Invitalia and the dissemination of the culture of sustainability

“The role of Invitalia in disseminating the culture of sustainability” was the theme of Invitalia’s stakeholder panel, which was held in Rome on 3 December 2024.

Organised with the scientific support of the Bologna Business School, the panel saw the presence of about 60 participants who, divided into 3 working groups, discussed the topic to define new solutions through which the Agency can promote the dissemination of a culture of sustainability in the PA, in companies and in the Invitalia value chain to strengthen the establishment of a community of stakeholders.

“Invitalia has long since begun a path of alignment and continuous improvement of its business, which has led, first to the approval of the Italian Sustainability Policy in 2023 and then of the 2024-2026 Strategic Sustainability Plan, which marks the transition from a reporting approach to a strategic one, oriented towards the realisation of tangible results. This meeting represents a fundamental step in updating the Plan, a moment of listening and discussion with our stakeholders to understand their expectations and needs, encourage the exchange of opinions and identify best practices,” said Bernardo Mattarella, CEO of Invitalia 

From the work of the 3 groups, the strongly held idea emerged that Invitalia is a junction and connection point between the Public Administration, the business system and the territory. As part of its role as implementer of policies defined by public administrations, in fact, it works on three dimensions: incentives for businesses, the construction of public infrastructures with significant impacts on the territories and technical assistance to administrations.

To best perform its role as a “connector”, Invitalia has to operate on 3 factors:

• investing in skills, since the issue of sustainability is a huge container of skills needs: legal (legislation in terms of sustainability is constantly evolving), technological (sustainability is investing in new technologies to support the environmental transition), reporting (the issue of the correct use of non-financial data in the entire value chain is becoming increasingly important)
   
• investing in tools, focusing on the innovation of incentives and calls for tenders to help SMEs deal with sustainability issues. Small companies, in fact, must be put in a position to invest in sustainability to remain viable within the value chains and to be able to access more favourable conditions for the financial system. Invitalia must therefore make available to small companies not only financing, but also services and systems of expertise that can help them move in this direction
   
• investing in technologies: with respect to sustainability issues, artificial intelligence is a tool that helps companies and should not provoke fear. The investment in technologies can make the Agency even more active in this role of hub, enhancing the wealth of data and information acquired in its activity.

In conclusion, it emerged that for Invitalia and for public policies, the NRRP has represented a turning point: for the first time, the concepts of sustainability have been associated not with individual calls to tender but with the very nature of the fund. This has made it possible to create a wealth of transversal and common skills between the public administration and the business system that must also be enhanced in the implementation of other tools for programming EU and national resources.