Comunicati: News

The Historical Archive of Italgas, the result of about two centuries of history, will be entirely digitalized and will enhance the cultural heritage of the company

Reconciling history with innovation, Digital Transformation with the preservation of a great historical heritage: that of Italgas and the country. These are the objectives of the Heritage Lab, a new project, carried out together with the Giorgio Cini Foundation and ARCHiVe, which aims to digitize and renew the vast Italgas Archive and to give life to a new model of the Laboratory Museum. A physical and virtual meeting place that tells, in a totally innovative way, the historical riches of one of the most important companies in our country.

THE MISSION OF ITALGAS AND THE NEW HERITAGE LAB

The heart and soul of the new Laboratory Museum will be the numerous original documents, the result of almost two centuries of history, which will represent a true unicum in the gas distribution sector. An immense wealth of information, which will tell a part of the social, economic and technological evolution of our country. The Heritage Lab, moreover, will represent a new Italian model for the fruition of historical contents, whose aim will not only be to preserve, arrange and observe the Italgas Archive, but to share and deepen, from a completely new point of view, its richness with the whole community and the whole territory.

To date, Italgas’ Archive, historical library, newspaper and periodical library and museum collections contain almost 200 years of history and include an original nucleus of:

• over 1,000 linear meters of documents
• 6,000 volumes, brochures and magazines
• 35,000 prints, photographs and posters
• 350 vintage equipment and instruments, declared by the Italian State to be of considerable historical interest and subject to notification and preservation requirements

Numbers, still growing today, which testify to the greatness of the historical and cultural treasure of the company and which highlight the importance of not dispersing the precious legacy left to us by the people who have made Italgas history. In this sense, the metadatation and the entire conversion of documents into big data , made possible thanks to the work of archivists and the use of innovative software, will represent an important bridge between the analogical contents of the past and the current modes of digital fruition.

It is important to underline that the transformation of the historical heritage will not only coincide with the conversion of documents into images, but will pursue the firm will to make the fruition of these contents a real physical and virtual experience. An interactive path that puts the observer at the centre and tells our story with macro-themes of general interest. Historical and cultural strands that do not only involve specialists, but an increasingly broad and interested public (such as universities, cultural associations, local communities, businesses, museum networks and business archives).

This is the direction in which the partnerships with the Giorgio Cini Foundation and the École Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne are heading. Two agreements that will allow Italgas to expand its archival and historiographical skills and that will give the company more opportunities for collaboration to further expand its proposal. Already today, in fact, Italgas’ archival fonds represent very important sources for students in the writing of university theses. The aim is to make the Laboratory Museum a common good for the community and the territory, where documents, information and materials will be year after year, more and more usable and easier to consult.

WHEN THE VISITOR BECOMES AN ACTIVE PART

Within the new Heritage Lab will play a fundamental role the laboratories present, which will be equipped with the most advanced technologies necessary to digitize documents in 2D and 3D. The transformation of the content will, in fact, become an integral part of the visitor’s experience, who will have the opportunity to observe in real time the process of digitization of historical materials and will no longer be limited to a passive visualization of the final product.

There will be 4 laboratories in the Heritage Lab:

• the first will be for the time deposit of documents
• in the second one, the necessary digitization preparation treatments will take place
• the third will be equipped with the “Replica” scanner: a rapid scanning system capable of scanning a double-sided document in a few seconds
• the last laboratory will instead contain all the other latest generation scanners including the “V Scanner”, the “3D Lucida”, the “LIDAR technology” and the “Time Machine Box”.

The Italgas Museum will not only be a container of the company’s history, where visitors will be able to follow exclusively exhibition itineraries, but it will become a real productive and always active laboratory. A meeting place that will see its hinge in the Data Square: a real “square” located inside the Museum, where the public will have the opportunity to enjoy the contents of digitizations and to interact with them in an innovative and virtual way.  Data Square itself, in fact, feeds on the contents of the Italgas Archive and challenges itself to combine and share with the public daily activities, technologies and documents of the past.

The thread of the Museum will not be a simple linear and unitary succession of historical contents, but they will be conveyed to the observer through the creation of core values: homogeneous materials and narrative strands that will tell and analyze a series of specific themes related to the history of our country. The visitor can range from the evolution of social and cultural changes to those of the major Italian cities (through the consultation of maps and cartographies of the past), from scientific, technological and archaeological discoveries to themes of historical interest such as the two world wars and the progressive entry of women into the world of work.

A MUSEUM ORIENTED TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY

Among the many objectives of the Heritage Lab is to make the Italgas Historical Archive and the Museum as places oriented towards sustainability. But how to reconcile the concepts of sustainability with the project of digitizing the archive? The process of digital transformation of documents of the past can be defined, in fact, as a path of dematerialization that involves a series of benefits, first of all that of the preservation of a cultural and historical heritage and the consequent creation of value for the whole territory and the community. Moreover, thanks to the digital enhancement of the contents, Italgas aims to represent for the country a model of process sustainability, where the final products of the museum become necessary materials to improve the daily work of the company.
A path that in the future may prove to be a viable and sustainable way also for the enhancement of the historical heritage of other realities, combining a high technological knowledge with the ability to involve research institutions and the training and retraining of personnel.

History, innovation and digitization. For Italgas and for the territory. For this reason the new Heritage Lab will represent a real digital asset for Italgas.

Italgas Top Management presents an update on 2020 performance and on the impact of the Covid-19 emergency on business.

Conference Call for the presentation to the community will be on Thursday June 11, 2020 – 3:00 PM CEST

Click on the following link to watch the presentation live.

WATCH LIVE

 

https://www.italgas.it/en/press-release/Italgas-The-BoD-examines-the-operating-performance/

 

More than 2 months after the beginning of the Covid19 emergency, Italgas restarts at the beginning of Phase 2. From the beginning of the “lockdown” until today, in fact, the company has continued to guarantee in the field all the essential services related to the efficiency, continuity and safety of the gas distribution service.
In the same way we have carried out the new activations and reactivations in order to ensure new users the service and “normality” of life at home, thanks to the daily use of gas.

In compliance with Legislative Decree no. 33 of May 16, 2020 DPCM of April 26, 2020, the requirements imposed by the ARERA and the indications of the Ministry of Economic Development, Italgas continues to provide essential services, including activations and reactivations, also in Phase 2 and, in addition, returns to take charge of all other service requests on utilities that do not involve entry into individual private homes, such as for example:

• New connections
• Counter replacements
• Deactivations
• Suspensions and interruptions of supplies due to delinquency
• Readings
• Estimates for work on plants and meters and related inspections
• Checks on malfunctioning meters

In particular emergency situations, Italgas can also intervene in private homes, to ensure the continuity and availability of the service in safe conditions for users.
The Italgas Emergency First Aid service is always active 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on the number 800-900-999.

In addition to the management of the requests on the users, the interventions in the field to extend our networks in the areas not yet reached by methane, to modernize the plants and replace sections of the grid with more modern, safe and efficient solutions are distributed throughout the country. Continuing the investments foreseen by the Italgas Industrial Plan is possible thanks to the provision of the necessary personal protective equipment, supplied to all our technicians in the field, and above all thanks to the adoption of new working methods and the use of digital tools introduced by the Italgas Digital Factory. Essential technologies to facilitate remote work and ensure the safe continuation of activities.

Phase 2 represents a fundamental moment for the restart of the country and of all the territories in which we operate. Thanks to the reorganization of activities and technologies adopted in the field we will continue to provide all users with an efficient and safe service, as Italgas has been doing for over 180 years.

The ordinary session of the Shareholders’ Meeting of Italgas is called, in a single call, for 12 May 2020, at 11.00 a.m., in Milan, Via Carlo Bo 11, to discuss and resolve upon the agenda of which at the Notice of Shareholders’ Meeting.

In view of the ongoing health emergency related to the COVID-19 epidemic, it will be possible to follow the live streaming from the link below.

Instructions to access streaming:

Starting from 11:00 a.m. you can watch the Meeting live streaming.
After clicking on the link below, you will land on the platform access page.
Once on the page, click on “Register” and fill in the required fields (as user you can enter, for example, your company email and as a password one of your choice).
After filling in the registration form, click on one of the two boxes with the preview of the live event in order to choose the language you prefer (Italian or English) and then click on the “Play” icon.

  Follow the live streaming

Italgas Top Management presents 2020 First Quarter Results.

Conference Call for the presentation of results to the community will be on Wednesday, April 29th, 2020 at 04:00 pm CEST.

Click on the following link to watch the presentation live:

 WATCH LIVE

Security and efficiency of the service have guaranteed normality in the homes of end users. The company’s commitment has, however, also extended to solidarity

Normality and safety. These are the two objectives that, almost two months after the beginning of the Coronavirus emergency, have pushed Italgas to make even more efforts to ensure the regular distribution of gas to all users, ensuring that life at home is normal. A necessary factor at such a complex time, during which many of our daily habits have been revolutionized. All this without neglecting the health of their own people and the end users themselves. Priorities and points of reference confirmed by the immediate establishment of an internal crisis committee, the re-articulation of Italgas teams on the national territory and all the arrangements that the company has put in place since the beginning of the emergency to date. The Italgas Crisis Committee, in particular, has a multifunctional composition and approach. The representatives meet daily and, monitoring day after day the evolution of the emergency in Italy, make the necessary arrangements to ensure the efficiency and safety of the service.

Italgas believes in innovation in all its dimensions. For this reason, Smart Workingwas already activein the company for some time, an agile and modern way of working which, with the arrival of the emergency, was immediately extended to the various sites in order to prevent any risk. About 2,500 employees already had all the tools needed for Smart Working (PC, smartphone, internet connection). The spread of the tools has been quickly extended to allow remote work even to those who do not have a stable connection or full equipment, such as new hires who have received the kit directly at home.

The results have been very positive: the number of users connected remotely has increased from an average of 70 to 1,800 and many of the many activities planned have been regularly carried out through a solid videoconferencing infrastructure, which in March supported about 1,600 hours of video connections, and innovative collaboration tools in the cloud that Italgas has long adopted.

The work of Italgas, however, is also and above all in the field. For this reason, the company has continued to guarantee to all end users the essential services for the gas distribution system, while at the same time ensuring the regular monitoring of First Aid activities (active 7 days a week, 24 hours a day) and maintenance activities on the network to ensure safety and continuity of service. In addition, all technicians in the field who continue to carry out essential operational activities (e.g. gas reactivations) in private homes, with commitment and responsibility, have been put in a position to carry out the work safely and equipped with the necessary personal protective equipment.

But not just operations. Italgas, in fact, has not stopped with solidarity. This is because, asItalgas CEO Paolo Gallo said in recent days,”in such a complex and critical moment for Italy we are all called to do our part, as individuals and as a company”. Precisely for this reason Italgas has decided from the beginning to stay close to those who are in the front line against the spread of Coronavirus and to offer its contribution to support the Civil Protection and important hospitals in the cities of Turin, Milan, Padua, Pavia, Piacenza, Rome and Naples. All through direct donations and internal fundraising supported by the Group’s own people. An initiative, the latter, which has just ended and which has seen Italgas personnel donate the economic equivalent of 7,000 hours of their work to the Civil Protection. A figure that has been doubled by an equal amount directly from the company.

A series of initiatives that confirm what, for over 180 years, has been Italgas’ commitment: to guarantee end users allover Italy normality, in safety and without “making noise”. Activities that are not only aimed at providing the service, but also at concretely supporting the country and the communities where Italgas is present. A way of acting that bears witness to the responsibility with which the Italgas Group has always operated towards its people, territories and end users.

Read more about how Italgas restared its services during the phase 2 >>

The Italgas Group will continue to guarantee the regular provision of public services and the performance of essential services throughout the country in which it operates, in compliance with the recent Prime Ministerial Decree of 8, 9 and 22 March 2020.

We remind you that:

• is always active for emergencies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week the First Aid service on 800-900-999;
• we make every effort to process requests for services that are essential for the continuity and safety of the service, such as the activation of supplies, reactivation of supplies, deactivation of supplies for safety reasons at the request of municipalities, installers or end customers.

We therefore invite sales companies and end customers to submit to us – for the entire period of validity of the extraordinary measures introduced by the Prime Ministerial Decree of 8, 9 and 22 March 2020 – the only requests for service that cannot be postponed and are essential.

The Italgas Group companies, during this period, suspend all scheduled activities that cannot be postponed and are not related to ensuring the continuity and safety of the gas distribution system, such as the deactivation of gas supplies, modifications or removal of plants, metrological checks of measuring groups, checks on consumption and supply pressures, the replacement of meters both scheduled and on request of sales companies or end customers.
Guaranteed operational activities involving access to private homes (emergency intervention, placement and activation of the supply, activation and reactivation of existing meters) will be carried out by technical personnel equipped with personal protective equipment (mask and gloves).

With all our commitment, even in a difficult moment experienced by our country, we continue to support the territories in which we operate and to guarantee users a continuous and safe service, as Italgas Group has done for over 180 years.

Italgas Top Management presents 2019 Full Year Results.
Conference Call for the presentation of results to the community will be on Wednesday, March 11th 2020 at 05:00pm CET

 Follow the presentation live

 

https://www.italgas.it/en/press-release/ITALGAS-CONSOLIDATED-RESULTS-AS-AT-31-DECEMBER-2019-APPROVED/

 

Marco Porro, Investor Relations Manager: “These awards confirm and enhance our credibility with investors.”

Italgas does +2 in sustainability and confirms its commitment on this issue. In fact, the company was recently confirmed in the prestigious CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) index and received a positive rating from the Standard Ethics Rating. Two awards, issued by two important British organisations, which testify to the company’s good work in the areas of environmental sustainability and governance. “The continuous search for sustainability, in all its dimensions, represents for Italgas part of its corporate culture – comments Italgas’ Investor Relations Manager, Marco Porro – the inclusion in the main sustainability indexes is a consequence of the progressive commitment of the entire company on this issue. A commitment that has now become a modus operandi for us”.

Italgas leading company in sustainability

Not only CDP and Standard Ethics, therefore, Italgas is already known to investors as a leading company in this field. A company strategy recognized and consolidated over time.
“Precisely for this reason,” explains Porro, “I would not focus only on the last two results. It is necessary to make an overall assessment of the indices in which Italgas has been progressively included”.
The company led by Paolo Gallo, in fact, over the years has obtained important results and awards from many organizations with the inclusion in the main international sustainability indexes: from the FTSE4Good Index to Sustainalytics, passing through the fundamental one of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index World and the confirmation, always in 2019, of the MSCI World Energy Index, up to theECPI Euro ESG Equity and the ECPI World ESG Equity.

In the light of all this, the last two achievements in this area can only be an additional source of satisfaction. As far as Standard Ethics Ratings are concerned, we have reached the E+range, a positive assessment of the level of compliance with a number of sustainability and governance principles dictated by the European Union, the United Nations and also theOECD. An assessment that not only concerns companies but also states,” adds the head of Investor Relations.  Also not to be underestimated is the recognition received by the CDP, an international index that aims to support companies that have distinguished themselves in actions to combat climate change.  “The CDP had already identified us in 2017 as an attentive company in the energy and gas sector – explains Porro – at the moment we have been included in the B List. We can therefore consider ourselves satisfied, but at the same time we can say that our journey does not end here”.

New rules for the national tennis competition. The Italian team, sponsored by Italgas, out in the group. In the 2020 edition debut against South Korea

 

Tennis and industry are not as distant worlds as they might appear at first glance: to be successful in both you need preparation, loyalty and tension to the result. It was precisely from this initial consideration that Italgas decided to become the team sponsor of the Italian national men’s and women’s tennis teams in the Davis Cup and Fed Cup, in an agreement in which the leading company in the distribution of natural gas in Italy is also committed to supporting all national youth teams, women and men, under 12 – 14 – 16 – 18 and the national veterans team.

“We are united by the traditions and values of the country we represent and which we mention every time we indicate our name – said Paolo Gallo, CEO of Italgas, when presenting the sponsorship – As in sport, still today, more than 180 years after the foundation of Italgas, in our daily actions we play as a team, with continuous training we keep trained to achieve better results. In comparison with the market we believe in pure and fair competition”.

Italgas number one is also keen to underline the motivations that have led the company to bind itself with a partnership not only with the “major” national team, but also with the youth sectors: “The commitment to young people – he says – comes from the awareness of the importance of sport as a vehicle for education and training for the citizens of tomorrow, promoting aggregation, respect for others, the rules, the environment in which we live.

 

The new competition formula

 

From the new version of the Davis Cup the matches are reduced to two singles (no longer four) and one double, and the matches are played at the best of the three sets. In the final phase, which is held in November – after the 24-team qualifications – a total of 18 teams participate at the same time, while the quarter-finals are attended by the first two teams of each round and the two best second ones. The participation in the competition of the 18 best national teams, all together in a single tournament, is one of the main novelties of the new formula, which aims to make the event more spectacular.

The first “renewed” edition of the competition saw the triumph of Rafa Nadal and Roberto Bautista Agut’s Spain (who took to the finals only four days after losing his father), who won the “salad bowl” by playing at home at the Caja Mágica in Madrid and beating Canada. This is the sixth success for the Iberian national team in Davis, after those achieved in 2000, 2004, 2008, 2009 and 2011. For the Canadian national team, which at the beginning of the week had eliminated Italy in the first round, it was instead the debut in the final.

 

The route of Italy

 

For the Italian national team the debut in the new Davis Cup was difficult: the team led by Corrado Barazzutti was in fact eliminated in the initial group stage of the tournament, in which he faced Canada and the United States.  Against Canada, both Matteo Berrettini, number 8 in the Atp world ranking, in a very close match that ended with three tie-breaks (7-6 6-7 7-6) against Denis Shapovalov, and number 12 Fabio Fognini, in a hard-fought match against Vasek Pospisil that ended 7-6 7-5, lost their debut singles against Canada. The partial revenge then came from the double, where the two Azzurri won 6-2 3-6 6-3 against Pospisil and Shapovalov, thus showing their commitment and determination in trying to overcome the group stage anyway, maybe passing between the two best second. Two days later, in the match against the United States, a three-zero victory would have been necessary to be “fished out”: the Azzurri started off on the right foot, thanks to Fabio Fognini’s victory over Opelka (6-4 6-7 6-3). Italy then came close to qualifying with Matteo Berrettini, who won the first set against Taylor Fritz at the tie-break and managed to get to the six-all in the second, when the American managed to win in the tie-break and then took home the third set 6-2. Ininfluential to the qualification, at this point, the doubles, which the USA won thanks to the Querrey – Sock pair, with a 6-7 7-6 6-4 on Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini.

An adventure in Davis, that of the Azzurri, which ended after an extremely hard-fought tournament and decided by a handful of points: the commitment of the Italians would have been enough a little help from luck, especially in the first match against Canada, to reach the quarter-finals. An appointment at this point postponed to the 2020 edition.   

 

 

The scoreboard of the 2020 edition

 

Metabolized the defeat, Italy can start thinking about the preliminary round of the 2020 edition: the draw, which was made on the eve of the final, has decreed that the Azzurri of Barazzutti will have to face – playing at home – South Korea, with the matches scheduled on March 6 and 7, 2020. Against the Asian national team Italy had already played twice in Davis and obtained two victories: in 1981 in San Remo avoiding the relegation and in 1987 in Seoul.

 

What’s new for the coming year

 

To anticipate the possible “adjustments” of the new formula for next year was, on the day of the final Italy-Canada, the Barcelona defender Gerard Piqué, in this case in the role of founder and president of Kosmos, a group of investors that has been “married” to its project by the Itf (International Tennis Federation).  “We need to improve the issue of timetables, but let’s keep in mind that there are many teams competing in a single week – Piqué said – But the feedback I had with Nadal, Djokovic and other great players was great. There is the possibility to organize a single competition of two weeks – he concluded – we will talk about it in the next months and then we will announce something”.

 

Italgas renews the sponsorship

 

After the first two years of sponsorship ending with the end of 2019, Italgas has decided to renew the agreement with the Italian tennis federation to extend the collaboration to the 2020 editions of Davis Cup and Fed Cup, remaining at the side of the Italian team.