Bologna, 21 October 2020

To our stakeholders

I am pleased to confirm that Ecoinnovazione srl reaffirms its support of the Ten Principles of the United Nations Global Compact in the areas of Human Rights, Labour, Environment and Anti-Corruption.

In this first annual Communication on Progress, we describe our actions to continually improve the integration of the Global Compact and its principles into our business strategy, culture and daily operations.

We also commit to sharing this information with our stakeholders using our primary channels of communication.

Sincerely yours,

Paolo Masoni

President of Board of Directors

Ecoinnovazione (hereafter ECOI) is a research and consultancy firm, set up as an ENEA research spin-off (the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development). ECOI has a robust knowledge and experience in sustainability (environmental, social and economic aspects) assessment of innovative technologies and in circular economy, participating or providing technical assistance to a number of research and innovation projects. Main areas of expertise, in terms of models, methods and tools applied: Carbon Footprint (product and organisation); Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment; Life Cycle Assessment; Social LCA; Life Cycle Inventory datasets development; Sustainability Reports; Eco-design; Environmental Product Declarations.
In particular, ECOI is expert in Product and Organisation Environmental Footprint, participating with its President Paolo Masoni to the Pilot Phase as Italian representative in the Technical Advisory Board and, presently, with Alessandra Zamagni. Paolo Masoni has been actively contributed to the development of the EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance as appointed member of the Technical Expert Group.
ECOI participated with Alessandra Zamagni to the review board of the Social LCA Guidelines (2009) and is presently contributing to its revision, by coordinating a working group on Interpretation of Social LCA results; in 2018 co-organised and co-chaired the international conference on Social LCA (Pescara, 10-12 September 2018) (http://www.slca2018.eu).
ECOI shares experiences and knowledge participating to the following international research networks on the themes of Circular Economy and sustainability assessment: i) United Nation Environment Life Cycle Initiative; ii) Italian LCA Network; iii) Society of Toxicology and Chemistry SETAC (http://www.setac.org/); iv) Social LCA Alliance (https://www.social-lca.org); v) Italian Network on Industrial Symbiosis - Symbiosis Users Network (SUN) http://www.sunetwork.it; vi) EREK – European Resource Efficiency Knowledge Network; vii) Global Compact Network Italy.
ECOI has been accredited as Industrial Research Laboratory of the Emilia-Romagna High Technology Network.
Company website: https://www.ecoinnovazione.it/indexEN.html
Ecoinnovazione, being scientifically and professionally engaged in the field of sustainability assessments and in the achievement of the SDG’s objectives, poses the respect of human and social rights at the centre of its operations, within and beyond the business environment.

Ecoinnovazione is composed by three partners, one woman and two men, in charge of scientific and organizational management, and by four employees of scientific and professional high level, all of them women. The four employees have a permanent contract according to the National Collective Contract of Commercial sector. Owners and employees work together, in the same spaces with frequent professional interchanges.

Almost all our clients publish annual Sustainability Reports, and all have high reputation for responsible business conduct.

The development of social aspects’ assessment methods and their inclusion in the sustainability assessment is one of the main field of expertise and of our proposals to public bodies and private companies. Ecoinnovazione is member of the Steering Committee of United Nations Environment Life Cycle Initiative and is strongly engaged in promoting the culture of assessment of social rights as essential basis for their respect.
The commitment for the next year is the strengthening of this line of actions and the development of our ethical code of conduct, to be shared with our suppliers and clients.

The monitoring of the performances will be evaluated by the number of participations to events on social and human rights.

Ecoinnovazione cares about its employees and their needs: they are the most valuable asset of the company.

Ecoinnovazione is compliant with all contract rules and wage standards. Our activities have low safety risks, and in agreement with national rules, we have developed a safety risk plan and appointed a safety manager. Moreover, our personnel have been trained on safety aspects and undergo annual medical check-ups.

We have an annual training program for our staff to develop their skills and competencies; moreover, we stimulate participation to scientific conferences and publications. Since the company foundation, no occupational diseases or injuries occurred, and the absenteeism is exclusively connected to diseases. The achievement of gender equality and empowerment is an inherent model of our organisation, being women all Ecoinnovazione’s employees. Mandatory and facultative maternity leave is granted to our employees, hiring temporary substitutions.

The staff satisfaction is annually monitored by a questionnaire regarding many aspects, e.g., organisation, management, possibility of upgrading in different fields The results show an high degree of satisfaction, except only one critical point and they have been analysed and discussed with the staff.

A welfare plan has been defined together with the personnel. It includes a default set of benefits that are progressively increased according to the financial result of the company. This is a way to share with our staff the value created by the company.

Our personnel have a lot of flexibility in defining its own working time. This year, following the emergency due to COVID-19 pandemic, smart working (applicable before only to one employee) has been extended to all the employees, providing them with the required hardware and software tools. Anyway, now the smart working (flexibility, teleworking, work in presence) has become our standard way of work, as requested also by the personnel.

The commitment for the next year is to recruit two new employees and to repeat the satisfaction questionnaire.

The monitoring of performances will be obtained proposing the annual satisfaction questionnaire and by the analysis of the resluts.

Ecoinnovazione, having its office in a Business Center, providing space and all services, doesn’t have the direct control of environmental and energy equipment, but the management of these aspects was one of the criteria considered for the choice of the location.

Ecoinnovazione, having its office in a Business Center, providing space and all services, doesn’t have the direct control of environmental and energy equipment, but the management of these aspects was one of the criteria considered for the choice of the location.
Ecoinnovazione is frequently engaged in the external promotion and dissemination of knowledge and information about the environmental and social sustainability. All of this is part of our work, but we have developed also many free actions to improve a large diffusion of this culture, by means of the participation to many cultural and scientific events, by free contribution to public bodies, by meetings with trade unions, etc.

The performances will be evaluated by the number of participations to events regarding environment and sustainability.

Ecoinnovazione cares about anti-corrution rules and poses the transparency at the basis of its action.

The Ecoinnovazione administrative and financial transparency is assured by professional consultants.

The usual “anti-corruption” and “ethical behaviour” rules are currently included in contracts with business partners.

Every contract will contain anti-corruption rules.