August 2023

As always, the ESG vision inspires the entire framework of Italgas’ 2023-2029 Strategic Plan, that this year also integrates the Sustainable Value Creation Plan. The future designed for the networks – with the huge investments that it entails – interprets the needs of citizens and communities, ensuring effective responses with respect to the objectives of ecological transition .

In the 2023-2029 Plan, Italgas confirmed the environmental objectives indicated in the previous one, both for net energy consumption and for CO2 emissions, maintaining the commitment to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050. Those are ambitious goals, considering the broader perimeter of the Group, which today includes the activities of DEPA Infrastructure in Greece. Sharing the skills and knowledge gained by Italgas in the sustainable management of its business, will allow the Greek businesses to contribute reaching these targets.

The quality of the work of Italgas people remains a critical factor for the effective implementation of a Plan that leverages the continuous adoption of new technologies and increasingly digitized processes. Italgas, therefore, aims to keep investing in the upskilling and reskilling of its people through an intense training programme, and at the same time to strengthen employee engagement and to achieve ever greater equality between genders..

The achievement of challenging environmental objectives, which aim for the “net zero” level by 2050, passes through an innovative way of managing and maintaining operational assets.

In line with the direction indicated by the European Union, Italgas aims to reduce its net energy consumption compared to the 2020 level, achieving a reduction of 27% by 2028 and 33% by 2030.

The reference figure for 2020 has been recalculated to include the activities acquired in Greece in September 2022: maintaining the same reduction objectives present in the previous Plan therefore implies an even more challenging progress, given the larger size of the scope.

To achieve the indicated objectives, Italgas will act on three distinct fronts, through a precise series of actions, the results of which are monitored on a monthly basis:

1. In the area of industrial consumption, efficiencies will emerge through further optimization of systems, the use of digital tools for plant monitoring and control, as well as through the production of renewable energy.
2. In the area of civil consumption, Italgas intends to benefit from the continuous effort to optimize and modernize its asset portfolio, leveraging the application of digitalised monitoring and controls in which Geoside – the subsidiary active in for Energy Efficiency – boasts consolidated experience.
3. Finally, a final front will be that of the company fleet of service vehicles, whose consumption Italgas expects to reduce through the renewal of the car fleet and greater use of advanced technologies: the latter, by allowing more remote interventions, in fact favor the reduction of kilometers travelled.

As regards Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions, Italgas maintains the objective of reducing them by 34% by 2028 and 42% by 2030 respectively, compared to the 2020 figure recalculated to include the emissions of DEPA Infrastructure. With these intermediate objectives, Italgas lays down realistic premises for the achievement of carbon neutrality in 2050 – another objective already announced in the previous Plan.

To realize these objectives, Italgas counts on the pervasive use of Picarro technology for leaks detection in Italy and in Greece, and on increasingly smart maintenance of the infrastructure. The initiatives dedicated to energy efficiency will also contribute to the positive result.

In terms of Scope 3 GHG emissions linked to the supply chain, Italgas expects to achieve a reduction of 30% by 2028 and 33% by 2030, compared to a 2020 recalculated to consider the new scope of consolidation. Also in this case, the reduction of climate-altering emissions is functional to the achievement of the carbon neutrality in 2050.

To achieve the ambitious reductions envisaged in Scope 3 emissions, Italgas will implement further engagement initiatives to raise awareness among its suppliers.

At Italgas it is clear that the digital transformation of assets, designed to favor the ecological transition, must be accompanied by a profound transformation of people’s skills and way of working..

Training activities for the professional development and reskilling of personnel will be intensified, also through the Italgas Managerial Academy which started its activities in 2023.

The average annual training time dedicated to each employee, which had already increased from 19 hours in 2020 to 35 in 2022 for the Italian perimeter, will further intensify, to reach 45 hours in 2029 at the entire Group level.

In the next few years, while the generational turnover result in a lower average age, new initiatives aimed at involving increasing portions of the corporate population will be implemented. The goal is to reach an engagement level of over 85% in 2029, compared to 71% in 2022. Furthermore, in terms of welfare, the goal is to get to involve 90% of the population in 2029, compared to 68% in 2022.

Italgas also maintains its commitment to significantly increase the presence of women in positions of responsibility. If in 2020 this figure was 17%, a significant change has already been made in 2022, as evidenced by the weight of 24.7% achieved in the meantime. In 2029, the indicator is expected to make further progress, reaching 28%.

The beacon of gender equality has also guided the decision to obtain UNI/PdR 125:2022 certification by 2023 for the perimeter of Italgas SpA, with the commitment to maintain or improve its score in the following years. As part of the indicators that this same certification monitors, Italgas has explicitly undertaken to maintain the gender pay gap within +/- 3%, within the individual organizational and age clusters, for employees in managerial positions.