June 2023

In the 2022-2028 Sustainable Value Creation Plan, integrated in the perspective of the Strategic Plan and presented to stakeholders last January, Italgas commitment itself to produce virtuous impacts on the capital it uses in the processes of its activities, while minimizing any possible negative impacts.

A look at the performance achieved in the Italian perimeter in 2022 shows that Italgas is moving in the right direction, by activating the levers of technological innovation and digitization, fostering the circular economy, investing in training, and making the principles of diversity & inclusion a reality.

The value created in 2022 along the three lines of action – Planet, People and Partnership – for the Group’s Italian scope shows that the 2028 targets, however ambitious, are now already much more achievable.

In its role as energy transition enabler, Italgas adopted a set of initiatives for the optimization and streamlining of all operational assets that resulted in significantly improved performance indicators as early as 2022.

In 2022, Italgas recorded net energy consumption of 472.0 TJ, achieving a reduction of 21.0% compared to 2021. Energy consumption from fuel reached the largest decreases, leveraging also on the application of the expertise of the subsidiary Geoside.

As regards energy consumption from fuel for industrial use (-24.0% compared to 2021), the decrease in this consumption is the result of more efficient operations, thanks to the interventions implemented on the Group’s plants to replace boilers and install systems to optimize the gas preheating function, as well as those aimed at digitizing both monitoring and regulation processes.

On the other hand, regarding the consumption of energy for civil use (-30.6% compared to 2021), the reduction took place together with a 9.7% decrease in electricity consumption: the decrease reflects the optimization and refurbishment process of the Group’s real estate assets, as well as the benefits of digitized monitoring of the consumption of offices, with a clear improvement in energy performance.

As for the consumption of energy from vehicles (-18.7%), the change is slightly smaller than that recorded in terms of kilometres traveled by the Group’s car fleet (-20.4%). The improvement is also attributable to the optimization of the car fleet and the increasing digitalization of business processes, which has greatly reduced the number of outgoing operational staff.

Finally, industrial electricity consumption decreased by 8.7%, mainly due to the greater efficiency of plants in the management of water distribution.

Scope 1 and 2 emissions were reduced by 12.1% compared to 2021. The key driver for this improvement was the 10.0% drop achieved in the Group’s fugitive emissions, through a reduction in the time to locate and eliminate leaks. Controls were especially intensified on those parts of the network that were most likely to leak, with increased use of CRDS technology. Overall, 72,145 km of network were inspected in 2022 (+6.0% compared to 2021). Italgas has therefore already gained some clear benefits from the predictive maintenance model currently in use, combining information on the operating characteristics of networks – based on age, material and pressure – with data obtained in the field from the leak detection programme, which identifies the areas most at risk. However, it should be noted that Italgas’s ‘gas leakage’ rate remains very low, at 0.087%, in line with the 2021 level.

To calculate Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, linked to the supply chain, Italgas has adopted a new model from 2022, no longer relying on a spend-based approach, but based on the use of information on emission factors requested directly from suppliers. The Scope 3 emissions of the previous two years were homogeneously recalculated.

Under the new approach, Scope 3 GHG emissions decreased by 6.6% in 2022 compared to 2021. This result confirms the validity of the supply chain awareness initiatives on the path to carbon neutrality.

In 2022 Italgas already made important progress to foster its own transformation as a company: the role of women becomes more prominent in the corporate population, while the number of hours dedicated to professional development increases and digital skills are strengthened. The objectives included in the Plan for 2028 are thus more visible.

The incidence of women in positions of responsibility has increased: 24.7% (+2.7% vs 2021).

The female presence in Italgas reached 17.8% of the total company population (+1.4% vs 2021).

Training hours provided amounted to a total of 129,700 (+15.4% vs 2021), of which 33,155 for topics related to digitalization.

In 2022, on average each employee received 35 hours of training (vs. 29 in 2021 and 19 in 2020): a new step in the right direction to reach the target of 48 hours set for 2028.

In Greece, where the picture at the end of 2022 is the benchmark against which improvements in the following years will be measured, women already represent 32.4% of the total population of DEPA Infrastructure, while those in positions of responsibility are 25.9%.

According to the “Partnership for the goal” approach (Sustainable Development Goal 17), in 2022 the research path for collaboration continued: 286 SMEs and innovative start-ups were involved in projects in different areas, related to digitization, technological innovation, energy efficiency, security and sustainability of Italgas Group’s processes.

In line with its commitment to promote sustainability principles in the supply chain, in 2022 Italgas also involved and trained about 40% of its total strategic suppliers on ESG issues.