Green bonds, gender equality, recycling and above all the reduction of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere through an investment plan aimed at innovating the network and at the same time obtaining significant benefits for the environment. The Terna's sustainability plan, the company that manages the national electricity grid, goes through a complex of measures, articulated on different but connected levels.
Attention to the issue of sustainability has become a key element for the generation of value within companies, not just those operating in the energy sector: Snam, Generali, Intesa Sanpaolo, Enel are some of the Italian companies present in the list of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index 2018, as well as Terna which for the tenth consecutive year is included in theinternational stock market index that selects excellence in the field of sustainability.
“For Terna, sustainability is a strategic lever which guides our work every day towards an energy paradigm capable of creating ever greater value for businesses and the community”, commented the Chief Executive Officer, Luigi Ferraris. Not only that, but sustainability has become an important characterization factor for companies in the energy world, also as an operational necessity to improve the degree of acceptance of infrastructure investments by the territories involved.
The ways in which to decline the objective of sustainability are almost infinite. The latest project, in chronological order, launched by the Italian electricity manager is that the elimination of single-use plastic in the office. And so, since December, plastic bottles and cups have been replaced by water dispensers and around 700 steel thermal bottles for employees. It seems like a small thing but the numbers are impressive: 125.000 bottles of water and 125.000 used plastic cups, corresponding to 4 tons of waste produced per year, and around 13.500 kg of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere. The idea is to stick to one circular economy model strongly promoted at European level and to which Terna has decided to adapt.
Furthermore, on a financial level, the investment commitments planned in Italy in energy infrastructures are impressive with significant impacts on the national related industries, on the employment rate, on GDP growth, on the containment of emissions into the atmosphere and on matters of the circular economy. Confindustria Energia has taken charge of an overall estimate, presented in recent days and has calculated that the investments in energy infrastructure for the period 2018-2030 they amount to 96 billion and of these 15% is occupied by investments planned by Terna. "The current transition must be managed, accompanied by enabling factors and the development of the grid, which requires significant investments", explained Terna's CEO Luigi Ferraris in an interview with Messenger. “Energy infrastructure, environment and territory are our pillars together with sustainability. In our strategic plan, 70% of the investments are sustainable, which means that they are aimed at improving the quality of the service provided, as well as the environmental and visual aspect of the works in the area".
Investments in energy infrastructure translated financially into the issue over six months - the first in July 2018, while the second in January 2019 - of two green bonds for a value of 750 and 250 million respectively. The issue of green bonds is aimed at investments dedicated to renewables and the reduction of CO2 emissions, "it was a successful operation and thanks to the 1-1,1% return rate, it remains one of the best proposals in recent 12 months. The appreciation of the market is growing, especially from foreign investors: suffice it to say that over 50% of our bond was subscribed by them”, concluded Ferraris. Furthermore, 70% of the new investments envisaged in the 2018-2022 Strategic Plan which amounts to 5,3 billion will be sustainable since it is aimed at solving congestion and improving the quality of the service, together with the environmental and visual aspect.
Further benefits derive from the removal of obsolete lines that allow the reuse of the land: i kilometers of overhead power lines demolished in Italy have been over a thousand since 2010. Against these removals, only in 2017 Terna returned 115 lands to their respective owners. This policy is part of the dialogue strategy with the people who live in the places where the new power lines will be built. In the beginning, this concertation was established with the public administrations, but since 2015 meetings have been started with increasing intensity with the citizens who will thus be able to be informed of the plan already at very preliminary levels and then help to direct the implementation of the investment in the course of the different phases.
Sustainability is not only declined from an environmental point of view, another step forward was celebrated by the inclusion of Terna – and it is the only electricity company in the ranking – for the first time within the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index, the international index that measures company performance on gender equality issues and the quality and transparency in their public reporting. “Investing in workers is the basis of sustainability and we are implementing this with a growing commitment to responsibility that leverages welfare and people care programmes, launched starting in 2017, which have allowed us to introduce multiple initiatives to meet the needs and the needs of workers and their families, without discrimination,” said Silvia Marinari, Head of Human Resources, Organization and General Affairs of the electricity company.
