CONFINDUSTRIA VENETO EST: FROM 19 TO 22 MARCH THE THIRD EDITION OF THE SUSTAINABILITY WEEK UNDER THE GOVERNANCE THEME

Source: press office Confindustria Veneto East

The Week is organised with the support of main sponsor Intesa Sanpaolo and Cortellazzo&Soatto, Imesa, Previndustria Stradiotto Assicura, Umana, Würth and Proetica
Tuesday 19 March at 10.00 am at Move Hotels Press point by Destro and Bertin on the themes of the Week.
At 11.00 a.m. the opening event ‘And there is also the G (if we believe in sustainability)’.

(Padua-Treviso-Venice-Rovigo – 15.03.2024) – There is also Governance to make good sustainability, i.e. giving oneself an organisation that promotes inclusiveness, gender equality, transparency and is attentive to improving environmental and social performance. These are just a few of the themes of the third edition of the Confindustria Veneto Est Sustainability Week, since 2022 a meeting and listening place for all players in the area, businesses, schools, universities, start-ups and public administration, in a single event to be held from 19 to 22 March 2024 at the Move Hotels (formerly Doubletree) in Mogliano Veneto (Via Bonfadini, 1).

The first two editions registered a total of 3,200 participants with more than 70 events. This year’s calendar includes meetings and seminars, training programmes and workshops, success stories, academies, art exhibitions 47 events, all open to the public (https://settimanadellasostenibilita.it for the complete programme and registration). Over 3,000 registrations have already been collected “Sustainability is a path from which there is no going back that involves us all as companies, communities and people with the investment of extraordinary resources and profound social as well as economic transformations linked
processes of transition,’ says Leopoldo Destro, President of Confindustria Veneto Est. ‘It is with this awareness that we ask the European Union, first of all, for realistic objectives that allow the reduction of impacts to be reconciled with economic sustainability so that we can all face this challenge of global dimensions together. This makes, if possible, the topic of governance that is addressed in this Sustainability Week even more topical. This is the third edition, with a constant growth in participation and events, in the convinced path of Confindustria Veneto Est to promote opportunities for discussion, sharing, and training between different players active in our territory in order to arrive at a common vision of the future
under the banner of inclusive and sustainable social welfare’.

“Talking about governance would seem to be a subject for specialists,” explains Walter Bertin, Vice-President of Confindustria Veneto Est delegate for ESG, “but in reality it touches on very topical issues in every organisation, whether it is a company, a public administration, or a bank. We are talking about employment contracts and human resources, prevention of environmental, geopolitical and financial risks, information management and reporting. Topics on which it is advisable to strengthen attention in companies and raise awareness among decision-makers for the adoption of appropriate tools. Of course, during the Week we will also continue to deal with Environment (the E of Environment) and Social issues, so as to offer an updated picture of the ESG paradigm also with training courses through the Academy of Sustainability of Confindustria Veneto Est’.

The third edition of Confindustria Veneto Est’s Sustainability Week will kick off on Tuesday 19 March 2024 at 11.00 a.m. with the meeting ‘And there is also the G (if we believe in sustainability)’, which will be attended by, among others, the Regional Councillor for Economic Development and Energy Roberto Marcato, Professor Chiara Mio, Confindustria Veneto Est President Leopoldo Destro and Vice-President Walter Bertin. Also with them were Ivo Nardi of Perlage Wines, Piermario Barzaghi partner KPMG in charge of social, ethical and environmental issues, Maria Raffaella Caprioglio President of Umana, Pietro Pelù Business Sales Director of Intesa Sanpaolo, Cristina Bombassei President of the Confindustria Technical Group for Corporate Social Responsibility, and Roberta Toffanin representing the Ministry for the Environment and Energy Security.

Among the many topics addressed during the Week are: ESG skills, sustainability in employment contracts, employee over-indebtedness, decarbonisation, occupational safety, sustainable mobility, sustainable supply chain, energy, Model 231 and whistleblowing, climate change risks, sustainable infrastructure, greenwashing, stakeholder engagement, emissions reduction, CSRD, and eco-design. And along with the numerous meetings and seminars on the calendar, there are the meetings with high schools with the participation of about 300 pupils and students from Padua, Treviso, Rovigo, and Venice. There will be three meetings with start-ups from the VeniSia, t2i, and Le Village by CA incubators, and on Friday 22 March, the presentation of the Luciano Miotto Award for business start-ups by the Chamber of Commerce of Treviso – Belluno|Dolomites.

The closing event, on Friday 22 March at 3.30 p.m., will be entitled ‘The governance of the future in a world of SMEs’, with speeches by the President of the Veneto Region Luca Zaia, Confindustria Vice President for Environment, Sustainability and Culture Katia Da Ros, Professor Stefano Zamagni, Cristina Balbo, Intesa Sanpaolo Regional Director for Veneto West and Trentino Alto Adige, and Leopoldo Destro and Walter Bertin.

The “Sustainability Week” is supported by Intesa Sanpaolo, main sponsor, and by Cortellazzo&Soatto, Imesa, Previndustria Stradiotto Assicura, Umana and Würth; technical sponsors are ABS Group, Kora Comunicazione, Luca Milanese, Open-es and Move Hotels.

It receives the patronage of Proetica, the National Council of Engineers, the Order of Engineers of Treviso, Duezero Cinquezero, Proetica and Rai Veneto.

“The companies in this area are strongly oriented towards digital and sustainable development, and show a good awareness of ESG issues: technological innovation goes hand in hand with the irreplaceable work of people, respecting the environment and the community, all values that we promote and put into practice in our way of doing banking,” comments Francesca Nieddu, Intesa Sanpaolo’s Regional Director for Veneto East and Friuli Venezia Giulia. At the end of 2023 there will be over 207 thousand SMEs in the Northeast that are customers of our bank, to which we have disbursed over EUR 750 million for investments in sustainability and the circular economy’.
Over the course of the four days, the Week will also present the art exhibition La geografia della trasformazione (The geography of transformation) curated by fashion designer Cristina Battistella with the works of nine artists redefining the perimeter and a paradigm of sustainability, regenerating discarded or recycled fabrics into new garments. Another exhibition, Under pressure Interpreting the soft power of metal, showcases the works of 18 Iuav students coordinated by designer Monica Graffeo with Elia Venturini for Formest (Padua) as the outcome of a workshop.
Sustainability Week 2024 will also be the pilot event for Confindustria Veneto Est to achieve Iso 20121 certification on the sustainability of its events.

COMMUNICATING SUSTAINABILITY: RESEARCH BY PROETICA AND FONDAZIONE NORD EST

Proetica, an association between CVE and the Ordini dei dottori commercialisti (Chartered Accountants’ Associations) of Treviso, Padua, Venice and Rovigo, will present the results on sustainable governance from the survey ‘Which companies talk and practice sustainability? How much and how do they talk about it and practice it? carried out by Fondazione Nord Est using text mining techniques that collected information from the websites of 18,491 manufacturing companies (joint stock companies with more than 3 million in revenues) in Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Trentino-Alto Adige, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Lombardy.
The analysis of the data collected shows that while almost half (45.6%) of the companies analysed decide to talk about sustainability on their website, only 17.1% talk about the Governance component, and these are predominantly the larger companies, 41.2% among those with over 50 million in turnover,
data showing that there is still much to be done to involve SMEs in governance in sustainability paths.

“Five distinct narratives with different degrees of intensity stand out,” explains Gianluca Toschi, Senior Researcher at Fondazione Nord Est. The first groups companies that talk about health and safety at work, in particular citing Iso 45001, with a subgroup that also mentions the code of ethics, the social report, and Sa800 certification. In the second group, sites with a good articulation of the governance narrative with “code of ethics” and “model 231.” The third group adds ‘sustainability report’ and ‘benefit company’. In the fourth group, companies merely present the ‘code of ethics’, in the fifth comes the ‘legality rating’.