“Businesses facing the challenge of sustainable transition: alliances for change”

The second day of the Milanese stage of Sustainable Development Festivalorganized by ASviS and running until 24 May, opens at 10 with a reflection regarding companies that are undergoing numerous changes in their relationship with the banking and insurance system influenced by the growing need to measure their orientation towards sustainability for different purposes .

The 2018 EU Sustainable Finance Action Plan gave rise to a series of regulatory interventions and changes in the structure of financial intermediaries (banks, insurance companies, investment funds, managers, etc.) who are directing their ESG strategies. This process concerns both investment financial products and gradually also financial products for the retail world. Companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, are undergoing numerous changes in their relationship with the banking and insurance system influenced by the growing need to measure their orientation towards sustainability for different purposes.

In this context, the topic of greenwashing remains relevant, on which many of the concerns of analysts of this phenomenon are focusing, in the awareness that the strong emphasis on the topic inevitably generates the risk of opportunistic behaviors to be identified and removed.

It is no longer just a question of demonstrating one’s own sustainability from the point of view of “corporate social responsibility” or of demonstrating one’s (formal) compliance with climate objectives, but companies are in fact called upon to concretely “contribute” to the transition with a change in strategic approach and in their own organization.

For Italian production chains, which are sometimes structured around a medium or large company or which are related to more complex European chains, the need is to understand how to support a just transition that leaves no one behind, managing the transition at the local level and enhancing the value chain as a whole. In this context, it is becoming increasingly important to invest in terms of human capital in the local area by supporting the entire production chain and district by creating alliances also with public entities that outline the reference policies and through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Pnrr) can finance the local transition.

Today at 3 pm the event dedicated to the need to establish a pact between consumers and producers against greenwashing and social washing, entitled ‘Greenwashing and social washing, an obstacle to the just ecological transition’ which will see, among others, the intervention of Silvia Grandidirector general circular economy of the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security e Susan Battles, head of the fair and sustainable well-being analysis office, Mef. To participate in the presence it is necessary to register using the dedicated form.