The waste, both of energy and of material, is another of the big issues that the current societal organization is facing. On one side, it has become evident that Earth resources are not endless, which force us to re-think our energy and materials consumption in a more sustainable way. On the other, we have profoundly altered the natural recycling mechanisms of substances, much slower with respect to the frantic rhythm of our societies, resulting in the accumulation of huge quantities of waste of virtually infinite half-life.
Therefore the current green challenges include energy sparing in all high tech activities (among which computation is on of the most consuming), preventing waste and embedding discarded materials into virtuous re-new and re-use cycles. NANO has several research lines aimed at studying or designing materials and devices addressing one or more of these challenges.