Ferla’s Green Wall now ranks among the excellences of Italian public administration recognised by CNEL. In October 2025, in Rome, the National Council for Economics and Labour – the constitutional body that advises Parliament and the government on economic and social policies – presented the Municipality of Ferla with the “Impatto PA” 2025 Award in the Education category, selected from 62 nominations. Alongside the small Iblei town, the other winners were national players such as INAIL, INPS, the Cremona Chamber of Commerce, Hera Ambiente and ANBI: a measure of the weight of this recognition.
What convinced the jury was the innovative and replicable model of sustainable water management and civic participation embodied by the Green Wall (Wall2Water) at the “Valle dell’Anapo” school, which recovers and purifies grey water from the school’s washbasins and reuses it for toilet flushing. “This infrastructure, implemented in a public school, transforms a technological system into an educational one: an open-air laboratory and an opportunity for civic cohesion”, reads the CNEL citation, which highlights how the project connects the local dimension of a small municipality with the European one, as it is now monitored within the Horizon Europe CARDIMED project.
“This is a source of great pride for our community and the entire Syracuse area,” said Mayor Michelangelo Giansiracusa, who collected the award together with the Councillor for the Environment, Giuseppe Vinci, and Vittoria Calderone, head of administrative services of the school. “This award recognises the value of our collaboration with SVI.MED. and IRIDRA, and the daily commitment of our administrators, school staff and citizens to creating a sustainable community.”
The award confirms Ferla as a national benchmark for good practices in sustainability and social innovation, and shows that meaningful change often starts at school, driven by the collective imagination of young people and the daily efforts of their communities.