Sustainability as a key to Company Organization

The commitment to sustainability by Italian companies has significantly increased over the last two years.
It has been involving the organizational evolution, aiming to penetrate the culture of sustainability within its structures, and managing it, especially in large companies, including suppliers.
This matter has always been a prime concern for STI engineering. STI Group, led by the newly formed holding company STI Corporate, has recently adopted a management and business approach oriented toward sustainability and the generation of common benefits (Benefit Corporation).

Sustainability is the keyword of the future, also inside the company

The rapid changes we are witnessing in the competitive and social context require a radical rethinking of the corporate value creation process. However, creating value from sustainable management is not a simple process, nor is it quick.
According to Flavia Ganis, General Manager of STI Engineering, "A sustainable business is not so much an imposing concrete block dropped down by management, but rather a tree in continuous growth, where the principles and values at the root of the company are translated into information and awareness spread to the personnel, through the trunk of the new company mentality, and finally turned into initiatives and actions by the entire company population, a variety of branches and leaves in constant growth and renewal."
The company management logic is rapidly changing also within STI: sustainability has in fact become an effective and sine qua non condition of the business strategy.
“We are living in a historic moment that finally offers us a great opportunity for change. Just think of the challenge recently posed by the supply of gas from Russia, which represents an emergency management issue for Europe and Italy that many companies are already facing." Ganis reiterates.

Sustainable Development

Sustainable development at a very broad level is understood as learning to live within the limits of a single Planet, in an equitable and dignified way for all, without exploiting - to the point of impoverishing - the natural systems from which we draw resources and without exceeding their capacity to absorb waste (and waste generated by our activities), satisfying our needs as well as those of future generations.
Sustainable development at the company level is based on three main pillars:

Social sustainability: that is to say the commitment to mitigate social inequalities (exacerbated by the two-year pandemic: just think of the main social indicators such as a decrease in employment, an increase in poverty and domestic violence, racial discrimination, etc. not to mention the cuts that occurred in Italy to essential sectors such as education, health and research) by taking useful actions to consolidate economic, political, socio-cultural rights, gender, and ethnicity equity within an organization, and consequently within the company.
Environmental sustainability: the world scientific sector is compact in believing that Climate Change is the greatest danger to the planet and that it is humanity’s fault. It is therefore necessary that, at all levels (personal, corporate, territorial and national) objectives, programs and actions are promoted to keep the terrestrial ecosystem (local or global) and human activities in equilibrium
Economic sustainability: that is the ability of an economic system to create stable and continuous growth of the economic indicators. In practical terms, the production and maintenance, within the territory, of favourable conditions for economic growth through the correct and effective exploitation of resources.

The Sustainable Company

How does sustainable development take place within companies? What does it mean to adopt a sustainable business approach? "Being sustainable" for a company could result in satisfying its business needs with the creation of present value, without compromising the ability to generate value in the future.
The goal is clear: to generate value in a long-term perspective.

To do this, however, it is essential to adopt a systemic, inclusive and transparent approach, which develops a strong orientation towards innovation and improves the company’s ability to measure business decisions by analysing all the impacts (economic and otherwise) that they determine, in the short, medium and long term.
STI group aims at achieving its medium-term sustainable development goal, starting from a few simple assumptions:

The company governance values and model integrate the principles of social, environmental and economic sustainability, aiming at the growth and improvement of the company itself.
The sustainability of the service offered: STI engineering has always been offering design and consulting services aimed at optimizing the life cycle of buildings, in line with the principles of the circular economy.
From an operational point of view, STI engineering integrates the principles of sustainability into its business processes: sustainability is transversal to all business functions and processes since it concerns not only "what the company does" but also the "the way it does it ”, according to the principle of optimization and continuous improvement of people, methodologies and technologies.
The company's ability to play the role of "sustainable development actor": aware of its impact on society and at the same time of the opportunity to contribute to the creation of a sustainable development model, STI Group promotes a sustainable mentality within the context in which it operates, through its range of services and on the reference markets: energy efficiency of buildings and facilities, use of green technologies, plants and factories with low environmental impact and reuse of waste materials, attention to new energy sources and to decarbonization, etc.

In 2022 sustainability, circular economy and innovation are proving to be crucial issues for the development, growth and durability of companies, in manufacturing as well as in services, in large companies as in startups.
Over the last year, business models have been reinvented and supply chains reorganized. The promise of new scientific discoveries unexpectedly materialized. Productivity can also grow in a virtual dimension.
In addressing global challenges that even the most far-sighted leaders have never envisioned, organizations have transformed.

There are signs of change. It is up to companies to have the courage to change.

Thanks to: Sara Bulfon
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