Sustainability Plan
The 2018-2022 Sustainability Plan, approved by the Board of Directors, was drawn up at the same time as the industrial plan with the broad and direct involvement of the Group’s management. This has made it possible to produce an overall vision of the company’s strategy and to highlight the correlation between the investments envisaged in the Industrial Plan and sustainability objectives, for a value of approximately € 1.3 billion. In 2018, the investments made in relation to the “targets” of the Sustainability Plan amounted to approximately € 175 million.
The 2018-2022 Sustainability Plan is made up of 6 cross-cutting objectives aimed at integrating sustainability into corporate governance (governance level) and 5 macro-objectives at an operational level, with targets for 2022 and related KPIs.
As can be seen from the guidelines expressed in the Group’s two strategic industrial and sustainability planning documents, many elements, already related in operational management, lend themselves to an integrated interpretation, which enhances the peculiarities and complementarity between the two Plans – one focused on aspects related to the economic solidity of industrial growth and the other on the expected results for stakeholders and from the social and environmental point of view – in the framework of Acea material issues and the relevant UN sustainable development goals (SDGs).
During the year, the 2018-2022 Sustainability Plan was updated in light of developments in the company, particularly in the areas of health and safety, smart working and innovation. These updates led to the reformulation of 3 targets, the elimination of 5 no longer considered strategic and the introduction of 7 new targets.
Therefore the operational level of the 2018-2022 Sustainability Plan is currently divided into 137 targets.
In 2018, an initial monitoring of the Plan’s progress was carried out.
In particular, the evolution of the governance objectives for some of the Holding’s Departments/Functions with strategic roles was shared during meetings of the Sustainability Advisory Board.
The objectives of the operating level – expressed in targets for 2022 and KPIs – were the subject of precise monitoring, carried out in two stages of the second half of 2018, the results of which, for the first phase, were presented to the Sustainability Advisory Board. The monitoring made it possible to identify the actions implemented during the year. The analysis of the data collected showed that only 11% of the targets were neglected during the year, 78% of the sustainability targets were acted on in 2018 and 11% have planned actions.
In 2019, the Sustainability Plan may be further amended in order to incorporate new developments in the business strategies detailed in the Industrial Plan, which are currently being revised and updated, and in consideration of the presence of targets already achieved or no longer pursued by the Group.
Having monitored the progress of the 2018-2022 Sustainability Plan, to better represent the consistency between material issues and strategic sustainability planning the correlations between sustainability objectives for which actions were carried out during the year and material issues were highlighted.