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For thousands of years conscience had been propagated solely by the various religions. Only they had been in charge of spirituality and they had always had to provide us with divinities to worship. All that belongs to the prehistoric world.

Conscience and spirituality, as the precursors of true civilization, will become increasingly laic and will not need divinities that impose rules and commandments. Man, un-derstood as a civilized being and not “a commanded biped beast,” will become more and more capable of realizing the ‘good’ himself.

LifeGate’s world of values recognizes a new modern re-ligion, a laic religion, at the center of which lies ‘good,’ not one or more divinities.

A sixty-year-old friend of mine once confi ded that he had toiled through the best years of his life to “make a po-sition for himself,” only to realize the swindle afterwards. However, everything was already so rooted by then — the wife in the boutique, the children already in competition with their friends, etc — that he pretended he had not re-alized anything and continued to play the part that was no longer his. This is not an isolated case. It is precisely when someone has had the opportunity to attain all that is nor-

mally advertised as the recipe for happiness that one no-tices that… yes, it’s a swindle! One has a lot of things, lots of commitments, lots of objects, lots of comforts, but not hap-piness. Those who arrive at this point sense a void that no object seems to be able to fi ll. And at this point, if the person in question does not yield, as it happened to the friend of mine, one begins to ask oneself how to fi ll that void.

We are wealthier, have a more comfortable life and our stomachs are fuller, but we are neither healthier nor happier than our grandparents were with a lot less at their disposal. We are less satisfi ed, more depressed, prone to allergies, permanently stressed and, often, also desperately alone. Perhaps we do not appreciate all that we have because of a bulimic and uncontrollable desire to possess more and more or because our attention is more easily attracted by what we do not have.

Often dazzled by material values, we have forgotten to give importance to human relationships, to authentic com-munication, to the realization of dreams and of ideals, to the emotions we get from music, to the contemplation of beauty, to the fun of games, to the pleasure of broadening our knowledge, to the satisfaction of feeling useful, to the joy of being constructive, to acquiring the capacity to really know others, to being open to curiosity and wonder, to in-timacy with the people we consider dearest to us, to being sensitive towards the innocence of children, to the respect of the experience of the elderly, to the love for each and ev-ery living being, to the recognition of life in itself.

The next step towards the discovery of an interior di-mension to know and to nurture is therefore that of fulfi ll-ing the need to realize our true potential and our talents, in turn improving our skills and making our personality

B Y M A R C O R O V E D A

PPPfl ourish for what it truly is.

Along this path one begins to sense what happiness could be; but one has not arrived yet, there is another stage to reach.

When one becomes able to respect one’s deepest nature, when one has the courage to make choices that are coher-ent with one’s feelings, one does not become more egoistic, as many fear; on the contrary, a major sensitivity is devel-oped towards one’s fellowman and to life. And at this point a new need arises, an authentic desire to give even greater meaning to one’s own existence and to do something use-ful also for others.

To live life only for oneself is not suffi cient and a greater happiness reveals itself behind the possibility to do some-thing for… life itself.

“A stupid person is completely enticed by a material-ist civilization without values, an intelligent person is fas-cinated by the advantages of an aware civilization, that is to say of ‘good.’ When all our actions are in tune with the principles of an aware civilization, we will have reached the true quality of life and, with this, probably happiness too.” I believe this phrase of mine that appears on the website of LifeGate sums up my story very well.

The principles that I believe in take on diff erent forms but share the same aim in asserting themselves across the world: progress, development via eco-sustainable deci-sions, investments and choices.

Let’s discuss this in an orderly fashion. At the age of 22 I was already the owner of two construction companies; I managed 40 employees and had a discreet wealth. Every-thing was coherent with the widespread philosophy of the

time: “Study so that you can work, work so that you can earn, earn so that you can be happy.” But I was not happy.

However, the embryo of the “aware civilization” at that time had inspired me to change my lifestyle. Near Como, I established a biodynamic farm with an eco-system capa-ble of providing the intrinsic necessities: from the cultiva-tion of fodder to the breeding of cows, to the production of seeds for the following seedtime. Shortly afterwards, the idea came to transform this into a product, an organic and biodynamic yoghurt. In 1986 Fattoria Scaldasole was born. Organic yoghurt, little known in Italy at the time, was im-mediately accepted — it was a time when an awareness of the problems facing the environment and the risks linked to the use of pesticides was in rapid growth. Fattoria Scal-dasole opened the doors to organic farming in Italy and with its exponential growth it became a reference model for a further 60,000 companies in this fi eld, averting the emission of tons of pesticides into the environment each year and taking Italy from last place to fi rst place in the fi eld of organic production in Europe.

We proved that business could be done with a respect for nature, that the topics of eco-compatibility could make profi t. But my destiny envisaged other things. In 1998 I sold Fattoria Scaldasole to Plasmon. I was no longer interested in the propagation of a quality product but in the propaga-tion of the pure concept of “life quality.”

In 2000 I founded LifeGate, a company that was estab-lished to spread a new awareness, to reorder the scale of val-ues, to begin to establish diff erent priorities.

I created a communication network — a radio station, an Internet portal, a magazine, a newsletter and a platform

Rosa Barba, Outwardly from Earth’s Center , 2007, Video still, Courtesy Giò Marconi, Milan

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for video-sharing — to develop and diff use the eco-culture. Thus LifeGate immediately became the Italian platform for the eco-cultural world, to propagate ecological conscience and to promote an ethical, eco-sustainable, fair-trade life-style.

We proposed an economic model in which profi t, re-spect for the environment and social responsibility coex-isted. We off er other companies paths towards sustainabil-ity, as well as communication projects on corporate social responsibility to establish a new way of doing business in accordance with the most advanced ethical, social and en-vironmental standards. The challenge is to translate the values into concrete projects.

Let’s take an example. Nine years ago, when truly very few people spoke about CO2, the fi rst Italian project to put into eff ect the intentions of the Kyoto Protocol was born under the LifeGate aegis: Impatto Zero®. Today Impatto Zero® is a success model for the “green economy,” studied at all Italian universities and in Italy it has become a com-mon expression, equivalent to “eco-sustainable.” It is a registered environmental sustainability project that is in-volving more and more companies and individuals. The scientifi c method is based on the results of an LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), which calculates the climate-altering gasses emitted by a product, an activity or an event. The second step is to reduce these emissions through the use of new technologies, more eco-friendly raw materials or an actual re-design of the product. The fi nal step envisag-es the compensation for the remaining emissions with the creation and protection of new forests that absorb the CO2. Now there are thousands of companies, entrepreneurs and organizers of events and concerts that have embraced the project, and more than 20 million square meters of forest are protected by Impatto Zero®.

The LifeGate payoff consists of three concepts, which evoke a wider vision of our primary needs and present a re-defi nition of the relationship between products and ethics.

“People.” People are the subjects without whom we would not be discussing this matter. People are not the means, they are the end. The satisfaction of people’s needs, the respect of individual human beings and the attention to the quality of existence must be the essence of every initia-tive. We are the people.

“Planet.” The planet is the theater for this existence of ours, without Earth there is no life. It is the ground on which we walk and live, it is the air we breathe, it is the food we eat, it is vital water. If we do not take the needs of the planet into consideration, we are undermining the very basis of our existence. We can no longer live off the eco-system.

“Profi t.” Profi t is what allows the satisfaction of prima-ry needs linked to survival; it is indispensable for living in contemporary society. However, the moment has arrived for us to become aware that profi t alone is not enough. Without the other two P’s, without taking into consider-ation both the people and the planet, there is no harmony of life. There is no life either.

People, planet and profi t are like links in a chain. People’s needs have to be met in the context of the planet, courtesy of profi t. Therefore, meeting the needs of the people can-not avoid taking into consideration the needs of the planet, without which there would be no profi t… nor people.

Why, therefore, not unite the aims of making profi t — fundamental in the system in which we live today — with ethical values? It is possible to run a company that makes a fair profi t and at the same time produces positive things for the wellbeing of people and the planet.

“Ethical,” “eco-sustainable” and “fair-trade” thus be-come inspiring principles not only of the ONG sector but also for companies normally inserted into national pro-duction circuits, which can operate in a set-up able to meet people’s necessities and respect the values of environmen-tal capital and the dignity of people.

The fi nancial meltdown of autumn 2008 can be inter-preted as a consequence of the crisis of values that has in-vested contemporary society, with its models, its status symbols and its aggressive behavior.

A way to stimulate economic revival is to make everyone feel part of an improvement, not only for oneself but also for the planet and for the people. Wearing a pair of jeans made with organic cotton from the fair trade circuit, purchasing a hybrid car that allows one to contribute to a vaster project for environmental recovery, promoting innovative initia-tives, all send a message of belonging to the world of values.

Companies have shown that they have understood. Just take a look at their communication strategies, which in the last two years have taken on tones of a real shift: ecology, sustainability, recycling, low-energy, effi ciency, renewable energy, regard and compensation for CO2. These are terms that until a short while ago were completely absent from their communication and today are used everywhere, from packaging to advertising.

Change does not necessarily mean giving something up; it was not diffi cult to replace DDT, the chlorofl uorocarbon harmful to the ozone layer, to stop picking mountain fl ow-ers, to separate trash according to its origin and fi nal desti-nation. And it will not be a diffi cult task to choose a supplier of renewable energy, eat seasonal fruits and vegetables, perhaps locally grown, to support true friendships, sur-round ourselves with people who care about us and who we care about; basically to live like ‘good’ people, with many more possibilities of reaching happiness.

When products able to satisfy the needs linked to these new values are off ered, the quantity of consumption, of the aware-type, will increase and the economy will not only start up again but will be a new economy. An economy in-clined towards ‘good.’

If the paradigm for companies is “People, Planet, Profi t” then that for people should be the following:

Live with feeling Give meaning to your life Eat consciously Respect the eco-system and all forms of life

Find work that is rewarding Be honest with yourself and others Do ‘good’Choose true friends Remove pain, fear, anger Live life with joy.

It is the moment to stop curing the eff ects and instead cure the causes.

Poverty, Aids, terrorism, global warming, desertifi ca-tion, wars, the incapacity to love and perennial dissatisfac-tion are the results of the lack of awareness, of the lack of civilization, that is to say of the lack of respect and capacity to love man and the environment.

I have committed my work and research to the question of how to reach happiness, not only as a moment of joy, but as a state of grace in harmony with ourselves, with others, with the planet, giving meaning to our lives.

Happiness can be reached only if the values of an aware civilization, that is of ‘good,’ are rooted inside ourselves.

Most arrive at this state after having gone fi rst-hand through a crisis in which one personally experiences the aridness and illusiveness of the myth of compulsive materi-alism. The passage is from a life lived according to external conditioning to a life set up according to what lies within you, that is to say from the exterior to the interior, from hav-

ing to being. It is not an easy leap.In the end we fi nd the point of reference in ourselves.This is the accomplished meaning of the new laic re-

ligion that is emerging. A religion that will recover one of the ancient meanings of the word from the Latin “religàre,” “to tie, to bind, to associate,” with the implied meaning to gather men into a community, with their own land. A reli-gion that does not have divinities nor priests, nor absolute truths, but rather all diff erent kinds of points of reference, as many as there are women and men who live on Earth, each with the same matrix and objectives linked to wellbe-ing in harmony with the eco-system, with ‘good’ in com-mon.

Following this religion there will be less opportunity for separations, people will be able to be united by a single thought that develops around the sense of ‘good.’

There is ‘good,’ it exists: we must reach it in order to reach happiness in all the expressions of life on Earth. We will all benefi t from it, because we are all interconnected links.

We have to break away from our atavistic behavior, from our “bestial” past. The caterpillar loses all reference to its old form of self and faces a drastic cellular reorganization before transforming into a butterfl y!

Rosa Barba, Panzano, 2000, Video still, Courtesy Giò Marconi, Milan Previous page: Rosa Barba, They Shine, 2007, Video still, Courtesy GiòMarconi, Milan