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When I became the chairman of Telecom Italia at the end of 2007, I was very
impressed with the wealth of professionalism, motivation and technological
competence I found in the Group. I was already aware of that, but not up to the
level I experienced. I also found it reassuring the deep-rooted culture of
transparency and integrity.
Such culture does not imbue just the system of rules and procedures governing
business management, decision-making and dialogue with the market. More
generally it imbues all the relations with the stakeholders interacting with the
Group in its business activities.
This obviously stems not only from ethical or reputational reasons, but from the
awareness that the creation of value is sustainable in time if we are able to
effectively integrate the expectations of the context in which we operate, while
pursuing our economic goals.
I see this awareness expressed in strategies and facts.
Let’s consider the environment. We are living in a period of many growing
concerns about climate change, depletion of natural resources, and increasing
prices of energy supply.
We are aware of the fact that telecommunication services may considerably
contribute to the elimination or containment of greenhouse gases emissions.
Videoconferences, telework, infomobility services, telemedicine are but a few
among the solutions offered by new technologies, permitting to rationalize and
reduce transfers of people and goods and the related emissions. We are also
aware, however, that these services absorb energy.
The more they are used the more traffic on networks increases and the curve of
consumptions shoots up, unless we strive to achieve an ever higher level of
efficiency. Telecom Italia is doing this. In 2007 our eco-efficiency, measured as
the ratio between traffic units and energy consumed, showed further
improvement.
We are currently experimenting with several solutions for the use of alternative
energy sources, ranging from cogeneration to photovoltaic plants, wind farms
and fuel cells.
The first results are rather interesting, as are the ones coming from
interventions on heating systems, on corporate car fleet (also involving
significant reductions of emissions) and on the handling of technological waste
produced by telecommunication activities.
Conducting energy and environmental efficiency pays: it is good both for the
planet and for businesses. You could say it is twice as good for businesses: not
only for the economic fall-out effects but also as an incentive to technological
innovation. A sustainable company is a more innovative and competitive
company. The financial market recognizes and rewards it.
We are greatly satisfied with the inclusion, also in 2007, in the most important
sustainability indexes, both at national and international level, and with the
inclusion in the group of 20 companies most often selected at European level
by “Green Social and Ethical” funds.
I mentioned the environment, but I could just as well recall the great effort made
by the Group to significantly reduce the digital divide in Italy. In Telecom Italia the
concept of sustainability is wide-ranging and involves many applications, as the
following pages illustrate with a wealth of detail, data and quantitative targets on
which the Group wants to be evaluated in a transparent way.
Transparency is one of the main goals of the Alliance, launched in March 2006
by the European Commission, companies and stakeholder representatives, in
order to make Europe a pole of excellence in the field of Corporate Social
Responsibility. Telecom Italia is going to give special support to this initiative
also in 2008.
We mean to continue on this same path: doing business in a sustainable way
and create value are as a whole. Starting from this standpoint we confirm our
commitment to support and spread the values and principles of the Global
Compact, the initiative originated under the aegis of UN to promote the respect
of human rights and working standards, to safeguard the environment and to
fight corruption.
We have the honour to be among the protagonists in a sector, such as
telecommunications, having a key role in the economic and social development.
This honour involves many responsibilities, which we don’t consider as a burden
but rather as an incentive to do better and better. And this is for everybody, and
for the world which we would like our children to inherit in even better conditions
than the world we’ve found. |
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