The present paper proposes and describes a new method, called L2A (listen-to-apprise), conceived of in order to improve the commitment of all the participants involved in an educational process specifically dedicated to sustainability and the green economy. The first stage consists in listening to the students and, when possible, in listening to the environment, the people, and the territory, while, in the second stage, the acquired information is used to exploit everyone's talents and to achieve the maximum advantage and satisfaction for all. The first phase of L2A is mainly dedicated to listening to the students via the submission of an on-line questionnaire that measures their learning preferences, self-efficacy and sensitivity to the themes of sustainability and the green economy. The investigation has been extended from Italy to Honduras, where the authors are involved in the development of major projects concerning sustainability. The results of the survey have been analyzed by means of standard significance and correlation analysis, and therefore, significant differences among the groups and correlations within each group have been detected. The results have been discussed in order to explain how the L2A method Sustainability 2014, 6 3485 works and how useful and powerful a tool it could be to improve teaching, learning and practical activities.

Recent natural and human-induced emergencies have highlighted the vulnerability of the built environment. In order to immediately answer to people's needs while managing an emergency, any intervention should be more proactive and take into account renewable technologies that can be applied in anemergency situation. Very few examples of renewable energy systems in emergency situations are presented in the literature and this gap needs to be filled. This paper presents the results of a project on Storage Integrated Solar Thermal Collectors, specifically studied for this kind of situations, carried out during the post-emergency and rehabilitation phases, after the earthquake in Abruzzi (2009). The overall objective of the project was to promote the advance and innovation of sustainable energy systems for the participatory use of renewable sources in post-emergency and rehabilitation phases. To raise the awareness and study the impact on social perception of renewable energy use, a special program was launched by CIRPS (Inter University Research Center on Sustainable Development of -Sapienza‖ University of Rome) along with L'Aquila municipality within the local population, just a few days after the earthquake. A -learning by doing‖ methodology was applied to carry out a participatory project, involving the local population and civil society organizations. Conclusions about the analysis of the project outcomes are presented and a set of measures aiming at increasing the renewable energy rates of displaced camps and rehabilitation phase are finally proposed. OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2013, 5 3514

This study develops a sustainable housing model for the Mosquitia region of Honduras, aimed at improving the living conditions of indigenous communities and reducing their vulnerability to the effects of climate change. The improved housing efficiency and resilience will contribute to strengthen sanitation and hygiene, improve the living comfort and reduce environmental impact, particularly focusing on preserving the forest biodiversity. The project was developed following the criteria of environmental, technical, social and economic sustainability to propose a shared model, reproducible by the beneficiaries living in different kinds of Mosquitian ecosystems. Increased building efficiency is obtained through optimization of construction techniques and improvement of materials' performances. The main material of the proposed dwelling is wood, coherently with the "Miskita" tradition; the increase of its durability, which is obtained by proper seasoning and protection from atmospheric agents and parasites, contributes to the optimization of the use of this natural resource and to reducing the impact on deforestation, which threatens forest biodiversity. The data collection campaign, conducted before developing the housing model design and which has aimed at obtaining information on technical and social aspects related to residences' welfare and health conditions, has highlighted the great importance of improving the construction model. Despite the advance OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2014, 6 4932 in sanitary conditions and the economic level, the data collection campaign revealed that even the most developed communities amongst those visited have been perpetrating substantial construction errors, which reduce the resilience of structures to extreme natural phenomena, such as tropical storms and hurricanes, which frequently affect the Mosquitia region. This unexpected discovery increased the importance of housing model design in order to correct these improper construction techniques and avoid their application in the newly-started village growth.