Leonardo Becchetti: the challenge is to create impact on communities and the environment

di Francesco Unali

After thirty years of globalization marked by the acceleration of trade and the ever-increasing frequency of financial crises, the shocks generated by the pandemic, inflation and the war in Ukraine are forcing us to reconsider many of the factors of current development.

Casting an eye on the opportunities that open up starting from these scenarios and focusing on social responsibility, environmental sustainability and impact economics is Leonardo Becchetti (in the circle), professor of Political Economy at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” and director of Civil Economy festival. If on the one hand we have understood that the globalization we have known has not always been able to be efficient, on the other hand you support the importance of some forms of self-organisation of communities in strategic sectors such as energy.

What are the limits to the widespread diffusion of these new processes today?
As citizens we have three ways to become energy independent. The first is to put panels on our roof but this applies to those who have houses, roofs and suitable resources.
The second is condominiums (collective self-consumption) with a proven method that does not ask condominiums for a single euro and immediately allows you to gradually return from the investment.
The third is the energy communities that allow even those who do not have the right house or condominium to co-produce energy from renewables together with other members of the community who can be schools, families, businesses, parishes.

The delay in diffusion depends on the slow transition from the old regime to the new one linked to the legislative decree that implements the new European rules. Furthermore, the implementing decrees that complete this process have been delayed for more than six months.

What should the market economy do to become a "well-being economy", simultaneously pursuing the objectives of growth and social impact?
It must put generativity at the center, understood as the ability of our lives to generate a positive impact on the community and the environment. Generativity is the root of satisfaction and the richness of the meaning of life. It is possible to direct society and the economy in this direction starting from the use of specific indicators that measure the ability of territories to favor the generative choices of citizens, indicators such as those with which we measure the well-being of territories in the Civil Economy festival . Europe is today the most cutting-edge continent in terms of levels of public health, welfare and quality of life, but the increase in costs and inequalities, especially in demographically older areas, risks significantly changing the framework of well-being and cohesion social.

What measures should Italy and the European Union take to protect current levels?
It is essential to continue the approach that defines essential levels of performance in health and welfare, but this is not enough. It is necessary to set in motion not only mechanisms of minimum thresholds but also processes that allow for upward convergence, i.e. towards best practices.

For years you have been spreading the culture of the civil economy through a variety of active citizenship and responsible consumption initiatives, and in your conferences you explicitly talk about "happiness": what battles must be fought to build an economy that takes into account well-being indicators? The fundamental imperative is to unite the "generative" (we have tried to do this by creating "Next", the network of organizations that work towards these objectives) and strengthen the pillar of civil and active citizenship which is the true wealth of every democracy and , historically, the richness of ours. The tools that make participation and citizenship concrete by generating responses to today's challenges are energy communities, the growth of cooperation, the "vote with your wallet" of responsible consumption and savings, shared administration paths and all those economic processes which bring together the creation of economic value and values, such as the reintegration into work of vulnerable categories.
The economy of the future we need will be made up of resilient communities and networks capable of promoting social and environmental sustainability.