Rome, 30 March 2017 – UNIDO ITPO Italy participated to the to the International Workshop on Resource Efficiency jointly organized by Confindustria, the Confederation of Italian Industry, and the Global Business Coalition (GBC), the organization which gather together the industrial associations of the G20 member countries, in the framework of the “G7 Business Summit”, with the aim to disseminate information on ITPO Italy’s project entitled “Support to Iran’s SMEs through investment promotion and technology transfer in energy and environment”, financed by the Italian Ministry of Environment, Land and See in the framework of the agreements signed with the Iranian Department of Environment on cooperation for environmental protection and sustainable development.

The conference was organized around four different panels, aimed at identifying the best practices by which the business community can actively contribute to define coherent and meaningful polices in the field of sustainability. As a result, the debate was focused on resource efficiency, to be meant as smart management of both materials, energy sources and natural resources. This topic has been chosen due to its several industrial policy implications, as well as for the horizontal impacts on energy, environment, transports, infrastructures, innovation and research.

Among the main speakers, we can underline the interventions of Mr. Gian Luca Galletti, Minister of the Environment of the Italian Republic; Ms. Kristilina Georgieva, Chief Executive Office of the World Bank; Mr. Helge Wendenburg, Director General Water Management and Resource Conservation for the Federal Ministry of the Environment of Germany; Mr. Shardul Agrawala, Head Environment and Economic Integration Division for the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); and Mr. Marco Gay, President Young Entrepreneurs of Confindustria.

The participation to the conference provided to UNIDO ITPO Italy staff the opportunity to strengthen working relations with a relevant number of entrepreneurs that have participated to the event.