Learning for creating sustainable and resilient local food systems by using nature's-inspiration
This program united Swedish & Italian students to collaborate on four Tuscan projects. We reconsidered our relationship with nature through a uniquely designed 'nature-reconnecting' experience using hands-on learning, farming, cooking, seminars, and real-life assignments. We explored how life-centred design practices such as biomimicry (nature-inspired) and nature-based entrepreneurship can create sustainability and resilience in food production, climate change, knowledge & connect communities.
Cross-border/international
Italy
Sweden
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Region: Tuscany, Province: Lucca, Municipality: Pietrasanta. The initiative took place in
Pietrasanta in Tuscany (plans for a Stockholm addition 2023), but students were from Italian and Swedish Universities. The partnering organizations are in Stockholm, Sweden.
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
As individual(s) in partnership with organisation(s)
First name: Anna Maria Last name: Orrù Gender: Female Please describe the type of organization(s) you work in partnership with: Anna Maria Orrù, creator of this Italian initiative, partners with Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship (SSES). Two other organizational bodies are also present: Nordic Biomimicry (NB) & an early endeavour for a Nature Academy in Italy (on Montepreti near Pietrasanta).
Anna Maria Orrù is co-founder and directs Nordic Biomimicry. She is also an Affiliated Senior Lecturer at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts & Design in Stockholm, and founder for the Nature Academy in Italy. Since 1999, she has taught and worked in sustainability and Nature’s inspiration and has formed this Swedish/Italian alliance.
SSES is a platform for multidisciplinary education that provides cutting-edge higher education for Stockholm’s six universities: Karolinska Institute, Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts & Design, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm University, and Royal College of Music. For 20 years, SSES has elevated minds, generated ventures, forged connections and inspired new ways of thinking. Their series for international education programs (bootcamps) connects Swedish Universities globally to others to participate and tackle issues on the ground, together with local communities. This specialised and nature-focused bootcamp is the first in Italy with two Italian Universities: Politecnico di Milano & Università degli Studi di Firenze.
NB is a Nordic Knowledge Hub & Education Platform for Biomimicry. NB brings together the knowledge, network and tools to work with nature through training Biomimicry and Bio-inspired design, nature’s life principles and solutions for sustainability. NB's main hub is in Stockholm, Sweden, but it has informal partnerships in Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland too.
The Nature Academy (on Montepreti - Pietrasanta) is an early project in Tuscany to learn about and in Nature for students and professionals. The academy is situated on a small 14 hectare natural site and farm with old 19th century farmhouses, olive Groves, a regenerated vineyard, Vegetable gardens, a Bee-yard in a natural landscape. There are 6 families spanning 3 generations that come and help look after the olive groves and one family has been on the farm for 100 years or more.
Nationality: Italy If relevant, please select your other nationality: Sweden Function: Project Leader, Concept Designer, Organiser and Main Teacher Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Saltmätargatan 9 Town: Stockholm Postal code: 113 59 Country: Sweden Direct Tel:+46 72 016 21 62 E-mail:amo@annamariaorru.com Website:https://www.sses.se/event/biomimicry-in-entrepreneurship-bootcamp/
URL:https://www.sses.se/ Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): #sses #ssesupdates @ssesupdates. Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/school/stock... Instagram: https://instagram.com/ssesupdates Facebook: https://facebook.com/ssesupdates Twitter: https://twitter.com/ssesupdates
URL:https://www.annamariaorru.com Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): #anna_maria_orru #annamariaorru @Anna_maria_orru
This free course united students to explore their relationship with nature from a nature-inspired field called biomimicry. Students from diverse nationalities and disciplines came from universities in Sweden and Italy. The programme advised and collaborated with four local small-farm projects in Tuscany.
The initiative was a prototype for a uniquely designed 'nature-centred' education program that brought diverse cultures and disciplines together with local community projects to learn how innovative design practices, biomimicry (nature-inspired) and nature-based entrepreneurship, can inspire sustainable food systems, cultures, lifestyles, and resilience. The aim is to create experiential learning that changes perspectives to nature both in student’s studies and lives.
Our methods included hands-on learning, site visits, gardening, cooking together, beekeeping, ecosystem research, expert seminars, and workshops. We tapped into traditional and local gastronomy, small scale farming, and sustainable development. Students had access to teachers who tutored them in their assignment to create solutions. Their task was to craft a sustainable, eco-visioned, innovative, researched proposal using community connecting approaches. Students explored the region’s historical and small-scale food systems, and each group catered to the specific challenges highlighted by each project. Groups were allocated a guiding ecosystem that would inspire their ideas and nature-connectedness. We wanted to examine how biomimicry can inform sustainable futures.
The intense, playful, and thought-provoking course had three phases to: 1. Learn biomimicry for life-centred strategies, 2. Study sustainable food systems & entrepreneurship, 3. Apply learnings, design & present ideas to farmers and locals. The objective was an immersion in nature so students could realign themselves in how they viewed sustainability and participated with Nature in tackling climate change.
Biomimicry
Nature-inspired sustainability
Sustainable Entrepreneurship
Small-scale farming
Experiential learning
The initiative gave skills & tools to work with sustainability using nature as companion. Nature-centred learning included Biomimicry, nature activities, cooking vegetarian, researching ecosystems, creating biodiversity awareness, and a multidisciplinary approach to sustainable entrepreneurship and food. We wanted participants to reconsider their relationship with nature but also understand they are a part of nature. Crucial understanding to tackle climate change.
Students developed ways to view, value, reconnect and participate with nature, and how to apply this in sustainability.
Learning objectives included:
- Nature-inspired (Biomimicry) perspectives for sustainability & entrepreneurship for innovation, resilience, circular life cycles, ecological food systems and value of community
- How biomimicry creates sustainable value, manages growth, and can combat climate change
- Opportunities to reflect and discuss complexities of sustainability, nature, food systems, resilience-making, entrepreneurship, and climate-anxiety
- Hands-on learning about agricultural heritage, slow food production, and meeting challenges of local small-scale farmers for innovative and sustainable solutions
- Experiencing sustainable diet and travel shifts. For diet: eating and cooking low carbon footprint vegetarian meals. Travel: learning to travel long distance by train (not fly)
Bringing biomimicry together with food and entrepreneurship offers learnings about biodiversity, ecosystems, regeneration, and life cycle thinking. The Nature Academy is a project on regeneration, biodiversity, and nature-connection giving students hands-on experience to learn about these strategies. One student wrote this about their learning, ‘nature is important for us and by being close to nature and see and experience how food is produced in a sustainable way should be offered to everybody! Take inspiration from nature, reconnect with it and the people, think holistic and change the world!'
A key aspect of the program was about creating an aesthetic and profound nature-reconnecting experience. The bootcamp was carefully designed to create life-affirming and nature-immersing encounters for students.
Each day, students learned outdoors amongst nature, touched soil and plants, and learned about biodiversity. We began each day with reflective discussions, followed by expert seminars or field visits. We wanted students to connect to the local place and community. Each day had a 3-hour space for gardening, cooking vegetarian meals together, learning about sustainable diets, or exploring the biodiverse landscape. This gave students diverse opportunities to connect to the quality of the place and a sensory experience; gardening, tasting, smelling food, or listening to nature. Students discovered seasonal food and living, and the tireless work needed to produce food from soil to plate.
Learning in nature is critical to the pedagogic process. Many students thought this vital and one quoted in the evaluation; ‘Connection to nature was always present … Being able to experience discourses on nature and slow food not only from a theoretical point of view but while being totally immersed in them.’ Another student’s commented on the courses’ impact, ‘There are some important things that are invisible, and because of that, we ignore them. This bootcamp unlocked that parts and help me clearly see other important things like other species, the intelligence of nature, the importance of living in the moment and so on.’ We wanted to offer students a raw, transparent, engaging, and meaningful experience of nature and place that could embed lasting change.
In essence, the objective was to develop new tools and skills for thinking, learning, and living with nature engaging all their senses. We wanted ‘nature’ to become a progressive life companion for students to learn about the cultural, social and ecological values in life, entrepreneurship and in work.
We maximise diversity of disciplines, perspectives, cultures & genders to create an inclusive society representation. We want students to have a real-life world experience:
Disciplines- The multidisciplinary program invited students from 8 universities; disciplines from design, engineering and music to life sciences, medicine and environmental studies.
Application- Application is open to any student from the universities & SSES Alumni. We create a fair, gender-balanced, culture and discipline diverse program for students.
Financial Equity- We give equal opportunity and affordability. The programme is free and through a meticulous interview and selection process, we choose highly motivated students that want to make a difference in the world and in their communities.
Novel Pedagogics- We create a new societal model and prototype for education. We want to open & diversify rigid university structures, and let students work with real life projects, organic materials such as food & multispecies, and today's real climate challenges. Students work with local stakeholders & communities. The program has no official credits nor grades, it offers a novel opportunity to living, working and being in the world.
Equal Inclusion- Selected students represent balanced gender, cultural and ethnic diversity.
Language- Feeling included also is about communicating with local communities in their language. Each student group is paired with an Italian student so that there is an opportunity to converse in their native language. This is critical so that groups can communicate and work freely with the local project partners.
Design for All- We include students experiencing physical challenges & burn-out syndrome challenges (staff was available). Furthermore, the nature academy works with disadvantaged locals (ie: unemployed, disabled, autistic). We also design for multi species.
Inclusive Diet- Programme meals were all vegetarian and vegan including all student
The initiative engaged actively in the social, cultural, and ecological context of the local region and community. Each student group worked with, advised, and created proposals for an assigned local project.
Our aim is to apply nature's-inspiration to the local socio-eco-cultural fabric to understand sustainability using the lens of biomimicry. We worked with 4 local projects that: grow biodynamic foods from fish waste nutrient cycles (aquaponics), refurbished greenhouses into a thriving community food source, engaged with the local artisanal cheese maker and his goats, & helped shape a new Nature Academy on a small farm with an international network.
The initiative will help generate sustainability knowledge for local stakeholders and how these models can lead to resilience and be examples for the region and local society. The program showcases to the community the need for their traditional farming practices, and that their local knowledge is beneficial for sustainability. Students proposed innovative solutions and created proposals for each project and presented them to a wider local audience. People were impressed with what was achieved, but also happy to learn about the projects in their neighbourhood. Most locals did not know about these small-farm initiatives, nor did the farmers know each other. The program offered this network and introductions between them. For future programs, we intend to engage the students with the locals more by offering their presentations to be publicly presented.
Students also spent an evening at ARCI (Associazione Ricreativa Culturale Italiana) premises, a member association of social and civil promotion and active participation. They combine ‘culture’ with ‘society’, to implement inclusive and inter-cultural social actions addressed to all citizens, especially those in disadvantaged conditions. We wanted students to learn about, know of, and partake in one of their local places and share a meal together.
LOCAL
Projects- Student groups worked with local projects & agronomist to learn
Nature Academy- The program creates a footing for a new Nature Academy. The landowner (an Agricultural Cooperative) was involved in presentations
CAV- Students stayed at CAV Center for visual arts founded by Pietrasanta Municipality
REGIONAL
Università degli Studi Firenze- We engaged with Prof. Randelli to lecture & give feedback. He is also an agricultural entrepreneur in Chianti
Vineyard- Students visited Cossimo Maria Masini near San Miniato to learn about biodynamics
NATIONAL
ARCI- Evening at a local ARCI (independent association of social & civil promotion)
Patronage- Patronage from Swedish Embassy and consulate for networking
Slow Food- Students learned about activism and Slow Food, dedicated to non-corporate, non-industrialized, and local food
Policy- Students addressed 1.The Italian National Plan of Recovery & Resilience (PNRR) aimed to move Italy into a sustainable future post-covid 2.Parliament law to safeguard nature
EUROPEAN
International- SSES Bootcamps are an experience connecting EU countries and beyond
Sweden & Italy- The program brings together 2 EU countries in this education programme
EU Network- Faculty: 1. John Thackara (FR), sustainability expert on global food systems and Social farming, 2. Morten Søndergaard (DK), artist/poet at the nature academy, 3. SSES staff (SE) - media communicator Ola Gustafsson, and entrepreneur Samer Yammine. Maria von Euler, design teacher and entrepreneur
Nordic biomimicry: Co-founders Anna Maria Orrù and Fredrik Moberg were present and taught. Moberg is senior communications advisor and researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, authority on climate change and planetary boundaries
Experts- A scientific coordinator from International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) was present for student presentations
This initiative committed in creating multidisciplinary experiences in 2 areas:
'PARTICIPANTS & FACULTY'- This multidisciplinary participatory experience gave students an inclusive representation of society. Students united from diverse nationalities & disciplines ranging from design, engineering, architecture and music to environmental studies, bio-entrepreneurship, biotechnology, health economics, and geography, from universities in Sweden & Italy.
Carefully created student groups represented; creativity (design skills), nature (biology, environment), research-orientated (engineering, medicine), and systems thinkers (urban, geography). Each group was matched to a project based on skills, discipline, interests, and interview answers.
Support faculty from architecture, design, entrepreneurship, media, ecology & medicine. Nordic Biomimicry experts in the field. Two entrepreneurs aided in sustainable business. A chef helped appreciate veganism. A media-communicator interviewed & gathered material. Two teachers had farming and local knowledge from the nature academy.
'TOOLS'- The course curriculum used multidisciplinary tools; biomimicry, entrepreneurship, food systems and sustainable business. We provided divergent tools and opportunities to address wicked problems and complex eco-social challenges.
This was a unique opportunity, and an important part of the learning curve was to work and trust one another through the uncertainty. Feedback showed how vital the experience was. In a student’s words; ‘I think it was one of the best experiences of my life, both for the meetings and the people I met and for the organisation and topics covered. The fact that it was such a concentrated and multidisciplinary work really meant that we had to team up and trust our teammates.’
Students understood that the environmental challenges are much too complex from a singular-discipline perspective, and that it will take collaborative multidisciplinary approaches.
The initiative offers participants a creative, innovative, multidisciplinary & intercultural experience. Students were immersed in nature that took on a critical & central role. They were not only learning cutting-edge knowledge but also immersed in nature, farming & cooking activities.
BIOMIMICRY
This is a highly innovative tool in education. It teaches with nature to increase creativity, innovation, sustainability and life-centred qualities. Nature has 3.8 billion years of knowledge to guide & solve climate change challenges. Nature, as a source of inspiration in our entrepreneurship, offers innovations that stand the test of time. Mimicking nature provides value in many ways: from reduced carbon emissions and waste, to creating a balanced life-centred world.
Bringing entrepreneurship together with biomimicry and food systems is a highly innovative way to approach real-life challenges. To our knowledge, there is no such free biomimicry course available with biomimicry, food and entrepreneurship. This intensive and interactive study is essential for the planet, and for incoming generations of students of all disciplines, allowing them to integrate elements of sustainable thinking into their daily lives and work.
DISCOMFORT
We deliberately put students outside of their academic comfort zones to broaden their vision & expose them to what is important. We bridge disciplines across universities, merging expertise through activities that enable unconventional solutions to challenges allowing students to delve beyond their usual experiences. They discover their ability for innovative thinking that they are otherwise unable to exercise in their university. Adding these multiple perspectives and people gives students a wider understanding of the systematic context. Innovation occurs in these setups; place-based curriculums where complex systems are revealed & experienced, so that richer experiences and understandings can emerge through active engagement.
SSES Bootcamp - SSES has been offering international Bootcamp’s to their students for many years. Each bootcamp deals with different contexts, networks, climates, situations, themes etc. This is the first international collaboration in Italy. Bootcamps are full-time highly interactive deep-dives into an exciting challenge area, where students work alongside each other to learn, solve, bond and grow. This social immersion can take place anywhere around the globe, with academic partners collaboration.
Biomimicry - The field of Biomimicry is a wonderful tool to learn about nature and sustainability that can be applied anywhere in nature and to any challenge and subject given a learning situation (ie: a course), and a challenge to solve (ie: food systems, entrepreneurship, product development).
Hands-on learning - The course aim was to design a prototype for learning Biomimicry that could be applied to sustainable food and entrepreneurship challenges. It can therefore be applied in other contexts around the EU, differing localities and cultures. The learning prototype follows a framework that includes knowledge in the subjects (Biomimicry, food, entrepreneurship), local experience and projects, vegetarian diet and cooking, gardening experience, an assignment connected to local context, multidisciplinary students from different EU countries (and global), an expert faculty team that are both local and beyond.
The bootcamp is inspired by Kolb’s learning experiential model where concrete learning, observation and reflection of an experience, formation of concepts based on reflection and testing new concepts on real projects have a large impact on individual and social change, career development, and further professional education. It is critical that this type of learning engages students in nature as they must be involved in touching the very fabric they are studying, soil and food, so that the learning becomes more profound, engaging and embodied.
We learned, cooked, ate, farmed and talked together providing a valuable experience which contributes to student’s overall understanding of the real-world environment, and local and global problems that need their input. We curated a uniquely designed method for learning about food and nature, creating an alternative prototype for learning biomimicry, entrepreneurship and food systems. The daily framework included: 1. Breakfast reflections/journaling, 2. Seminars, workshops, 3. Gardening, cooking and lunch, 4. Site visits, activities and field trips, 4. Groupwork, 5. Knowledge aperitivo and discussion, 6. Dinner together, and 7. Presentations.
Students had three assignments: 1. Literature reading & student-run seminar. 2. A core assignment where students were put into groups to work on a local project. 3. Post reflection individual essay. Their task was to create a sustainable proposal for their local small-farm project inspired by biomimicry and nature-inspired entrepreneurship. Each Group created their own unique strategy and design brief inspired by an ecosystem to guide their ideas. Projects included:
- Rainforest: Refurbished community Greenhouses project
- Honeybees: Heritage local cheese-maker
- Coral-reef: Aquaponic vegetable farm
- Mycorrhiza: Nature Academy on Montepreti
Nature Methods - Learning was enhanced with site visits, embodied experiences, nature activities (ie: beekeeping), lectures, workshop and group reading. Every day, students gardened or prepared lunch with the chef.
Reflection & Discussion - Allow time for reflection/discussion to help develop critical thinking & address climate anxiety.
Local - We involved local projects so that students were motivated that their ideas were applied in real life.
Presentations - On the final day, students shared their proposals with an invited external audience.
Pedagogics - The programme used foundations in Biomimicry, Nature-connectedness, kinship and embodied methodology.
We wish to tackle global issues through the subjects taught, experiences offered, and alignment with larger global frameworks (SDG’s, EU Green Deal, Oslo Manifesto 2015) that students could take home.
The course used the approach ‘act globally, act locally’ so students consider planetary health and can take action locally in their own communities. Global challenges included:
Food systems - challenges around food security and sustainable agriculture, Agri-food, improved healthy food access, diet, nutrition, food consumption, sustainable development, climate mitigation etc. require local solutions. Students learned about examples in farming and food practices and farm to fork strategies. We showcased slow food initiatives, locally produced food, small-scale farming in sustainability.
Nature-deficit disorder - We spend too much time indoors. Being out in nature holds benefits that aid depression, immunity, creative thinking and even eyesight.
Ecological Anxiety - Defined as "a chronic fear of environmental doom" leaves many individuals feeling helpless. We allow time for these discussions.
High footprint diets - Students had a vegetarian diet and cooked/learned recipes. Animal-based foods have higher footprints than plant-based.
Capitalism - We discussed overconsumption and learned that nature-inspired entrepreneurship, degrowth measures, and sustainable business modelling can help, also learning about circular economies and life-cycles.
Flying - students learn about sustainable mobility strategies by understanding the importance of taking the train
We address these challenges in connection to local communities and real-life challenges that do not only occur in Italy, but also globally. An important challenge with local/global thinking is not to lose sight of local and cultural heritage driven solutions that may work in Italy but not in Sweden. The intricate local knowledge is a critical part of addressing global challenges in this course.
The pilot initiative, planned over a year, occurred in 2022 with a 7-step Action Plan:
June: Draft proposal to SSES part of vision for the nature academy
Aug-Jan: Project Planning & finding support
Feb-April: Open application. Design of curriculum
April: Selection process & interviews
May: Online 2 meet-ups & assigned literature
June: Travel & programme
Aug: Media team create promo material (find 2023 partners & finance)
Evaluation - We received feedback for: objectives, career value, organisation, experience, knowledge, recommendations, talks, study visits, assignments, takeaways & suggested changes. We reached our learning objectives to ‘reconnect to nature’ on many levels; knowledge (biomimicry in student’s thesis), lifestyle shifts (diet awareness, train travel), & nature activities (gardening skills, slowing down in nature). We continue to work with the local projects with the nature academy. (ie: start an Agro-forest).
New Visions – We are finding new networks, projects sites and support for 2023 with patronage from the Swedish Embassy/Consulate. Each programme will work with new challenges and projects built up from past learnings to expand the network and impact on the local/regional community on Agri-food challenges. We envision a portfolio of ideas, project solutions and resilient communities strengthening and building up the Nature Academy. We created a ‘partnering framework’ to find financial commitment. In exchange for working with our creative and innovative students, partners gain access to expert knowledge and innovation to solve their challenges. Further plans include:
- Start a community farm with locals & students
- Involve local schools to participate
- Make presentations to locals to showcase the small-farm heritage of Pietrasanta
- Meet monthly with the network to connect & strengthen knowledge
- Extend programme to have 2 bootcamps (Italy & Sweden)
- Include local artists from Pietrasanta, showcase in piazza (square)
SSES tackles the greatest challenge that society is facing, focusing on our planet using the lens of entrepreneurship to solve great challenges across a variety of environments. SSES partners up with universities, corporations, and non-profit and governmental organisations globally, to deliver a singularly life-changing experience to students.
The initiative aims to contribute to new competences in learning for the green transition and sustainable development in the context of sustainability. In the question regarding global and local, we demonstrated how the curriculum aligns with larger global goals such as the UN sustainable development goals (SDG’s) and the EU Green Deal for learning for the green transition and sustainable development.
Climate change is ranked among the most serious problems facing the world. Education and training must take action to respond to this planetary crisis. The main teacher Orrù has worked and taught sustainability for over 20 years. SSES and Orrù believe that education, at any scale, must tackle environmental problems and take action to respond to the climate crisis.
SSES has continually supported Orrù in her endeavour to teach biomimicry, linking it to entrepreneurship. They have given her the curriculum space to teach both in Sweden on their weekend workshops and in Italy on the bootcamp. The first flagship bootcamp was financed and supported by SSES because they believe in these efforts of sustainable education through innovative subjects such as biomimicry. Their 2023 anthology on unconventional education showcases biomimicry and Orrù (see uploaded essay).
SSES also provides supporting courses for their faculty in their ‘Learning Labs’. These labs are specifically designed for educators to discuss and exchange ideas. The Lab consists of different training and networking opportunities (roundtables, workshops, mentorship). A recent lab workshop looked at how to help students launch sustainable careers.
