Because competitors are already green. There are companies already focused on environmentally friendly activities and others that are more in difficulty, particularly in carbon-intensive sectors. However, there are many companies and startups that have been born and are already born in line with the European Green Deal. According to research carried out by ODM Consulting, 64.5% of the companies in the sample said they were interested in the topic or in the initial phase of implementing sustainability policies or projects, while 29% of the companies are already active or have obtained one of the two most popular certifications: ISO 14-001 and B-Corp. There are Italian companies that are born to solve problems in a green way: a textile company processes, thanks to a chemical process, the waste of juices to obtain a cellulose suitable for spinning; another delivers directly to your home all those seasonal fruits and vegetables with small defects, which would otherwise be thrown away. Others, on the other hand, with a long company history, reinvent themselves in a sustainable way and make their production energy independent and clean: examples of this are a well-known Tuscan winery and another, a cheese producer. In short, the examples are wasted: if you don’t look at sustainability, in essence, you would only be left with you.
Because, trivially, investors and customers demand it. According to a study by the consulting agency FutureCast, 60% of young generation Z, who in 2020 represented 40% of consumers worldwide, say they pay a lot of attention to the environment and want to “change the world”. Pinterest also found that millennials and Gen Z are twice as likely to seek out ideas related to sustainability and the environment as those over 38. Recent consumer research from a well-known distribution company reports that 60% of customers intend to change their shopping habits to reduce their environmental impact and that investors show a high level of priority for sustainability, even during the COVID crisis. In the US, sustainable funds attracted a record $7.3 billion during the first quarter of the year alone. More generally, moreover, attention to the environment has become so pre-eminent that it is now central even for banks, under the pressure of ESG (Environmental Social Governance) from the market.
Because national and international regulations are moving in this direction. The European Green Deal is a sector-based action plan aimed at promoting resource efficiency by moving towards a clean and circular economy, restoring biodiversity and reducing pollution. To do this, the EU will provide financial support and technical assistance, in order to help individuals and businesses in the transition to the green economy. This is the so-called Just Transition Mechanism, which will help mobilise at least €100 billion for the period 2021-2027 to enable all countries to scale up the deployment of renewable energy. In addition, with the 2020 Budget Law, our country has launched an investment plan and measures in line with the European agenda, with the aim of making our economy sustainable and achieving zero emissions by 2050. Since last April, the European Commission has published the proposal to amend the Non-Financial Statement (NFS), also known as CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive), introducing a double extension of the obligation that will see a significant increase in the number of companies required to publish the NFS. Therefore, companies capable of traveling along this path will be better placed on the market.
Because it is possible to do it. Depending on the sectors of activity, the task of reconciling environmental sustainability with profitability is more or less complex and certainly, if one eye must run to the environment, it is also necessary for the other to look at the balance sheet. First of all, we need a strategic vision, which sees in the ecological transaction not only a duty or rules to adapt to in order to receive funding, but a real opportunity for growth. And to grow, as we know, it is often necessary to invest and adapt to changes, even if they are not obligatory: the survival and positioning of one’s company depends on it. So what should we focus on to reconcile these two aspects? The trait d’union between environmental sustainability and profitability is certainly innovation, both technological and organizational, relating to production processes and the product. Artificial intelligence is fundamental, used in many contexts to combine a reduction in environmental impact with an increase in productivity. It is also necessary to take into account biotechnologies and their potential for transversal use in the various areas of production activity (transport, energy, construction, etc.). Or investing in improving the energy efficiency of plants, buildings and data centers through sensing and machine learning technologies allows many operators to permanently reduce operating costs. A further advantage, as far as the supply chain is concerned, is a system that enables the management of returns based on a set of predefined conditions: when to proceed with the exchange, when to activate repair requests, or when to return the product to the manufacturer. This makes it possible to minimize the environmental impact of products and maximize the recirculation of materials through the resale of returns: a key factor in cutting the cost of returns sent to the pulp, but also an economic and sustainability opportunity.
Because we need it. From all points of view: we suffer from the pollution of food, land, air and water, electrosmog, deforestation and destruction of entire ecosystems, extinction of animal species, global warming, melting glaciers and global pandemics. Not to mention the social and health effects of this situation: according to the World Health Organization, the climate crisis will lead to about 95,000 more deaths per year from malnutrition among children up to the age of 5 by 2030 and 24 million more by 2050. Without going too far, the climate crisis is also clearly visible in Italy: areas with poor air quality, water bombs that submerge entire cities, heat waves above 40 degrees. In 2017, Italy was hit by a very severe drought, when the snowfields in the Alps dried up and the shelters were closed: a damage of 2 billion to agriculture. And in the first week of August 2020, the risk of the detachment of an ice wall of Mont Blanc of 510 thousand cubic meters forced the evacuation of 75 people in Val Ferret, below Courmayer. Without forgetting what happened in Venice last autumn: record water peaks of more than one and a half meters that pushed, in an already difficult moment, the entire town into an unprecedented economic crisis.
