Italy always scores among the top consumers of bottled water worldwide, both in absolute terms (volume per year) and per capita. Bottled water is often associated with higher CO2 emissions, mostly due to plastic production, transport and disposal, compared to the safe tap water already getting to domestic users.

Despite this, the use among citizens of tap water is still pretty limited, around three out of ten, probably related to lack of trust towards the action of the water utility (bad reputation), taste issues and quality concerns.

We are aiming at reaching the citizens of Florence, especially the ones working for companies in which the municipality has a share (public-private partnerships), being part of a cluster called “Firenze Digitale”. This target group has been chosen for several reasons:

We have a direct connection with Publiacqua, the local water utility, this it is easier and more effective to reach out to a representative and not so biased sample of workers within the city;
People working for local community purposes might be more prone to change, given their involvement in the management of common goods; They might also be more aware of the root causes that might hinder a mindset shift in the population of Florence towards the use of tap water.

With this project we aspire to:

·     reach out to 200 employees part of Firenze Digitale companies with an online survey to understand their water consumption habits and track how many people do not consume as yet tap water to drink at home and why (+ follow-up after the actions taken);

·     create water awareness material, aligned with the one already present and released by the water utility coherent with the scientific guidelines on the topic, to inform people on tap water quality, taste reasons and potential safety concerns. This comprises one digital booklet on these issues (10 pages max with figures) to be distributed both online and in person (printed version) and 12 posts on social media (monthly basis, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin), both of Global Shapers Florence and Senza Filtro (blog of Publiacqua);

·     perform four live sessions with volunteers collected from the survey to engage in open conversations and focus groups facing the main issues related to tap water and/or myths that have been revealed by the survey;

·     pressure the local water utility with the installation of 5 more public water dispensers to progress with the behavioral shift of the employees of Firenze Digitale scattered across the territory of Florence;

·     create a final report gathering and presenting data on the preferences of citizens of Florence regarding tap water before and after the project (the target is to have shifted the behavior of 100 employees of Firenze Digitale from bottled water to tap water or filtered water, either at home or by public water dispensers) and suggesting potential streams of action to steer the change towards a more conscious and spread use of it. This report is meant to be delivered to the addressed citizens, to the authorities of the municipality and finally to the management board of Publiacqua.