The Politecnico di Milano on February 16 th, 2024, will celebrate the National Energy Saving and Sustainable Lifestyles Day (established by Law no. 34, 27/04/2022 and subsequent amendments).

The National Day was also recognised thanks to M’Illumino di Meno (I use less light) campaign – which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year – devised by Caterpillar, the RAI Radio2 programme, launched on February 16th, 2005, on the occasion of the Kyoto Protocol.

To mark the Day, also sponsored by the RUS – Italian Network of Universities for Sustainable Development, the Politecnico will symbolically switch off – from 6 to 8 p.m. – the façade of its most representative building, the Rector’s Office, overlooking Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32 in Milan.

Celebrating the National Energy Saving and Sustainable Lifestyles Day is above all an opportunity to remind to Politecnico community the commitment to implementing the energy saving and renewable energy targets set out in the 2023-2025 Strategic Sustainability Plan.

During the year 2023, for example, the effort to reduce energy consumption was particularly significant and enabled the university to achieve important results, which can be summarised as a reduction in electricity consumption compared to 2022 of more than 8% and a reduction in natural gas consumption compared to the same period of around 15%. These results, also made possible by a favourable wheather season during 2023, both in summer and winter, were possible thanks to different actions that can be classified in three categories.
First of all, for more than a decade, the University has been engaged in a technological renovation of its equipments which has allowed it to steadily increase the energy efficiency of its activities. This type of action has been recently intensified: for example, the connection of about 950 kWp of photovoltaic systems at the Milan headquarters in Piazza Leonardo da Vinci; specific management solutions have been implemented, mainly aimed at optimising the heating and cooling systems, as well as controlling the correct switching off of lights.

Last but not least, the whole Politecnico community adopted energy-saving behaviours, also aware of the particularly complicated moment that our continent has experienced and is currently experiencing.