Italia Nostra Arcipelago Toscano (AT) is an Italian nonprofit whose mission is to protect and valorize the Italian environment and its cultural heritage. There is increasing urgency to protect and revitalize specific Italian areas, which is crucial for the Italian and Mediterranean environment, like the AT. Increasing threats have emerged, driven by increasing globalization, unsustainable consumption, and the global energy crisis. My project aimed at analyzing the AT's current situation and threats, and identifying solutions for the creation of a more sustainable future.

The numerous group assignments taught me how to coordinate with different stakeholders on deadlines. My previous experience with my learning team significantly boosted this capability of team management and coordination. My LEAD: People, Teams, Organizations course helped me significantly.

Finally, in terms of data-analysis, the Managerial Statistics and Business Analytics courses helped me better understand and read analysis, as well as perform a more comprehensive and effective analysis. Regarding hard skills, my time at CBS helped my ability using Excel, which has been helpful to structure our analyses.

A key challenge faced was finding the necessary data points. Since our focus was limited to a small area of Italy, the publicly available data was not that rich. We had to move through regional and national agencies that collect regional and local data to gain access to some information. Initially, we faced a lack of response, but we managed to circumvent this by collaborating with Italia Nostra and asking for their support. In some cases where data was not available, we decided with Italia Nostra that it would be possible to build rough bottom-up estimates that could help give a sense of the magnitude. A further challenge was determining how to keep a neutral and objective tone in the analysis conducted. Italia Nostra wants to generate awareness and sensibility around this topic, stimulating action. Some work has been done already by other associations in the space, with different levels of detail and execution. It was hence fundamental to keep a tone of narrative that guaranteed us to be as much diplomatic as possible in order to preserve Italia Nostra's relationship with other operating players in the area.

Besides the amazing experience, working for my “land,” in particular working for its preservation, I learned the discrepancy between having a good idea and implementing it and coordinating with stakeholders. Governance is often undervalued, but it is often the institution that makes a difference. A taskforce empowered to coordinate actors and guarantee and monitor the success of plan is vital for a strategy and to make things happen. Moreover, I learned that the public administration in Italy needs large improvements, especially in terms of efficiency and data-driven sources. An over-burocracy and overlayering slow operations down.

After this experience I'm reevaluating pursuing a career in the sustainability field. Instead, maybe I will pursue a career in public administration (e.g., the development of strategic plan for PA in Italy, more broadly for the nation).