Earth Day 2026: Meet Italy's 100 Sustainability Champions

We are proud to continue our support to the StartupItalia community – a relationship that began when illuminem became their official COP correspondent, and that has since grown into a shared commitment to amplifying Italy's sustainability voices globally.

StartupItalia has published its "100 Fuoriclasse": standout figures making a measurable difference for the planet. Among those recognised is illuminem's own founder, Andrea Gori. We are pleased to exclusively bring their 2026 edition to our English-speaking readership.

Each year on earth day, StartupItalia put together a list that is also a map: 100 talents and good practices worth reading about, applauding, and following. One hundred people working across the most varied fields – from communication to entrepreneurship, from science outreach to teaching, from activism to environmental stewardship – to remind us that there are individuals who commit every single day to protecting the planet we live on. And that, ultimately, all of us could and should do more.

Rooted in their communities, true to their values, attuned to the needs of a world searching for answers, they are startup founders, researchers, investors, creators, academics, and managers at companies of all sizes. The challenges of protecting the planet demand alliances that would once have seemed impossible.

Who are Italy's 100 champions?

As always, we start with the stories these remarkable people tell. 100 stories of individuals making their mark for a more sustainable future – through advanced, low-impact technologies, innovative and scalable solutions, awareness-raising apps, and new approaches that put artificial intelligence to work for the planet. Because looking after our world is something that has to be done every day.

Alessandra Accogli, CEO of Synergy Flow, a startup focused on sustainable, scalable, and accessible energy transition, with proprietary technology for long-duration energy storage exceeding eight hours. The startup recently closed a €7 million funding round.

Thomas Ambrosi, founder of ONO Exponential Farming, has filed more than 25 patents in areas including robotics and mechatronics. His startup is developing the next generation of vertical farms, operating across automation, mechatronics, and logistics.

Maria Anghileri, born in 1987, is president of Confindustria's Young Entrepreneurs and, alongside her brother Giacomino, leads the family business as Chief Operating Officer of Gruppo Eusider — one of the most significant players in the Italian steel market, with 900 employees and 1.5 million tonnes of steel processed annually.

Camilla Agazzone, one of Italy's most followed green influencers, offers advice on small but meaningful steps to help save the planet: from giving up the car to not buying new clothes for over a year, alongside a commitment to plant-based cooking.

Alessandro Baccini, co-founder of Chloris Geospatial, a climate tech startup that uses spatial data to monitor forests and trees. In 2025, the innovative company — founded in Boston — closed an $8.5 million Series A round.

Matteo Bartolomeo, CEO of a|impact, an Alternative Investment Fund targeting institutional investors that supports the growth of innovative startups and SMEs with a mission to generate social, environmental, and cultural impact. He works on issues related to sustainable development and business ethics.

Marco Battaglia, co-founder of Sfridoo, a matchmaking platform for industrial waste and production by-products. The startup enables companies to achieve significant savings and generate revenue from production waste and surplus stock.

Valerio Battista, president of Europacable and member of the Council Board of the International Electrotechnical Commission, has also served on Prysmian's board of directors since December 2005 and was CEO of the company until April 2024.

Ottavia Belli, founder of Sfusitalia. She delivers training courses for schools and businesses on sustainability and the circular economy, creates content to promote sustainable companies and products, and works to inspire her community to transition toward a more sustainable lifestyle.

Alex Bellini, explorer, motivational speaker, and performance coach, fights green battles on social media — including the fight against plastic pollution. In 2019 he launched the "10 Rivers 1 Ocean" project, sailing a raft down the ten most plastic-polluted rivers on Earth to raise awareness on the issue.

Nikas Bergaglio, CEO and co-founder of BestBefore, a startup working to eliminate food waste. The company gives a second chance to food that is often discarded due to short expiry dates or cosmetic imperfections, making it available at discounted prices.

Davide Bersani, CEO of Res Italia, a company developing innovative plant solutions based on anaerobic digestion. With a degree in Mechanical Engineering, he works on the design of prototype plants and experimental equipment.

Mariasole Bianco, marine biologist, works on policies related to marine environmental protection and sustainable development. In 2013 she founded Worldrise, a non-profit organisation that develops conservation and enhancement projects for the marine environment through an approach centred on awareness, creativity, and education.

Simone Biondi, co-founder of Sizable Energy, a Milan-based company installing a hi-tech, sustainable hydroelectric system on the seabed between Italy and the Netherlands to build an energy storage facility that pumps saturated brine. The company recently closed an $8 million funding round.

Roberta Bonacossa, president and co-founder of Change for Planet. She works on impact and sustainability in partnership with companies and organisations, supporting businesses in integrating social and environmental sustainability into their strategy.

Stefano Bonetti, CEO of Rara Factory, a startup built to integrate artificial intelligence with experimental materials physics in the search for alternatives to rare earth elements. The company has raised €3.2 million.

Lara Botta, third-generation entrepreneur in the corrugated cardboard packaging sector, born in Milan in 1978, is today VP of Botta EcoPackaging. "The family business wasn't really on my radar. I wanted to find my own path and follow my passions."

Stefano Buono, CEO of newcleo. After ten years as a researcher at CERN alongside Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia, he founded a pioneering biotech company in theragnostics and nuclear medicine, which he listed on the Nasdaq in 2015 and later sold to Novartis. His current scale-up is active in nuclear energy and closed a €75 million round in February.

Federica Brumen, sustainable packaging expert, specialises in waste prevention and management through projects, research, and a range of activities. She currently works on developing and managing projects to promote the environmental sustainability of packaging.

David Callejo Munoz, CEO of Resilco, a startup aiming to turn waste into resources. By treating certain types of industrial waste, the team — which recently closed a €5 million round — transforms by-products into secondary raw materials.

Francesca Campora, general director of Fondazione Garrone and coordinator of ReStartApp, an incubator for young businesses in the Italian Apennine territory that promotes the social, economic, and cultural development of these areas.

Erica Canaia, from Treviso, born in 1985, grew up surrounded by books and invoices and today leads the family company FIMIC, which specialises in waste recycling in Carmignano di Brenta, in the province of Padua. "I support young women working in sustainability through mentoring programmes — it's a way of giving back what I've received."

Marco Candela, professor at the Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology at the University of Bologna, also coordinates research on genomic technologies enabling direct DNA analysis and microbiological water quality monitoring, opening new frontiers in environmental surveillance.

Stefano Cappello, founder of Limenet, a deep tech benefit company that has patented an innovative technology for permanently capturing and storing carbon dioxide (CO₂). It closed a €7 million round at the end of 2025.

Roberto Carnicelli, CEO of Eoliann, a climate tech startup that closed a €4.25 million round in 2025. The company uses satellite data and artificial intelligence to prevent climate-related risks. The new capital will be used to strengthen the company's technological platform.

Antonio Carrara, president of Rewilding Apennines, holds a degree in Sociology and has worked for the Italian Ministry of Labour, the Province of L'Aquila, and the Abruzzo Region. He has contributed to the founding of several organisations promoting the traditions and culture of Pettorano and the Peligna Valley.

Lisa Casali, environmental scientist, blogger, and author. She has written several books on sustainable living, most recently "Il dilemma del consumatore green" (The Green Consumer's Dilemma). Lisa is also a green mentor, works on environmental risks and damage, and believes in the importance of daily commitment to a more sustainable life with the smallest possible environmental footprint.

Amedeo Cavalleri, founder of the Instagram profile Brocchi Sui Blocchi, which has spent years humorously exploring the world of climbing. He has collected those lessons in a book and founded Boulder Broadcast, a communications agency focused on sustainability.

Roberto Cavallo, environmental communicator and green influencer, is among other things the creator of "Keep Clean and Run," an eco-marathon where participants collect rubbish found along the routes they run.

Danila Chiapperini, co-founder of ApuliaKundi, which works on producing sustainable foods — including spirulina algae — for the good of the planet and to help address global poverty.

Stefano Ciafani, national president of Legambiente since 2018. He joined the organisation in 1998 through national service, served as its scientific director from 2006 to 2011, as vice-president from 2011 to 2015, and as general director from 2015 to 2018.

Niccolò Cipriani, founder of Rifò, a Prato-based startup producing garments from recycled cashmere and wool. The company grew within Florence's innovation ecosystem at Nana Bianca, taking part in the Hubble acceleration programme.

Camilla Colucci, CEO and co-founder of Circularity. With a degree in psychology and a specialisation in marketing and communications, she founded a benefit company made up of sustainability experts that supports businesses at every stage of their journey toward integrating circularity into their business model.

Martina Comparelli, from Milan, studied international development and humanitarian emergencies in New York and London. She is the national spokesperson for Fridays For Future Italy and works on climate justice, energy transition, and the rights of future generations.

Gaia Contu, with a degree in Physics and Philosophy of Science and a master's in Science Communication from SISSA in Trieste, has collaborated with Rai Cultura. She is currently a PhD candidate in robotics ethics at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa and is active in both in-person and social media science outreach.

Angela Corbari, co-founder of Studio Mapp, has over ten years of experience as a consultant on natural resource management and urban challenges. She has worked as a GIS expert both in-house and freelance for public and private sector clients.

Marco D'Angelo, CEO of Beeco, a venture builder focused on agritech and food security. The company has supported the founding of several startups in a field fundamental to ecosystem growth.

Francesca Della Giovampaola, journalist and permaculturist, began her return to the land in 2013 when she purchased the plot where the Bosco di Ogigia now grows. Today she divides her time between an editorial project on agricultural and environmental topics and the cultivation of a food forest.

Francesca Dominici, professor of Biostatistics at Harvard University, develops causal inference methodologies and data science approaches, directing research projects that combine big data with health policy and climate change. She is currently co-director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2018.

Orinta Eivaite, with a past in fashion across Japan, France, and Italy, then made a pivotal change. Co-founder of Eiko Power, born in Vilnius, Lithuania, she has made Milan her second home. It is there — in Baranzate — that her five-thousand-square-metre factory dedicated to producing advanced energy storage systems was born.

Giulia Elli, researcher at the Sensing Technologies Lab of the Faculty of Engineering at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. Her electrochemical sensor for detecting polystyrene nanoplastics was developed in collaboration with the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa and the University of Paris.

Andrea Faldella, co-founder of Ogyre, a startup that has been fighting marine and ocean pollution since 2020. Through its Fishing for Litter programme, it places fishing communities at the centre of the effort worldwide. At the end of 2025 the company raised €3.8 million and was named the top Italian entry among candidates for the Global Startup Program.

Andrea Farina, co-founder of Relicta, a Sardinian startup that won at SIOS23 Sardinia and took the 105 Special Award at SIOS23 at Bocconi. Its solution is a water-soluble bioplastic material derived from fish processing waste, suitable for packaging applications. In 2025 it closed a €400,000 round.

Laura Fortunato, a Neapolitan marine biologist who, at just 25 years old, became the first Italian to take part in an expedition aboard the icebreaker "Agulhas II" to Antarctica. Today she studies the ocean depths to understand and preserve them.

Giovanni Fracasso, CEO of Overlab, a cleantech startup building a digital infrastructure for the decarbonisation of European manufacturing industry. The startup recently announced the closing of a €450,000 all-equity investment round.

Silvia Francescon, international relations expert, has worked on biodiversity and climate change since 1995. At ECCO, she oversees international and diplomatic processes and contributes to strategy and network-building.

Paolo Galli, full professor of Ecology at the University of Milano-Bicocca. For over ten years he has led a project in the Maldives. MaRhe is a 3,000-square-metre research centre conducting research on corals and marine geology in search of solutions to climate change.

Federica Gasbarro, born in 1995, is a biologist with expertise in sustainability, trained at the University of Tor Vergata in Rome and at Università Luigi Bocconi in Milan. A climate activist, biologist, and author, she has represented Italy at the United Nations Youth Climate Summit and is highly active in science outreach on social media.

Tessa Gelisio, television presenter, founder of the blog Ecocentrica and president of @forplanetOnlus. On her blog and Instagram she covers every aspect of living respectfully on this planet: green lifestyles, fashion, cosmetics, and sustainable nutrition.

Serena Giacomin is on the front lines of environmental and climate change issues both online and off. With a degree in Physics specialising in Atmospheric Physics, she is a meteorologist at Meteo Expert, a climatologist, and scientific director of the Italian Climate Network. She is also a lecturer, science communicator, and consultant on climate risk management.

Andrea Gori, founder of illuminem, a platform aggregating data and information on sustainability. He is an expert in green tech and energy transition, and previously served as Global Green Champion at BCG, leading sustainable investment projects around the world.

Alessia Iotti, known as @Alterales, makes complex and urgent climate change topics accessible to everyone on social media. She is the author of "La crisi climatica esiste, non è un unicorno" (The Climate Crisis Is Real, It's Not a Unicorn, Mondadori) and "Al lago! Al lago!" (Hopi Edizioni). Her activism began in the streets with Fridays For Future and continues today through her illustrations and collaborations.

Mariangela Lancellotta, founder of Le Greenhouse, a consortium of companies specialising in cultivation within agrivoltaic environments. The organisation's goal is to develop replicable cultivation protocols for agrivoltaic settings.

Claudia Laricchia, Chief of Strategic Cooperation at Global Indigenous Peoples and climate leader for Al Gore's Climate Reality Project. She has made it her mission to build connections between those who live in and for nature and the Western world, and through the Smily Academy project has brought eco-entrepreneurship to indigenous communities.

Riccardo Leonardi, CEO and co-founder of NANDO, a startup that closed a €3.3 million round in February. Founded in 2021, the company uses artificial intelligence for waste monitoring.

Emanuele Luzzati, CEO and Head of Engineering at Gevi, a Tuscan startup that has designed intelligent vertical micro wind turbines capable of adapting to wind conditions in real time for renewable energy generation. The startup recently closed a €2.7 million round.

Susanna Martucci, CEO of Alisea, has been working in the circular economy for over 30 years. She recovers industrial and artisanal production waste to redesign new artefacts, turning them into everyday design objects under the banner of recycling and reuse.

Simona Maschi, founder and leader of the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, is passionately committed to design solutions with a positive impact on the world. She pursues this vision by fostering a design culture that bridges academia and industry.

Claudia Masciulli, CEO and co-founder of IntelligEarth, an innovative startup founded in 2023 that uses artificial intelligence to monitor and protect territory and cultural heritage via smartphone. She holds degrees in physics and astrophysics and is an expert in AI and machine learning.

Federico Mascolo, climate policy analyst working at the Climate Action Network Europe in Brussels. He is also the creator and editor-in-chief of Duegradi, a web magazine covering climate change.

Davide Mazzanti, founder of Sykell, a Berlin-based climate tech startup active in the circular economy that has raised €7 million to date. Its technology focuses on recyclable packaging.

Camilla Mendini, who has become a reference point for sustainable fashion with over 102,000 Instagram followers, is among the most followed green influencers offering alternatives to fast fashion brands.

Matthieu Meneghini, CEO and co-founder of Koalisation. In a podcast interview, he described how carbon finance can become a concrete lever for environmental regeneration and social development.

Luca Mercalli, Italian climatologist, meteorologist, and science communicator, presides over the Italian Meteorological Society (SMI), directs the journal Nimbus, and actively researches Alpine glaciers and climate change, also promoting a sustainable and consistent lifestyle.

Mariagrazia Midulla, best known as Head of Climate and Energy at WWF Italy, is among Italy's leading experts in climate policy and international negotiations. She has worked on environmental and health issues throughout her career, spanning communications and environmental advocacy.

Serena Mignucci, CEO and co-founder of Bufaga. With a degree in Environmental Engineering, she worked for major energy companies before founding her own company in 2018. She has developed three product lines to purify air in semi-indoor and outdoor environments.

Alessandro Minori, CEO and co-founder of PipeIn, a Turin-based startup developing innovative solutions for the predictive maintenance of pipelines, with the goal of preventing resource waste. It offers both software and hardware solutions to large sector players.

Tiziana Monterisi, CEO and co-founder of Ricehouse, a startup that uses rice processing waste to develop products for green construction. Processing by-products from the rice supply chain makes it possible to achieve high energy efficiency standards.

Massimo Moretti, inventor and founder of WASP, a company that builds 3D printers with the vision of housing as a birthright. These machines construct homes using natural materials derived from ceramics.

Silvia Moroni, content creator behind the page "Parla Sostenibile." With a degree in modern literature and a master's in gastronomic sciences — where she deepened her understanding of food and sustainability — she has always had a passion for entrepreneurship.

Noemi Muscarà, CEO of i-TES. She has built expertise in water pollution, studying in particular the degradation of emerging organic substances. Her company works on thermal energy storage and its more efficient recovery.

Elisa Nicoli, environmental communicator active on social media and in public events on topics including eco-minimalism, consumption reduction, waste reduction, clothing, and nutrition.

Domingo Noguera, CEO and co-founder of Circular Technologies, a startup founded by a group of Italian-Venezuelan friends including Enrico Agnese (CIO), Andres Valongo (COO), and Marco Vannini (CMO). Using its reValue technology, the company creates a circular ICT supply chain by connecting businesses with industries specialised in refurbishment and recycling.

Alessandro Nora, CEO of Metrikflow, a climate tech company that helps businesses monitor their ESG goals. He has developed an end-to-end software suite to simplify carbon reporting, ESG reports, product lifecycle assessments, and supplier evaluation.

Nima Oulomi, founder and CEO of Tabo, an Italian startup active in the solar energy sector that has launched around 400 installation projects in recent years. Its technology is used by private individuals and companies seeking greater energy independence.

Cristiana Pace, with a background spanning Formula 1 and Formula E teams — first as a trackside engineer and later as sustainability lead for several organisations and federations — she now heads Enovation Consulting Limited, a strategy and sustainability firm focused on building sustainability strategies for the motorsport and broader sports industry.

Giorgia Pagliuca, holds a doctorate in Intercultural Communication and is a green influencer who studies the impact of food on the world. She is the author of "Aggiustiamo il mondo. Diario di un'ecologista in crisi climatica" (Let's Fix the World: Diary of an Ecologist in a Climate Crisis), designed to prompt reflection on what each of us can do to reduce our impact on the planet.

Letizia Palmisano, author of "Il Rigiocattolo," a fable about the circular economy aimed at raising awareness among consumers from the earliest age. A law graduate and journalist, she is a keen observer of sustainability-related issues.

Matteo Parapini, founder of Parapini Agricolture, a farm combining precision agriculture, satellite land mapping, field sensors, hydraulic control units, and cutting-edge farm machinery connected to a central software platform, alongside the adoption of minimum tillage techniques (no ploughing) and cover crops.

Antonio Perdichizzi, founder of Fondazione Marea, recently launched a programme to pre-accelerate more than ten innovative ideas with high impact for Sicily. Hundreds of pioneering donors contributed to the initiative.

Andrea Pesce, CEO of zeroCO2, a benefit company active in sustainability that fights the climate crisis and supports rural communities through the reforestation of degraded land. It works alongside companies on their green transition journey.

Chiara Petrioli, CEO of WSense, a startup that since 2022 has been collecting oceanic big data to enable the Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) with its subsea Wi-Fi systems. She recently closed a pre-Series B round of €10 million.

Marta Pisani, from Puglia, born in 1991, studied political science and communications before entering the startup world. Together with CEO Alessandro Monticelli, she leads Green Independence — a technology capable of producing solar energy, purified water, and green hydrogen in a decentralised manner across the deep South.

Alice Pomiato educates online and in person on more sustainable, ethical, and conscious lifestyles. Her columns and videos cover topics including seasonal and locally sourced food, ocean conservation, circular economy in cosmetics, and home production.

Riccardo Porro, COO of Cariplo Factory, an organisation active for ten years in fostering open innovation between corporates and startups, which now manages two accelerators within the CDP Venture Capital network. The organisation is very active in the sustainability and green vertical.

Nadia Prando, CFO of renewable energy company Chiron Energy, an independent renewable energy producer that develops, builds, and manages next-generation energy plants and infrastructure with a low environmental impact.

Tommaso Randolfi, CEO and co-founder of Volta Structural Energy. The startup produces structural panels for use in aircraft, car, or ship frames that synergistically integrate energy storage capacity with the materials from which they are made.

Ermete Realacci, environmentalist, promoted and presides over Symbola, the Foundation for Italian Quality. A co-founder of the Kyoto Club, he served as an Italian MP and was previously chair of the Chamber of Deputies' Environment, Territory and Public Works Committee. He led Legambiente in its early years.

Ruggero Rollini, science communicator with thousands of followers, holds a degree in chemistry and works on environmental chemistry and sustainability. On his Instagram and YouTube accounts he covers sustainability and environment topics including oceans, greenhouse gases, and pandemics.

Gabriele Rorandelli, CEO of ZeroW. The company transforms leather and fabric offcuts from major Italian luxury brands into valuable resources, reducing waste through upcycling and recycling services. Among the winners of the Prisma project, it won the e-P Summit Innovation Award promoted by Pitti Immagine.

Milena Roveda, Italian-Peruvian, leads green tech company Gauss Fusion and is president of the European Fusion Association. "In the next twenty years we will build the first 1 GW plants based on magnetic confinement fusion for clean energy production. Talking about gender quotas is limiting — let's invest in competence."

Flora Angela Rutigliano, president of the Italian Society of Ecology. Since 2019, she has been full professor at the University of Campania, where she was associate professor of Ecology from 1998 to 2019. From 1992 to 1998 she was an ecology researcher at the University of Naples Federico II.

Antonietta Santaniello, Plant Genomics Manager at Syngenta Biologicals. With a degree in Agricultural Sciences and Technologies, she completed a PhD in Agriculture, Food and Environment, with a curriculum in technological innovation and valorisation of plant production, at the PlantLab of the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa.

Eugenio Sapora, Italian general manager of Electra, the electric mobility startup founded in Paris in 2021 by Aurélien de Meaux (CEO), Augustin Derville, and Julien Belliato, which aims to revolutionise the electric mobility sector with hi-tech charging stations.

Caterina Sarfatti, climate policy expert, leads international initiatives on sustainable cities at C40. She is one of the most influential Italian voices in the global debate on urban transition.

Luca Stevanato, CEO of Finapp, a startup that develops and produces patented probes based on CRNS (Cosmic Ray Neutron Sensing) technology to measure water content in soil and snow for flood prediction. The team recently closed an €8.6 million round.

Mara Lucilla Valsecchi, CEO of Planet Farms, one of Italy's most significant food tech companies, with over 25 years of experience in sales and marketing. She leads a scale-up that last year announced an infrastructure joint venture with Swiss Life Asset Managers.

Nicolò Verardi, co-founder of BeNewtral, a cleantech startup producing construction materials. A few months ago it closed a €7 million raise, bringing total funding to €11 million.

Elisabetta Zavoli, Italian documentary photographer since 2009, with a degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Bologna, has documented marine ecosystems and the impacts of climate change, primarily between Algeria and Indonesia.

Alessia Zecchini, world-record freediver, still holds three: 123 metres in constant weight monofin, 113 metres in constant weight bifins, and 104 metres in free immersion. In 2018 she became the first FIPSAS athlete to receive the Gold Collar for sporting merit. She has been working on the protection of the sea and the environment for years, carrying forward several dedicated projects.