Born on March 17, ECONTROVERTIA APS became the official house of the GreenMarked platform. While our projects were running and spreading out, we firmly decided to open up an official and legally recognized non-profit organization to better support our activities. Aimed at providing the right space to both our environmental and digital detox initiatives, the name ECONTROVERTIA perfectly synthesizes our mission. While “ECO” refers to all our environmental activities (the blog, the Agrecol Trees project, the Eco-Comics and Green Talks), “CONTROVERTIAL” provocatively refers to our constant and coherent effort to tackle critical and conflicting environmental and social issues – for example, the climate crisis or digital addiction in young people – to find a consistent balance between the different needs of human society.

With a new house, let us see what we were able to accomplish in 2022.

Fig. 1: The GreenMarked bloggers team.

With new bloggers joining our team and a consolidated workflow, in 2022 our GreenMarked blog was able to cover more environmental topics and keep a regular pace throughout the year. All 52 weeks were covered by blog articles in both English and Italian and integrated by short weekly updates. Articles can also be read directly on our Telegram channel via our beautiful “Instant view” feature.

While our most popular article in terms of views is still “A case study on the success of The Ocean Cleanup” written in 2021 (1265 views), our top three articles published in 2022 are:

1) “Adapt or burn. A look at the dramatic increase of wildfires in Italy to get ready for summer 2022”

2) “How much water does your 24-hours day consume?”

3) “Agroecology and social tree-planting to tackle the climate crisis. The story and view of a Bolivian agroecological producer”

Fig. 2: A collage of some of the Agrecol Trees beneficiaries.

With two additional tree orders submitted in 2022, our  “Agrecol Trees” project successfully delivered 40 plants to 40 additional farmers of two new farming communities of Cochabamba, Bolivia: the communities of “Sacaba – Corralones” and “Santivañez”. In our revamped Agrecol Trees page you can find plenty stories related to the project and the people behind it. Do not forget to click on the FAQ button to read all the detailed information about agroecology and our tree planting work scheme!

Our second tree planting site, in the Chiquitanía (Bolivian Amazon), started well but it is currently facing very tough times. Although we managed to plant 310 trees of more than ten different fruit species in four Chiquitanía communities, we are far behind from reaching the 2000 intended trees. Our effort to plant trees is confronted by the interest of local agribusinesses to expand their farms and uncontrolled forest fires. To support our initiative and our local project partner struggles, the Voices for Climate Action platforms, coordinated by the WWF – The Netherlands, financed the publication of two articles and a video-story, which was then showcased at COP 27 in Sharm-el-Sheikh. 

To keep up our commitment to plant more ecological trees in Bolivia, we will donate a tree to each of our organization members and will sell more trees at local fairs, like we did at the Fiera dei Ciucioi in Lavis, last December.

Fig. 3: The cover image of “Red Skies” eco-battles comic, part #1.

Two inflamed adventures of Green Wolf and the Eco-Team sparked our website in March 2022. In “Red Skies”, we added real environmental facts and data to our fictional Eco-Battles comic. And with the new WordPress plugin, flipping from one page to the next became so entertaining!

The Eco-Battles template allowed us to design with NGO Alla Ribalta APS a successful environmental storytelling project plan for the secondary school of Lavis, Trento. About 120 teens learned how to draw comics and designed 15 picture stories about the past, present and future of the Avisio river. All products will be launched on February 10 on our website!

Fig. 4: The Green Talks logo.

Although our Green Talks were put on hold in 2022, we do have an approved and a planned Green Talks project for 2023. While regular meetings with members and GreenMarked collaborators occurred regularly online to facilitate participation, we agreed that we must put effort in organizing our environmental debates and discussions outdoor and in presence. That shall be also in 2023!

Communication is still our Achilles but the impact of our projects is attracting more and more people on our digital platforms. That is our website, which receives approximately 1500 monthly views, our two Telegram public accounts (@greenmarked and @socialmediadetox) and our social media channels: Instagram and Twitter. Recently, we also opened up a LinkedIn account and we are constantly looking for more and better ways to improve our communication. Thanks to the strong communication means of our allies, our project outcomes can be globally widespread. Just think of our Agrecol Trees video that was broadcasted to hundreds at COP 27! If you like what we do, invite your potentially interested friends to follow us on their favorite platform!

Fig. 5: Teenagers play with the augmented reality e-sports gym in Trento during the “CyberGulliver in the Metaverse” detox initiative.

We carried out three main Detox projects this year. The first as ECONTROVERTIA APS, the latter, as collaborators of Alla Ribalta APS, reflecting our belief that joining forces with GOOD business partners more than doubles the impact of your actions.

The Social Media Detox – Sports & Fun at the end of August on Monte Bondone, Trento, brought back to our Camp that energy level that we had left in 2019 before the pandemic hit us and the whole world. It also served to test specific Detox activities that we could offer to schools and social groups.

The “Detox challenge” project was indeed conducted in a high school. About 40 students of Mezzolombardo (Trento) were first involved in a Detox Day Camp and asked to complete a Detox challenge for two weeks. An easy challenge was to limit the use of TikTok to an hour a day, a medium level one was to charge your phone every three days, a hard one was to use your phone only for calls and WhatsApp messages. The outcomes and the emotions felt during the Detox challenge period were first analyzed, then represented through theatrical workshops and finally showcased through a rehearsal during a conference-show open to public. You can look at some theater sketches and key results about digital use and addiction in young people on our Social Media Detox Telegram group!

“CyberGulliver’s Travels to the islands of the Metaverse” was the second Detox event organized in December. Through four interactive stations set in the city center of Trento, 40 students and 10 adults learned about the new opportunities and dark sides of the incumbent metaverse. Dystopian theater performances, virtual geocaching races, emotional Virtual Reality experiences and sports in augmented reality powerfully showed our most innovative Detox tools. We look forward to organizing more top-quality Detox events!

Fig. 6: The GreenMarked / ECONTROVERTIA APS membership card template.

Our biggest incomes come from public funds or contests that we win, but ordinary organization activities and maintenance depend on a good amount of volunteering and membership card incomes. If you really like what we are doing, join our journey and get your 2023 membership card for only 30 Euro. You can make a direct transfer to:

IBAN: IT 08 F 08304 34930 000060409404

BANK: Cassa Rurale di Trento, Lavis, Mezzocorona, Valle di Cembra e Alta Vallagarina – Banca di Credito Cooperativo

BIC/SWIFT: CCRTIT2T76A

Don’t forget to write “2023 membership card” and your full name in the transfer subject!

With a consolidated board and work teams, we are more than thrilled to start this 2023 with a whole lot of new ideas to BUILD UP new environmental and detox projects. That is what we love and that is what we do. And we will keep doing it for the whole year.

By becoming an ECONTROVERTIA member you will:

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Cover- and preview image: The front façade of Kölner Dom, in Cologne (Germany). While the official commencement of the Kölner Dom construction works is set in 1248, the Cathedral site had been occupied by several previous structures. The gothic architectural style of the church highlights its stunning upwards thrust. Photo by Author (Cologne, November 2022).