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Sustainability in business Project “Sustainability: a mutual effort”

The “Sustainability: a mutual effort” project born in 2016 entailed the participation of Poste Italiane and nine Italian organisations (Acea, Eni, Enel, Aidda, Fondazione Marisa Bellisario, Terna, Amarelli, Ania, Ferrovie dello Stato) in the creation of a network for sharing experiences realised in the context of “sustainability”. The establishment of the work group allowed the vision and understanding of trends to be extended and paths for improvement to be highlighted for each involved organisation.

The level of seniority of the various participating entities has been mapped by means of a self-assessment survey focused on four areas: “Governance”, in terms of steering, coordination and culture of the organisation; “Integration”, in relation to the level of integration of the sustainability and how it is strategic in the organisation; “Environmental steward- ship” and Social Responsibility”, respectively associated to the environmental and social aspects in the organisation.

In particular, the work group concluded the works, identifying three key environments subject matter of attention and a set of instruments and actions, the implementation of which, duly broken down according to the reality in which it is activated, is synonymous of a better management of sustainability in the Company:
 
Sectors of development Instruments and actions
Integrated planning of sustainability, in order to include the criteria
of sustainability within the assessment of the objectives of the various corporate functions as a valid stimulus for further awareness and commitment. So as to bestow efficacy upon the integration process, the instruments able to support it can be: reporting non-financial performance; stakeholder engagement activities aimed at promoting constant dialogue with the stakeholders to understand their expectations, analysis of
materiality to identify, assess and prioritise relevant aspects.
 Define a multi-year plan, possibly integrated with the industrial plan, which expressly includes environmental
and social objectives. Promote the establishment of a Committee formed
of the highest corporate offices, board or managerial, having advisory and propositional functions.
Induction and involvement of top management on sustainability
matters, in order to bring topics of sustainability to the interest of the
top management and as a basis for the Board’s strategic decisions. The awareness of the top management is key to realising full integration of the principles of sustainability within business strategy. Only by sharing the approach and culture of sustainability at top level is it possible to guarantee its active role in defining a vision and strategy that is not only shared and implemented within the company according to a top-down
mechanism, but that is appreciated by the external shareholders.
Realise training and awareness courses
at all levels of the organisation, focused on sustainability issues that consider its strategic role.
Monitoring sustainability performances for the Board of Directors,
in order to allow integrated monitoring of the financial and non-financial performances and the best management of interdependence among economic, social and environmental trends.
Draw up a brief report (or dashboard)
of indicators to be submitted to the
corporate top management to monitor the main objectives of sustainability.

Lastly, the organisations belonging to the network have also undertaken to concretely contribute to reaching one or more of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).