We would share advice daily on how to reduce our environmental impact, saving both the earth's resources and our financial resources. Thanks to word of mouth and our enthusiasm, more and more people approached us to take part in these occasions, getting involved in what, over time, revealed themselves to be real meetings of consciousness on issues relating to sustainability and the impact of all our actions on the environment we live in.

It was thanks to word of mouth that our "clandestine activities" attracted more and more participants and consensus, the reason for which we decided to take on a more structured identity and formally found the charity. So, after many bureaucratic misadventures, TerraLab was founded on the 5th November 2019: an non-profit association for environmental protection, with the goal of promoting sustainable lifestyles through the active involvement of the community in the area.

A core aspect of our initiatives is the active engagement of people, through action as a tool for raising awareness. Every project consists partly of discussion - to offer tools for reflection - and partly of action, to ground the knowledge and awareness acquired.
The issue of the impact of daily habits and consumer choices is central: every act, even the smallest one, has an impact on reality.
The good news is that we have the opportunity to choose what type of impact to have: we can decide to have a positive impact.
How? By gaining awareness, adequately informing ourselves from reliable sources on the state of health of the world.

Starting from here, one choice at a time, we have the opportunity to change our lifestyles in an ever more sustainable direction (in line with our own needs and the resources we have available). The value of these changes, as small as they may seem, is immense for many reasons.
First of all, for their immediate effect in lightening our impact on the environment. And also, because sharing the benefits of a new lifestyle provides inspiration: if one person is able to inspire even only another two or three, they in turn will also have the opportunity to become agents of change, involving other individuals, and so on, in a virtuous ripple effect.

It has happened that people have pointed out that we can't change the world with solid shampoo or bamboo toothbrushes: we are aware that in some ways this is true.
A small act, in and of itself, changes nothing: the change lies in everything that act involves, and in the new culture that we are creating through our work - and the work of all those organisations and people who, like us, believe that change begins, and can begin, from every one of us.

There is no doubt that public manoeuvres, government interventions and contributions from large multinationals are fundamental and crucial, but here we know that we are speaking about long, complex processes that shouldn't disempower or excuse us from acting individually as well.

Institutions, the private sector, the voluntary sector and individuals are all called to action, and nobody is exempt.

We are all part of the problem until the moment we start to act (with a view to sustainable development) to become part of the solution.
And not acting, or remaining indifferent, means continuing to be part of the problem.

How can we blame the inertia of governments, for example, when we are the first to fail to act in our own homes, through our choices?
Just like those who complain about their governments without exercising their right to vote: it is a contradiction in terms.
As consumers, we have enormous power in our hands, through all the implicit consent we give, more or less consciously. With the work of our association, we try to raise awareness and help anyone who wants to be part of the change, through the adoption of more sustainable lifestyles for the health of the planet and our own health.
With the certainty that every single act can make a difference.