How much environmental impact do a concert, a fair or the building of a bridge have on the territory? What are the most efficient strategies for compensating CO2 emissions? Which policies should be employed to stimulate sustainable territorial development?
Answering these questions is the mission of the Trentino start-up RUMA (Rural Urban Metabolism Agency) that has recently won the "Green Infrastructure goes business Award” award assigned by EUSALP. The aim of the competition was to identify innovative commercial actions and approaches for promoting and enhancing green infrastructure capable of including the preservation of biodiversity and of Nature. RUMA, supported in its development by Fondazione HIT - Hub Innovazione Trentino and by Trentino Sviluppo, has won coaching services and international contacts with business development enterprises, experts and sponsors as well as the opportunity to present their idea to an international audience on the occasion of a public event to be held in Bolzano and organized within the framework of the Italian EUSALP 2022 presidency.
An agency for the urban and rural metabolism
RUMA is a high-tech business project created within the scope of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering of the University of Trento. Its aim is to build a vision of a more sustainable world by designing and building solutions capable of interconnecting the economic, social and environmental dimensions. The technology created by the team, called Rural-Urban Metabolism (RUM), is a method for calculating and compensating for emissions generated by the impact of architectural projects, infrastructure, events and tourism in the Alpine territory and for promoting local emission offsetting projects and strategies.
Trentino and Europe
RUMA has strong ties with Trentino’s research and business sectors, a fact that has allowed the start-up to participate in two major programs:
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SATURN (System and sustainable Approach to virTuous interaction of Urban and Rural LaNdscapes): a European program conducted in Trentino by Fondazione Edmund Mach, Fondazione HIT - Hub Innovazione Trentino and the University of Trento within the context of EIT Climate-KIC, the European partnership for climate innovation;
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Trentino Startup Valley: this program concerns the acceleration and tutoring of innovative start-ups conducted by Trentino Sviluppo and HIT. RUMA is participating in this program’s first phase, the ‘Bootstrap’.
