For the first time, with the support of artificial intelligence, the commitments made by 3,619 Italian Benefit Corporations (2023 data) to generate, alongside profit, a positive social and environmental impact have been mapped:
- 32.5% of the common benefit objectives focus on the impact on the local community and territory
- ESG impact: more than half (51.9%) of the objectives concentrate on social commitments, followed by environmental and governance aspects
- 8 out of 10 companies demonstrate awareness of the material issues most influencing sustainability performance in their sector
Research conducted by:
NATIVA, Research Department of Intesa Sanpaolo, InfoCamere, Department of Economics and Business Sciences of the University of Padua, Chamber of Commerce of Brindisi-Taranto, and Assobenefit
Milan/Rome, September 30, 2024
Thanks to the application of AI tools in textual analysis, it has been possible for the first time to systematically examine the statutes of all Italian Benefit Corporations (3,619 as of the end of 2023), identifying 18,618 specific common benefit objectives, with an average of 5.8 per company. These objectives have been categorized according to international standards, highlighting the concrete and public commitments these companies make towards people, communities, and the environment.
Italian Benefit Corporations demonstrate a commitment to generating a positive impact on their stakeholders, characterized by a strong connection to the local territory, organizational awareness, and a focus on equity. More specifically, the classification of objectives reveals:
- 32.5% (6,045 objectives) relate to Social Capital, highlighting a strong bond with the local community and the territory in which the companies operate. This approach, echoing the Olivettian motto, can be summarized by the principle that “The enterprise is a community.”
- 24.4% (4,542 objectives) focus on Business Model Innovation, with commitments related to redesigning internal processes and across the supply chain, as well as the design of products and services from a sustainability perspective.
- 17.6% (3,271 objectives) pertain to Human Capital management policies, impacting equity, work organization, employee well-being and development, training processes, and corporate welfare models.
- 13.4% (2,494 objectives) fall within the area of Leadership and Governance, concerning corporate management practices (risk management, safety, conflicts of interest) and the dissemination of the benefit model.
- Finally, 12.2% (2,266 objectives) focus on Environmental commitments. This lower percentage can be attributed to the fact that 30.5% of Italian Benefit Corporations belong to the service sector, where environmental impacts are
mainly indirect and thus less controllable; moreover, within the adopted standard, the optimization of environmental impact is categorized under Business Model Innovation.
This is the snapshot that emerges from Part 2 of the 2024 National Research on Benefit Corporations, conducted by NATIVA, Research Department of Intesa Sanpaolo, InfoCamere, Department of Economics and Business Sciences of the University of Padua, Chamber of Commerce of Brindisi-Taranto, and Assobenefit.
