The first sustainable supply chain project in Italy is underway. Intesa Sanpaolo and Gucci renew their collaboration with a focus on the transition of the production chain towards sustainable and inclusive practices. The agreement aims to support companies in the Gucci supply chain to embark on a path to improve their social and environmental sustainability by adopting concrete actions and interventions, consistent with the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR).
This agreement launches an innovative model of support for manufacturing companies Made in Italy:. Specifically, the SMEs of the supply chain Gucci will be able to access ad hoc lines of financing introduced by Intesa Sanpaolo, in the S-Loan formula and inspired by ESG indicators, in order to pursue crucial objectives such as: energy efficiency and saving, introduction of green mobility and logistics projects, development of energy production plants from renewable sources, adaptation of business models to promote the development of the circular economy.
And again the activation of initiatives aimed at promoting the female employment rate in the company and supporting professional growth through the creation of training courses and the acquisition of new skills, definition and implementation of welfare policies and tools aimed at guaranteeing equality and reduce the gap of and the adoption of a transparent system of certification of gender equality and activation of initiatives aimed at developing and increasing awareness of gender equality.
The basis of the agreement - reads a note - is the collaboration model already launched in 2020 to deal with the health emergency through Intesa Sanpaolo's "Sviluppo Filiere" programme, aimed at supporting the development and enhancement of suppliers of the Gucci supply chain and the industrial context in which they operate, recognizing them important advantages on the cost and accessibility of credit due to the sharing of creditworthiness with the lead company.
"We are proud to inaugurate today with Intesa Sanpaolo the first supply chain agreement for the fashion sector which will allow the Gucci ecosystem to take a further step towards the sustainable revolution of the business - he declared Marco bizzarri, President and CEO of Gucci -. This is an important step, because only together - public and private, large companies and SMEs - can we achieve critical objectives for society and for Italy, in line with the objectives set by the National Resistance and Resilience Plan. This is a pioneering project: everything we have ever hoped to achieve, as companies, to further the goal of a more just society is now within reach. Social and environmental sustainability is a duty: carbon neutrality, equal opportunities are part of a single infrastructure, reasoning - as is necessary - in a country-system logic".
While the Director and Chief Executive Officer of Intesa Sanpaolo, Charles Messina he underlined how this agreement “represents a new relationship between the corporate bank and the reference supply chain, based on sustainability, which we are the first to launch in a turning point for our country represented by the arrival of the Funds from the NGEU programme. Intesa Sanpaolo confirms its attention to green investments, to the development of models based on circularity: today our attention finds a new application model based on the strength of our production system, that of the supply chains, which has long been at the center of our support programs for business. Our Group is convinced of how it is economical progress can have healthy prospects when it has as references care for environmental impact, social inclusion, valorisation of human capital”.
Finally, thanks to the "Chain Development Program", over 150 suppliers of the Gucci supply chain throughout Italy benefited from loans granted by the banking group for over 230 million euro in just one year. These interventions have made it possible to accompany the SMEs of the supply chain in the realization of their growth projects in the area, internationalization and renewal of their production structures. The project, which started at the end of 2015, has activated over 6 billion loans for the over 20 suppliers belonging to the over 800 established supply chains.
