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Latins said: “Nomen omen”: destiny in a name.
Names are not given to individuals for pure convention, but they weave a deep and mysterious relationship with them.
Giving a name means giving an identity: distinguish each from all the others with features that make him unique and unrepeatable. It’s not a coincidence that our team name is the symbol of our spirit. It’s an omen. A fate. We are “The Light Bringers”, the students of the 4th I of the Linguistic High School “Pascasino” in Marsala. Our research was the protagonist of a vivid debate and it was discussed for a long period of time during the “Data Expedition” training, where the team, divided into groups, analysed different kinds of funds allocated to Marsala. All projects seemed very intriguing, but in the end we chose the one about Technological Efficiency of public lighting aimed at the reduction of energy consumption in our city, Marsala, an action financed by European Union, Marsala City Council and other stakeholders.
The name of our team, “The Light Bringers”, refers not only to the “physical” light, source of lightening, but also to the light of minds. Our goal is to brighten, in a kind of Enlightenment 2.0, the minds of those people who don’t realize yet that a better use of lighting sources, more aware and efficient, can help to improve our life quality. We’re young, but we’ve got well in mind Agenda 2030’s goals subscribed by our country and approved by the United Nations. In particular, Goal 11 “Make cities and urban settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”, remarks the natural development of the city towards a smart dimension.
That’s why we want to bring the light of future to those who are lazy, we want to wake up from sluggishness those who are strictly linked to the past. It is a hard and important challenge, but we don’t stand back… rather we want to be promoters of this action!
The team’s logo, drawn up by designers at the end of a lively debate, depicts all of this. The background is black both to reveal the darkness in which some areas of our city still pour into and to emphasize the “old” mindset, obscurantist and oriented to a past where environmental awareness was seen as an obstacle to progress. In this darkness the name of our team, The Light Bringers, and the outline of a torchbearer, made up of a beam of light particles that merge together to create the figure, stand out enlightened.
The man holding the torch is a clear reference to the Olympic Torch, with its values of universal brotherhood and sharing of goals and efforts. The torch, moreover, represents the evolution of lighting systems: from a flame, symbol of the light of the past, a green-blue spiral comes out, symbolising modern, energy-efficient lighting sources.
From all this a little plant is born, not only a bud of nature in rebirth, but also a bud of a new mentality and, hopefully, of a new human race: Homo Ecologicus.
Our goal is to monitor the reduction in energy consumption in the City Council of Marsala. A More efficient public lighting is cheaper, it makes it possible to illuminate areas that unfortunately are in the dark, in order to guarantee light to all citizens.
The replacement of obsolete and poor lightening fixtures with LEDS, less polluting and more efficient, will serve to ensure the regulatory compliance of electrical installations and will make it possible not only to contain the dispersion of harmful substances into the air, but also to achieve a satisfactory level of energy efficiency and, then to waste less money in economic terms.
In addition, more efficient public lighting also generates more safety: road safety, because it can reduce accidents; public safety because it dishearten criminals. Finally, more efficient public lighting makes it possible to highlight the beauty of the city even in the evening, raising the quality of life of the citizens and fostering the development of tourism and the urban decorum… thanks to this Marsala could be pretty during the day and at night!
We would like Marsala, our city, to become a "smart city" and in order to do that it has already made its first step: to allocate funds for the updating of the public lighting. We are aware that we can't get all of this for granted as a divine gift. We need to conquer it. It's a process that starts from the bottom and that obeys to our perspective, the "smart citizens" who are not simply external elements undergoing the city, but aware subjects taking active part to the life of the community, by sharing the strong points and solving the weak ones.
To realize our work we intend to take advantage of the help of the City Council, no profit organizations and institutions addressed to quality check of the air and to the price reduction. In the little we can do, we hope to draw in an innovative way our city, the city of the future. In the end, we aim at returning the results of this analysis to the whole community, to involve it in a civic monitoring, in order to mould new generations of "smart citizens".
Is it a titanic challenge? But, always riding the metaphor of light, wasn't Prometheus perhaps a Titan, the one who, according to classical mythology, stole fire from the gods to give it to men?