Triboli Farm

5 January 2025 ecosostenibile

Triboli Farm

The agroecological transition, of course, is also a spontaneous process of companies scattered in various parts of the world, which, although with different approaches, nevertheless set themselves very similar objectives. This is the case of a company, recently renovated, and located in the municipality of Impruneta, a municipality in the metropolitan city of Florence. A reality with an extension of 60 Ha of woodland, 20 of olive grove and 5 of arable land, with production of extra virgin olive oil, vegetables, sauces, eggs, honey, vegan “cheeses”, eco-cosmetic products and offering various services such as: educational farm, visits, tastings, partnership events. The project idea was born in 2018 to achieve the environmental, social and economic sustainability of the farm, through an agroecological approach. Furthermore, in early 2019, in collaboration with the master’s program in “Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability”, offered by the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden, the company finalized a plan to achieve environmental, social and economic sustainability. The plan included the following actions:
1. Increase revenues and market share by adopting sustainable farming practices that increase the level of both purity and quality of olive oil. An additional revenue stream is to expand product lines by repurposing end products from production. The farm uses olive oil residues and converts them into cosmetic products and/or organic fertilizers.
2. Reduce energy costs by investing in various forms of energy. Energy generated by the sun, wind or biofuels is better for the environment than fossil fuels. In this way, generating energy requires an upfront investment, but it will be paid back in a few years and above all the environment will benefit from it. To date, the farm is using water from the spring inside the farm and water from a lake as sources of water for irrigating the vegetable gardens and olive trees. In this way, drinking water waste is avoided.
3. Reduction of waste expenses, for the reduction of costs, by reusing them in the production of natural fertilizers. Circular production processes like these reduce the costs necessary for disposal. The goal is to reach the “Zero Waste” goal by 2024.
4. Reduction of expenses for materials and water; agricultural practices largely use the planet’s fresh water resources. More sustainable practices like permaculture will lead to a reduction in water consumption and therefore costs.
In order to achieve environmental, economic and social sustainability, the activities have been divided into 7 strategic actions. The company strategy can be summarized as in table 8.1 where the company purposes are summarized and outlined, divided into short term, medium term and long term.

The results were not long in coming and already, after 5 years from its birth, the company obtained the BIO certification, also adopting Regenerative Organic Agriculture practices, which allow, through monitoring, to verify that more CO2 is absorbed than is emitted into the atmosphere. Furthermore, with regenerative organic agriculture it was soon possible to increase the fertility of the soil and its resilience to climate change, strengthening the ecosystem and obtaining sustainable products. The techniques adopted, in this sense, make use of the following solutions:
– green manure; through the cultivation of plants that are subsequently mowed in order to protect the soil from the sun, increase the supply of organic matter in the soil and increase water retention;
– keyline; that is, the design according to level lines (a traditional agricultural cultivation technique known since ancient times) that allows the prevention of soil erosion by planting olive trees along the contour lines of the hills.
– water saving techniques; through the optimization of water use with high-efficiency irrigation techniques such as drip irrigation;
– creation of bio-compost; through the TekuKana technique, which allows the multiplication of soil microorganisms, creating a soil improver rich in microorganisms; adding whey to TekuKana to produce fertilizers and, finally, through the preparation of biochar, from which a carbon with a high capacity for CO2 sequestration is obtained.
In this way, both advantages and new challenges were obtained that the company began to analyze and evaluate to optimize them and finalize them for long-term sustainability. The advantages were those of the high quality level of the products, the reuse of waste to produce soil improvers and fertilizers, with a consequent increase in revenues and decrease in related costs, and the optimization of water resources, with practically no waste of drinking water. The challenges to be faced are linked to an irregular quantitative level of production and the increase in some management costs that are often not understood by the consumer who is not yet sufficiently aware of the overall quality of agricultural products and services. However, the process that has begun is leading to a regeneration of the company ecosystem, limiting pollution from chemical substances, preferring natural ones, valorizing company waste and effectively managing naturally present water resources. All these processes are followed and monitored, among others, in collaboration with the following bodies: University of Bologna; Deafal NGO; WorldRise; Servizio Socio-educativo comune Impruneta (FI); Pubblica assistenza Tavarnuzze (FI). Furthermore, the future objective is to implement, in collaboration with Deafal ONG and another farm, the project “IESS-Azioni agroecologiche innovative per rigenerare i soli producing an impact economico, sociale e sostenibile”; moreover, we are working to achieve further system standards through certifications such as: ISO, EMAS, ECOLABEL, also increasing carbon credits. In practice, a highly integrated partnership system that allows for checks and feedback of absolute scientific value but, above all, for the fine-tuning of the processes started. All these processes have allowed:
– the self-production of compost and biofertilizers;
– the reuse of pomace as organic fertilizer for the soil;
– the rational grazing of chickens among the olive groves, with the contribution of significant amounts of fertilizers derived from excrement;
– the reuse of olive leaves after pruning and harvesting to obtain extracts to be used as infusions;
– the shredding of pruning branches (with carbon fixation in the soil, thus discouraging the emission of CO2 into the air);
– the reuse of water from the company lake for irrigation;
– packaging – stainless steel bottle + bag in box (refillable);
– the use of crush paper and grass paper for labels, with the limitation of the use of cellulose;
– the return of empty vegetable crates;
– the use of vegetable waste as animal feed.
Obviously, the program implemented by the company team is much more ambitious, and cannot be fully reported in this text, however, all aspects of agroecology are implemented and integrated in it, through application phases and feedback reports that continuously improve its implementation and realization. Among these actions, particular attention was also paid to the sales system which, as is known, is one of the factors of greatest evolution of the entire agri-food sector in an agroecological key.
In general, different systems that integrate with each other have been chosen: direct sales on the farm or through travelling markets and fairs in Italy and Germany, but also the E-commerce system which, in the agricultural sector, is finding ever-increasing solutions and applications.