Environmental sustainability

Since its foundation, INFN has always pursued the goal of being not only a theoretical and experimental research organization, but also an institution committed to ensuring that some of its technologies developed in fundamental research can find applications for the benefit of society and the planet. Therefore, attention to sustainability and respect for the environment are fundamental principles for the INFN community.

In recent years, the awareness of the importance of environmental sustainability has grown considerably and the institution launched, in all structures, a project to quantify the environmental footprint of its activities through the use of specific impact indicators: greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, resource consumption, use of ionizing radiation sources for research purposes, etc.
This project led to the publication of the first INFN Environmental Report which covers the years 2021, 2022, 2023 and a second report in which data from 2024 are also analyzed. The Environmental Reports provide an initial overview of the environmental impacts associated with INFN’s activities.

Summary of the first environmental report INFN

INFN Environmental Report 2024

The three pillars of sustainability

With these reports, we have learned a lot about our environmental footprint and have begun to implement effective measures to better understand and control it, useful strategies to mitigate the environmental footprint of our activities and to promote a culture of sustainability within our institution. The goal is to balance the pursuit of scientific progress with the responsibility to protect and preserve the environment for future generations. Starting from the analysis of the data you can find in this report, we began working to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and to manage water consumption more accurately. Furthermore, in collaboration with the Energy Managers, we are working on a detailed mapping of all consumption points in order to plan additional energy-saving measures, complementing the investments already made, including those related to the use of renewable energy sources.

In the meanwhile with the recent increase in awareness of the importance of environmental sustainability, the INFN intends to contribute to achieving the decarbonisation objective set by the European Union by committing itself to carry out its scientific activities with minimal environmental impact.