Establish a continuous dialogue on environmental, social and governance topics, sharing best practices and building ever greater synergies between some of the major players in the Italian economy. These are the goals of the ESG Community, the new sustainability-dedicated network launched by the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti Group (CDP).
The initiative was presented yesterday as part of a meeting that was attended by, among others, the President of the EFRAG Technical Expert Group, Chiara Del Prete, the Director General of the MEF Directorate of Regulation and Supervision of the Financial System, Stefano Cappiello, the ACRI General Manager, Giorgio Righetti, and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CDP, Giovanni Gorno Tempini and Dario Scannapieco.
The ESG Community includes Analdo Energia, Autostrade per l'Italia, CDP Equity, CDP Real Asset SGR, CDP Reti, CDP Venture Capital, ENI, Euronext, Fincantieri, Fintecna, Italian Investment Fund SGR, Greenit, Italgas, NEXI, Open Fiber, National Strategic Pole, Poste Italiane, Renovit, Saipem, Simest, Snam, Terna, Hotelturist (TH Resorts), Trevi Group, Valvitalia and Webuild.
The community, which will meet twice a year, aims to encourage the adoption of a systemic approach to sustainability among some of the country's leading economic players, in view of the issue’s strategic importance to financial and social development.
The ESG Community will address the issue of non-financial reporting, partly in response to the adoption by the European Union of EU Regulation 2020/852, which introduced the taxonomy of sustainable economic activities, but above all in light of the recent European directive on corporate sustainability reporting (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive – CSRD), which will introduce increasingly stringent obligations for the enterprises subject to the regulation.
Other topics covered by the community will include listening to and actively involving stakeholders and the development and implementation of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies.
As part of the initiative, there was also a focus on the world of foundations. This was thanks to the collaboration with Fondazione CDP, which has set up a forum with major organisations in the sector to promote increasing synergies around impactful philanthropy and collaboration, with a view to making significant inroads on the key challenges for inclusive growth in the country.