The topic of sustainability is becoming increasingly central in defining corporate strategy. From customers to managers, everyone feels the need to integrate this aspect into the business model.
In particular, the so-called ESG strategies must be adopted, where the acronym refers to the Environmental, Social and Governance areas. These factors must be developed organically, so as to bring as many benefits as possible to the company.
Deloitte carried out research to understand how Italian companies relate to and manage the issue of sustainability. In particular, 500 C-levels from a representative sample of companies divided by size, geographical distribution and production sector were interviewed.
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Managing sustainability in the company | State of the art and best practices
During the study, three fundamental aspects were analyzed: planning, reporting and investment.
Planning
Most Italian companies do not manage sustainability in a systematic way. It would be good practice, however, to adopt a sustainability plan that encourages the integration of the topic into your business.
This document allows companies to make their sustainability strategy known to both internal and external stakeholders and defines strategies for establishing concrete actions to minimize any possible source of negative impact.
Currently, only 3% of organizations have adopted this plan while it is not yet foreseen for 4 out of 5 companies. Both the company size and the type of market influence this choice.
As regards the first point, approximately 53% of companies with more than 50 employees declare themselves open to developing a plan, while the position of our country in terms of international presence and reference markets makes everything more complex.
Organizations that have developed this strategy present promising results. First of all, there is a reduction in costs through a more efficient use of resources which also leads to a reduction in waste. Furthermore, greater diversification compared to competitors and a possible future improvement in company reputation are observed.
Together with the sustainability plan it is necessary to develop a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) that capture the actual impact. These indicators are in fact a fundamental tool for analyzing, monitoring and expressing dynamic and complex events, supporting decision-making processes in the various aspects of sustainability.
Reporting
A useful tool for certifying the actions undertaken by the company is the sustainability report.
Although this tool allows us to offer greater transparency towards stakeholders and easier access to capital, tenders and tenders, it is not yet widespread in Italy and is carried out by only 1 company in 10.
Regular disclosure of sustainability activities undertaken should be good practice, but is still largely voluntary. It is hoped that the regulations that will be introduced in 2024 will play a role in making sustainability reporting mandatory.
This would make communication much easier which, as can be seen from Deloitte’s research, affects both consumers and employees equally.
Investment
The last aspect to be adopted in the field of sustainability in the company consists of investment.
This tool concretizes the strategies adopted and has as its objective the reduction and improvement of the corporate impact and the evolution of the business model.
Most investments are aimed at the integration of sustainable technologies, the development of sustainable projects within the company and the innovation of the product or service in a sustainable way.
Businesses must also invest in strategic partnerships with companies from the same or other sectors, aimed at developing new technologies or sustainable solutions, which underline the importance of co-creation.
This cooperation becomes fundamental especially for smaller companies, which may have neither the resources nor the skills to develop solutions to improve their sustainability completely independently.
Sustainability is one of the fundamental levers for operating on the market, for attracting the best talent, for consolidating reputation, for allowing access to the capital market, for accelerating investments. In capital allocation choices, it is the main discriminant in most industrial sectors: this is why an integrated long-term vision is needed, in which sustainability effectively contributes to defining the company profile
Stefano Pareglio, president of Deloitte Climate & Sustainability
