Innovation and Sustainability: commitment starts with people

For INWIT’s External Relations & Communication director, Michelangelo Suigo, inclusion and the promotion of diversity are key elements to a company’s transition to a more sustainable development model. This commitment puts INWIT among the most virtuous companies in Italy and the world for the protection of diversity and development of people.

The last week of September was marked by a series of events putting sustainability at the center of the Italian agenda. 

An intense week – our External Relations and Communication director, Michelangelo Suigo, stated in a new editorial published in The Watcher Post – that started with the Sustainable Development Festival organized by Enrico Giovannini’s ASVIS (Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development) in Rome, moving to the Sustainability Forum (which INWIT participated in, discussing Smart City, Smart Economy and 5G), again in Rome, and then the weekend, with three days of the Verdeblu Festival organized in Milan. Plus, the Festival of the Civil Economy in Florence, opened at Palazzo Vecchio by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella and concluded by the Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, and finally, the eighth edition of the Salone della CSR e dell’innovazione sociale, entitled “The Faces of Sustainability”. 

The topic becomes even more relevant when we think of Next Generation EU: according to reports, 75 billion euro in funds allocated by the EU will go to companies and managers achieving ecological conversion objectives, in line with Ursula Von Der Leyen’s Green Deal.

There is no common standard for analyzing the impact of sustainability policies, but the SDGs in the UN’s 2030 Agenda are undoubtedly the framework to follow, as can be seen from the non-financial reports of listed companies. INWIT has decided to integrate sustainability into its business strategies, looking at the context where it operates with a systemic approach and outlining a Sustainability Plan that, taking the increasing expectations of its stakeholders into account, is in line with the goals of the UN’s 2030 Agenda.

The theme of sustainability is increasingly fundamental and comprehensive. The environmental component – the first letter of the acronym ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) used to assess the sustainability of “responsible” financial investments – is just one of the almost kaleidoscopic aspects of sustainability itself. Research performed by Greenwich Associates last June indicates that 81% of European investors consider ESG factors when managing their portfolios. Reasons for this include risk reduction (58%) and stakeholder satisfaction (47%). 

The recognition INWIT received as the 22nd company in the world, fourth in Italy, for inclusivity in the workplace thus becomes crucial. The recognition comes from the the 2020 Diversity & Inclusion Top 100 Index, produced by Refinitiv by analyzing the performance of 7000 listed companies on gender diversity, inclusion, people development and disputes. 

Diversity and equal opportunities in the workplace are a factor in innovation and growth and the market appreciates this. Any company that claims to be innovative cannot ignore the innovations that society requires. The actions they implement must be evaluated based on the long-term impact they generate in society. 

Sustainability, therefore, also includes Diversity and Inclusion policies. People are considered essential to this journey and are the primary resource for the spread of a culture of sustainability inside and outside the company.

This is why the involvement, well-being and development of people is a pillar of INWIT’s sustainability strategy. We are aware that a company culture that respects and includes diversity leads to change for stakeholders, and therefore has an impact on the society where we operate.