“No.we do not just want to produce culture but luminous and social energy. This is why we want to create an energy community in our area “: Anna Teresa Ferri is the manager of theIC Pizzigoni renewed of Milan, the school that follows the pedagogical method of Giuseppina Pizzigoni based on observing reality and “learning by doing”. A school already included in the Green School network, with a rich program of environmental education already in place (there is the educational farm, the vegetable garden, an ongoing project on the reduction of plastic and separate waste collection) now wants to take an extra step on environmental education and energy saving.
A flash mob of the students of the IC Rinnovata Pizzigoni in Milan for the implementation of the UN 2030 agenda. The school has a plan to create an energy community.
“We will put solar panels on the roof of the primary school Dante Alighieri, of the Puecher upper secondary school and of the Bottoni high school, with whom we are in the network », explains the manager. «They should serve not only to make the schools self-sufficient from an energy point of view but also many of the associated families. And that’s not enough. Schools have periods in which they produce energy without using it, for example in the summer, in the afternoon or on weekends. This will give us a good margin of surplus to be used in the territory, in favor of fragile families. The feasibility plan has already been done, and both the municipal technical office and the Milan Polytechnic have already given the ok. The objectives are therefore two: the first is energy saving, the environmental education of young people; the second solidarity ”.
The vegetable garden of the IC Rinnovata Pizzigoni. The school will become an energy community.
The energy community will be born with funding
The idea was born from the teachers, to be proactive in the area. A few months ago the association “Towards the Ghisolfa campus” was established, because both the Rinnovata and the Bottoni are close to the Ghisolfa bridge. Indeed, in the same quadrilateral there are also some kindergartens: “In just one block we have an educational center for children and teenagers from 3 to 19 years old“. The neighborhood associations – from the Community of Villapizzone to the Mondadori Foundation, to Spazio Polline – are online: «They gather the needs of the territory and act as a sounding board. The more associations are connected, the better the intervention can be managed ».
The purpose of the association is to participate in dedicated calls to raise the necessary funding: «When we finally have the funds, CER, that is the renewable energy community, will be born. In the space of a couple of years we could accomplish everything, also in order to show the students the concrete results and benefits of the project. They will be the protagonists of the realization of our dream ».
iO Donna © REPRODUCTION RESERVED