Pavia, 10 May 2017
Eighty percent of Italian companies with over 80/100 employees say they are committing to CSR initiatives, with a total investment of 1.122 billion euros. That is one of the figures from the Seventh Report on Company Social Responsibility (CSR) in Italy, which was presented during a seminar held at the Department of Economic and Business Science at the University of Pavia, with the participation of FS Italiane.
The research was conducted by Osservatorio Socialis together with Istituto Ixè, with the backing of FS Italiane, and shows the areas where firms are saying they are most committed to CSR, including in the north of Italy: employee involvement, environmental attention, combatting waste, reducing fuel use and recycling waste.
"As far as the area chosen for social responsibility is concerned”, explains Roberto Orsi, director of Osservatorio Socialis “apart from inside the company (chosen by 83% of the companies) the other CSR activities are concentrated mainly in the company’s local area (36%); only 9% choose to take action abroad. So with CSR, companies also try to improve their relationship with their neighbours.
As part of this, and with the University Program project which was started in association with Osservatorio Socialis, FS Italiane brings its own company experience aimed at social responsibility and makes itself available to students who want to use their graduation theses to explore the many aspects of the company’s work in the social area.
"The larger a company is”, explains Fabrizio Torella, Head of Corporate Shared Value at FS Italiane, “the greater the social responsibility towards the country. Italian railways have always accompanied the social, cultural and economic development of Italy and now – at a time of prolonged international economic crisis, which has generated new levels of poverty and unstoppable flows of migrants – the responsibility that we feel is, starting from our core business, to give a real and concrete contribution to social cohesion and development. That is why we are creating a new welfare model inside railway stations based on the local memorandum of understanding signed with the Third Sector and Local Organisations, which takes shape in a number of different projects: Help Centres and welcome centres, the re-use of around 500 stations for social, environmental and cultural purposes, turning disused lines into cycling and walking paths (Greenways Project), which will create jobs and local development linked to mobility and sustainable tourism. In relation to these issues I invite you to look at #opentreno, the blog dedicated to sustainability and much more besides. We need everybody, from big companies to medium and small ones, from the Third Sector and local, central and European institutions to make a great solidarity pact: that is the way we see CSR”.
With the University Program project which was started in association with Osservatorio Socialis, FS Italiane brings its own company experience aimed at social responsibility and makes itself available to students who want to use their graduation theses to explore the many aspects of the company’s work in the third sector.
"FS Italiane’s social commitment”, explains Fabrizio Torella, the Head of Corporate Shared Value at FS Italiane, “is in the DNA of railway workers. Italian railways have always accompanied the social, cultural and economic development of Italy and this commitment is the active way in which we see company responsibility. We are now creating a new welfare model inside stations based on the local memorandum of understanding signed with the Third Sector and Local Organisations, which takes shape in a number of different projects: Help Centres and welcome centres to combat social disadvantage (currently active in 17 stations), which has become a model that has been replicated in other European stations with the 'Hope in Station' project, the re-use of around 500 stations for social, environmental and cultural purposes. The big project of the future is the reconversion of disused railways lines into cycle tracks (the Greenways Project), which will create jobs and local development linked to mobility and sustainable tourism”.
There are 110 buildings in Lombardy which are loaned out from the FS Group’s property portfolio. It is worth noting some of the very interesting examples of social and environmental re-use: Brenna Alzate station is loaned out to Legambiente and has become a reference point for the province on environmental sustainability issues; the station of San Cristoforo in Milan has been loaned out to UNITALSI and is the meeting point for voyages of hope for ill people heading to Lourdes.
More still: Stradella, the centre of promotion of wine and gastronomy for the Oltrepò Pavese area; Remedello di Sopra, a youth centre with a practice and recording room for young musicians; there is rap music in Luino, but also a help desk for women and adolescents with problems; at Gaggiano there is a law and antimafia centre where fair trade products and those grown from land confiscated from organised crime are sold; Meina, where good-quality second-hand clothes are given to homeless people.
These are just some examples of how unused property can be regenerated to create job opportunities, client services and social cohesion.