Casto, il paese del sole: tradizione, energie rinnovabili e sostenibilità in un paese di montagna nel nord Italia

[Autom. eng. transl.] A pact of collaboration between public, private and voluntary work for the exploitation of renewable energies in a territory with a strong industrial vocation has generated a case of virtuous development with important advantages for the whole community. The study intends to examine the economic evolution in the last twenty years of Casto, a small town in the Brescia Prealps in northern Italy. The town, a center with an ancient vocation in iron processing, is now home to an important metallurgical company, a leading company in Europe in the production of aluminum alloys, which since the 1990s has started environmental sustainability projects by collaborating with local authorities, national and European. The Municipality, for its part, has achieved energy self-sufficiency thanks to the construction of a dozen photovoltaic systems. The increased budget revenues, the effective collaboration with the company and the volunteers - numerous and motivated - made it possible to implement services for free use for the benefit of the population in the school, sports, recreation and general improvement of environmental quality.