In order to grow, it will be less and less possible to ignore CSR issues

Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR: this is the challenge of the present (and of the future) with which all organisations will have to contend, and the IT world is certainly no exception. We interview the industry leaders for you, revealing their strategies, approaches and where they focus their action. Technology at the service of fairer and more inclusive societies is not a slogan without content, but a concrete goal.
After all, citizens’ expectations are high and impossible to ignore: a World Economic Forum survey conducted with Ipsos revealed that 86% of those surveyed would like to see significant improvements in terms of inclusiveness and social equity.
01net therefore decided to interview the most prestigious companies in the IT market, asking them how their business model has changed to accommodate these important demands.

Andrea Lambiase, Chief Digital & Innovation Officer, was interviewed for Axitea.

Corporate Social Responsibility is bringing about major changes in the way organisations operate and produce. Are ethics and profitability still opposing themes, or can they successfully coexist?

Not only are these issues destined to coexist successfully, but they will increasingly influence each other, in the sense that it will become less and less possible to disregard CSR issues in terms of revenue growth: Just think of the European regulations on sustainable finance (e.g. the EU Disclosure Regulation 2088/2019, to be implemented from March 2021, which imposes transparency and disclosure obligations on financial sector players, including asset management companies, regarding ESG sustainability factors), incentives for companies adopting ESG models, value in terms of positioning, Brand Equity and Reputation related to the transparency, sustainability and ethicality of their business. In addition, they impose transparency and disclosure obligations across the board with regard to corporate processes and governance, care for the welfare of stakeholders (starting with employees) and attention to the environment, production sustainability and the benefits of digitalisation related to sustainability and green innovation.

In short, the Blue+Green Brand paradigm is bound to influence the profitability of any company both in terms of cost reduction and in terms of maintaining/increasing the value of its assets and market share.

To be inclusive and open to all kinds of minorities: a statement that, in the past, has been more a statement of principle than a concrete reality. What are your policies in this respect?

We are aware that we are approaching a market and a business model that traditionally leaves little room for inclusiveness, also due to limitations related to the regulations in force in Italy on the subject of supervision. However, we have been able to turn this awareness into a challenge that we are winning: in the past year we have tripled the number of colleagues of non-Italian nationality and culture for fiduciary and management services, while in the past three years the number of female colleagues has increased by 46%.

In particular, the number of female security guards has actually tripled. After all, Axitea is the only company in the sector to have proudly adopted a name with a feminine ending as a strategic choice with motivations linked to its image.

It would be impossible to talk about social responsibility without reflecting on the idea of companies’ integration with the communities in which they operate. What plans do you have for our country?

Allow me to take up the last concept of the previous answer: Axitea has a name with a feminine ending because our idea of doing security has to do with taking care of something, protecting something on behalf of our customers and partners far beyond any traditional concept of defence.

In our daily narrative and practice, the constant relationship with the territory, the contribution to the widespread security of communities, the preservation of their cultural heritage by protecting artistic heritage of global significance on a daily basis, the preservation of corporate assets that produce wealth for the country and income for individual workers on a daily basis, and the daily assurance of the integrity of critical infrastructures of national importance, is our daily contribution in terms of social responsibility and at the same time an integral part of our corporate mission.

Corporate welfare, highly developed in northern European nations, has struggled to establish itself organically in Italy. As IT leaders, how do you facilitate your workforce?

We have approached the issue starting from a sector that is strategic for us, that of the Operations Centres (COs), for which we have launched a number of strategic initiatives such as granting a top-down amount over and above the ordinary salary and spendable on a portal of welfare services such as travel, leisure, school vouchers, etc.

We are evaluating in what terms and to which priority areas to extend the initiative, with the shared objective at management level of extending these benefits to the entire company population.

Finally, it is impossible not to talk about environmental sustainability, also in the light of COP26 and the very strong public awareness of the issues it raises. How did you design your roadmap to reduce your ecological footprint?

In this field our resolution is – if possible – even greater. We are aware that the provision of security and system integration services in the field and the consequent daily use of a fleet of several hundred vehicles means that we need to mitigate our CO2 footprint. This is why we have been active for more than a year on advanced experiments to partially convert our vehicle fleet to alternative and sustainable forms of power supply, starting with electric.

We also activated a strategic partnership with Treedom in 2021 aimed at financing agroforestry projects, offsetting our carbon footprint with equivalent volumes of reabsorption of CO2 emitted through reforestation of the planet.

Furthermore, we have initiated joint projects with providers of electricity from alternative, clean sources, with the aim of sourcing what the company needs in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner. After all, our idea of caring cannot and must not neglect, but rather must place in the foreground, a commitment to care for our planet and the ecosystems that ensure its survival.

Source: 01net