How do you imagine Venice in the future? Marco Capovilla, Sustainability Specialist

For Marco Capovilla, Sustainability expert, #RiscrivereilFuturo of Venice is an opportunity to make long-term forecasts.

Venezia da Vivere and the Associazione Piazza San Marco are asking people from the worlds of economy, tourism, science, art, culture, universities, and craftsmanship to share their ideas for the future of Venice. We interviewed Marco Capovilla, sustainability expert of the Venezia Pulita Group.

VDV: How do you imagine Venice in the future?

Beyond socio-political-economic discourse, according to climate change scholars, Venice will be flooded with increasing frequency. How much it will be flooded depends on how much we manage to reduce emissions, but it is certain that it will go underwater unless the ground on which it stands is raised or the lagoon is isolated from the sea. Few people talk about it but that is how it is; it hurts to think about it, not so much because it is Venice, but because Venice is my home and the home of others.

VDV: What can politics and citizens do for a rebirth of Venice?

Citizens must study, they must understand things; critical thinking is needed to understand the situation and look beyond one’s own backyard. Venice has been compromised by greed, by easy money within everyone’s reach. No incredible fortune, but a decidedly widespread wealth acquired without too many sacrifices. Money as an end in itself. An enormous evil.

Politicians, the good ones, can contribute to this. To show that it is possible to live outside certain monotonous, monothematic patterns. Not a return to the past, but a look to the future with an eye always on the past, on where we come from.

VDV: Propose a specific idea in at least one of these areas: environment, residency, work, culture, security, tourism.

Environment: Reduction of 3 sources of pollution

1. Motorboats: electric propulsion for public transport as soon as possible. Incentivize the latest generation of internal combustion engines on other vessels until electric power is economically affordable for all users.

2. Use of low-impact antifouling paints. These are biocidal products designed to prevent life from developing on the hull; they are pollutants both in Venice and globally. We need to find sustainable, very low-impact alternatives.

3. Mandatory low-impact detergents and cosmetics. They have an enormous impact; it is useless to create a sewage system costing hundreds of millions of euros to treat the water. There are already septic tanks and purification plants, but they must be used by pouring fewer dangerous chemicals into them. We need products that protect the health of the environment and people. Let them make Venice a global example, as happened in 1988 when Mayor Casellati, a person very sensitive to environmental issues, banned the sale of products containing phosphates to fight the eutrophication of the lagoon. This action led to the ban of phosphates from detergents worldwide. It was done over 30 years ago; it can be done today, immediately.

4. No more bottled water, enough. Millions of bottles every year because no one tells tourists that the water from fountains and taps is good. It is useless to boast of high-quality water if it is not promoted. We are submerged in plastic; there are those who live by selling practically only bottled water to tourists, but we absolutely cannot continue like this. Whether it is a matter of awareness or a public administration mandate with appropriate fiscal levers, all this use of bottled water must end.

Work: we need work other than tourism.

A diversified economy, and then we need inhabitants. With residents, the city comes back to life; it doesn’t matter where they come from, as long as they are people who like being in Venice, who find themselves living among canals, alleys, and squares; the rest follows naturally.

Marco Capovilla, Sustainability Specialist at the University of Padua.