Rome, 21st March 2017
The latest survey on the phenomenon of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Italy was presented during a workshop organised at the Faculty of Economics, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, with the participation of FS Italiane.
Effected by the Osservatorio Socialis, in collaboration with the Istituto Ixè, the statistic presents record data, extremely important because directly correlated with the value that companies give to CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) themes. The data give the highest percentages over the last 15 years: 80% of Italian companies with more than 80/100 employees declare to use CSR initiatives, for a global investment that has reached a record figure (from 2001, the year in which Osservatorio Socialis started monitoring the phenomenon) of 1 billion, 122 million Euro in 2015.
“We can say that we are in the presence of a true inversion of tendency,” confirmed Roberto Orsi, manager of Osservatorio Socialis, “the effects of which will become even more evident now that Italy has acknowledged EU Directive 95/2014, which obliges companies that create institutes of public interest to report information that is not financial. It is an important change, that will award those who can integrate socially responsible behaviour with company organisation and transmit new values to consumer citizens and the chain of suppliers.”
From being an accessory instrument that was not given much consideration, CSR seems to have become an essential value for companies. Employee involvement, attention to the environment, the fight against waste, energy consumption optimisation and waste recycling: these are the themes to which the companies involved in CSR are most committed.
“With the University Program project, started in collaboration with Osservatorio Socialis,” explained Fabrizio Torella, Corporate Shared Value Manager of FS Italiane during his speech, “we make our company experience directed at social responsibility available to those students who want to explore the many different aspects of our social activity through their degree theses. We aim, in fact, at promoting as many jobs as possible, because we believe that comparisons and dialogue with the new generations that have to work in a world that has become more attentive to environmental education, diversity, innovation and transparency is strategic.”
The commitment of FS Italiane materialises in numerous initiatives, among which the Help Centers, which contrast social inconveniences (today active in 16 stations), connected to the training project for “Train in Station” operators, the re-use of FS’s real estate for social, solidarity and cultural purposes, the creation of the European Network, to which 13 companies have adhered, the redevelopment of those routes that are no longer used and which have been converted into cycle paths (GreenwaysProject), the starting of #opentreno, the blog dedicated to sustainability and many other things, too.
In Emilia Romagna, the Rete Ferroviaria Italiana signed 60 loan for use contracts. Among the significant experiences, the Pioppe di Salvaro station where the NPO “il Campanile dei ragazzi” (The Children’s Bell Tower) opened a culture centre; the Rimini Viserba station, where the “Crescere insieme onlus” (Grow Together NPO) unites the parents of children with Downs syndrome or other Intellectual disabilities, and the San Felice sul Panaro station, which hosts the Auser association that assists the elderly.