Written by Sarah Dean, Sustainable Carolina’s fall 2024 traveling intern.
In the fall of 2024, I had the privilege of calling Florence, Italy home. There, I studied environmental issues in the classroom and saw mitigation strategies implemented across Europe. During those four months, I noticed a strikingly different culture of sustainability compared to that in the United States.
Cooking like an Italian
In Italy, I discovered that sustainability is a critical component of their cuisine. In an Italian cooking course, my professor detailed Italians’ emphasis on locally sourced, seasonal ingredients. The primary benefit of eating local foods, said Hilary McClafferty, is they are higher in nutrients than produce that has traveled long distances.
From an environmental perspective, local ingredients have a reduced environmental footprint associated with transportation. The transition towards more sustainable dietary patterns, which rely on local ingredients, plays a pivotal role in the mitigation of environmental issues.
Additionally, Italians minimize food waste through techniques like “nose-to-tail” cooking, which utilize all parts of an animal. For example, the stomach of a cow, which is not commonly used in the U.S., is used in a traditional Florentine dish called Lampredotto. This practice not only minimizes waste, but also reduces the environmental impact of the meat industry by decreasing the demand for factory-farmed meat.
Sustainability at the forefront
While studying in Italy, I had the opportunity to travel to other countries like the Netherlands and Denmark, both of which put sustainability at the forefront of life. Not only do citizens’ actions reinforce this prioritization, for example through increased use of low-to-no-emission transportation, but government policies are used to advance sustainability efforts.
The Dutch government, in addition to enacting rigorous climate policies, strives to create a completely circular economy by 2050. Their capital city, Amsterdam, went a step further and adopted the Doughnut Economic Model in 2020. This is a framework for sustainable development which prioritizes meeting people’s basic needs while staying within the ecological limit of the planet.
While visiting Amsterdam, I saw how innovation is met with government support and public enthusiasm. I had the privilege of researching and writing about blue-green roofs, an innovation in water resiliency which was funded primarily by the European Union. This technology allows the city to be more prepared for rain events while also reducing roof surface temperatures.
Through personal research and conversations with residents of the EU, it became clear to me that policy is a critical pillar for promoting renewable energy and carbon emission reductions. I found a shared sense of urgency between constituents and governments which ultimately led to action.