The applied philosophy of caring
By Cecilia Seppia
A degree in Philosophy from the University of Catania in 1999, a career launched as a teacher, a plan to leave for Rome where she would finally become a tenured teacher at the Albert Einstein High School, and then the turning point: a few years ago, 51 year old Paola Gurrieri unexpectedly decided to go work together with her father Salvatore and her two brothers, Francesco and Piero, in the family business "La Mediterranea Srl," a leader in the cultivation of chrysanthemums.
Accustomed to musing about Kant, Hegel and Schopenhauer, and to reflecting on profound existential questions, on the meaning of life, knowledge, mindfulness and language, Paola suddenly found herself dealing with numbers, turnovers, production, mortgages, contracts, marketing. A "blank slate" to quote John Locke - at any rate, quite a Copernican revolution. But Paola accepted the challenge, rolled up her sleeves, studied new things, and became passionate about the idea of a company that as Adriano Olivetti said, "cannot look only at the profit index, it must distribute wealth, culture, services, democracy." In other words, a company built for man, and not a man made for the company, a company that takes care of its employees and the environment. Following in the footsteps of her father Salvatore, Paola has set herself this goal and pursues it to this day.
No profit without ethics
But how does one manage to do this in a world dominated by money and goods? Paola does not offer a philosophical recipe, far from it. She tells me about the "social sustainability" of relationships built on respect, sharing, and kind greetings like "hello, how are you?" that a boss rarely addresses to his subordinates.
She tells me about the cancer prevention and screening campaigns that, in agreement with the National Health Center facilities, she can provide to her employees free of charge. Meetings are also organized with ministers, the bishop of Ragusa and distinguished guests, to promote dialogue and understanding and to bridge the gap of diversity and inequality.
She has arranged artistic-cultural events at La Mediterranea with internationally renowned artists, such as jazz musician Francesco Cafiso, who had played for former U.S. President Barack Obama and has entertained immense crowds. Invited by Paola, he did not hesitate to perform for the company's staff too. And lastly, the company has created housing for foreign employees, thus helping them to settle down and integrate into the Italian social fabric.
Homes for foreign workers
In fact, La Mediterranea is a home for all, a true community for its workers. "We have about 180 employees," Paola says, "including 50 foreigners, hired with the same contractual conditions as the Italians; we house them together with their families in 18 apartments which we built and have provided for them on free loan.
This, too, was my father's wish: to allow the workers to be together with their families. Among them are Pakistanis, Tunisians, Romanians and now several Ukrainians. Ensuring housing is a way to give them dignity and credibility, to foster their integration, and this also has a positive impact on their work. An ethical decision inspired by the desire to care."
Sicily’s first energy-based community
The decision to establish a solar energy community is part of the same logic. Two years ago, three energy-based communities were created in Acate, a municipality with just over 10,000 inhabitants in the Ragusa region of Sicily; it was the first in Italy to involve farms. The area is found among sunny valleys that run all the way to Sicily’s southern coast and is where La Mediterranea is headquartered.
The location was chosen when the Covid pandemic was still frightening, and the energy crisis prompted by the war in Ukraine had yet to unfold. Two solid partners such as the Italian energy company Enel X and the Banca Agricola Popolare di Ragusa slalomed through bureaucratic obstacles to get the project off the ground allowing these three companies to share water and solar-powered energy.
In all, three photovoltaic systems - each with a capacity of 200kW - now allow a dozen small and medium-sized businesses to share electricity, reduce CO2 emissions, and continually cut their bills, with the prospect of obtaining long-term State incentives and earnings to be redistributed to members.
Steam sterilization of the soil
La Mediterranea, a consortium of four companies comprising 100 hectares of land where chrysanthemums of all colors are grown year-round, is not just known as a leader in innovation and environmental sustainability. In fact, it boasts another ‘first:’ it is the only company in Italy that practices water vapor soil sterilization over the entire extent of cultivated land: a technique that is certainly healthier, simpler, though evidently more expensive given that it employs methane, but which has enabled the company to discard the use of chemical fumigants.
The consortium also implements waste-sorting into five categories. From a marketing standpoint, the company's primary target is the Italian market (70 percent), while exports are mainly to Russia, the Netherlands (which certainly has nothing to learn about flowers), England and Greece.
The farthest market reached to date, a 10-day-long shipment by truck, is Novosibirsk, Siberia, more than 3,300 km east of Moscow. "We’ve made unique choices; indeed, I wonder why others have not had similar ideas," says Paola. "One cannot become sustainable with words; one must make choices that go in this direction as the Pope says in Laudato si' and even more strongly in Laudate Deum.”
Caring vs. taking advantage
I interviewed Paola on August 30, the very day of the anniversary of her father's death, and suddenly everything seemed connected. She considered it a kind of “God-incidence,” as well as a tribute to the man who made this whole enterprise possible.
Visibly moved, her words catching in her throat, Paola said she and her brothers "inherited from dad a respect for others, the principle of equality, equality. And the desire to improve not just ourselves but also our territory that has suffered so much. People, as well as the environment, should be cherished, not exploited, that is why we consider environmental and social sustainability to be strongly interconnected. It is time to stop plundering and exploiting the environment; it is time for a new alliance."
Paola Gurrieri's commitment to people and to improving the environment earned her the 2019 "Entrepreneurs for the Common Good" Award during the Festival of the Social Doctrine of the Church in Verona, Italy. Describing the motivations for which the award was presented, Monsignor Giuseppe Schillaci, then bishop of Lamezia Terme, said it was to recognize “those who have been able to look beyond the visible.
Those who, in a chrysanthemum, saw the potential to create a great company and, in the enterprise, the potential to restore a perspective to their territory. Environmental protection, too, with constant investment in low-impact technologies and the decision to ban the use of chemical fumigants means gazing at a new horizon - for the benefit of those who, after us, will be able to enjoy the earth of which we are only the custodians."
"That day," Paola says, "my brothers and I were a bit confused and uncertain; Dad had recently died, but all three of us felt we understood: we were going in the right direction, towards an economy of fraternity. Only ethical businesses are and will be able to move forward in the midst of the many crises we are experiencing. We, as entrepreneurs, feel perfectly in line with what Pope Francis says: the need to forge ties, connections that are not justified by mere profit but that contemplate the good of our children and our children’s children, because there is not much time left."
A fraternal economy
In Italy, the chrysanthemum is considered a flower associated with the cult of death, but in Japan it is considered "sacred" because it blooms only in autumn, when the rest of nature dies. It is a symbol of hope, rebirth, and new possibilities.
Paola tells us of the sadness and anguish of her employees who in the first year of the pandemic were forced to mill entire sheds of perfect, beautiful flowers, knowing that they would remain unsold, worse, end up in the dustbin. "We continued production, but we knew those flowers would not reach anyone. In the early lockdowns, even cemeteries were closed and exports stopped. So, reading the pain in the eyes of my co-workers, I came up with an idea: to make neatly wrapped bunches of flowers and put them outside open businesses: pharmacies, supermarkets, bakeries, tobacco shops, to give them away. It seemed to me the only way to honor the work of my employees who had taken care of the chrysanthemums from the time they were simple cuttings to the time they became stems blooming with flowers. I remember the face of an elderly gentleman who took the bunch, looked at us and said, if I can't put them on the grave, I'll put them in front of my wife's picture. And what seemed like a huge waste to us became instead a reason for joy at a painful time for the world. This is why we are called to be brothers and sisters, to live in community. The economy of fraternity is the only way to resurrect a world deadened by overconsumption, the exploitation of workers and choices that look only at profit and not at the person."
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