environment; we keep the water on or the light on when not needed, thinking we are not doing anything wrong! Awareness is lacking and what we are trying to do is to educate the younger generations to change their mentality and spirituality.”
Hence, an environmental and at the same time educational urban regeneration to inspire others to take similar actions in favor of the environment.
