Sustainability and digital innovation serving Italy. Inclusion and diversity, enablers of ENAV success

Rome, 17th May 2022 - ENAV Group Sustainability Day, now in its fourth year, was held today.

The event was attended by key representatives of national and international institutions, among others, with remote speeches: the Minister of Sustainable Infrastructures and Mobility Enrico Giovannini and Salvatore Sciacchitano, President of ICAO, the International Civil Aviation Organization.

ENAV is a company that has put sustainability at the center of its industrial strategies, through a development model focused on innovation, digitization and investment in human capital.

The Group will achieve carbon neutrality by 2022 by cutting about 70% of its direct and indirect emissions and offsetting the remaining portion with environmental protection projects in Africa and Asia.

The constant commitment to the Company decarbonization roadmap has already enabled the reduction of emissions stemming from fuel consumption of ENAV vehicles and electricity use at ENAV premises by more than 24% compared to 2019.

Scopes 1, 2 and 3 of the emissions abatement strategy were validated by the Science Based Target Initiative, the international industry excellence initiative born from the cooperation among the Carbon Disclosure Project, the United Nations’ Global Compact, the World Resources Institute and the World Wide Fund for Nature. ENAV is the first Italian company in the air travel sector to obtain such significant recognition in the fight against climate change.

In addition to the results achieved in the reduction of CO2 emissions, also reached thanks to the replacement of the company fleet with electric, hybrid and plug-in cars, in 2021 the ENAV Group further reduced single-use plastics from all company sites, reaching a reduction in plastic consumption of as much as 4.6 tons.

In the area of Social initiatives, the achievement of ISO 37001 certification in the area of anti-corruption management systems, and the re-establishment of adequate internal safeguards in this area have confirmed the Group commitment to the highest ethical standards in business management, according to a zero tolerance approach to compliance profiles and to the continued monitoring and improvement of the system.

Sustainability underpins all ENAV strategic management activities with a view to integrating ESG issues within the business, as explicitly enshrined in the Corporate Governance Code, which assigns the Board of Directors the role of guiding the Company's sustainable success. The full commitment of ENAV governance, from the Board of Directors to its committees, including the Sustainability Committee, with the endorsement of top management and all the people of the ENAV Group, have in fact made it possible to maintain the commitments made in the Sustainability Plan 2018-2020, and to set new and ambitious ones in the Sustainability Plan 2021-2023, as well as to put sustainability at the heart of the Group's strategies and to integrate it consistently with compensation policies. Variable compensation, for the CEO and management, consolidates an integrated vision where business is balanced by the progressive refinement of actions having relevance on the non-financial level.

The event was introduced by the welcome address of President Francesca Isgrò, who recalled how "Sustainability is an integral part of our business strategy and our daily actions. All the elements that contribute to making a company a sustainable organization must be held together by responsible choices. Good governance underpins the success of even sustainability policies. Companies are accountable to markets, to the law, and increasingly to people and the public. They therefore need a body of rules capable of giving rise to virtuous behavior and guaranteeing the maintenance of "common feeling" and "system building" by having those social and sustainability principles, which are essential for the country's ecosystem and in which ENAV is and wants to remain a protagonist".

CEO Paolo Simioni, during his speech, recalled that ENAV is working to increasingly reduce direct and indirect emissions. "We have fully integrated sustainability into our business strategies. Our 2022-2024 business plan will make ENAV a fully integrated ecosystem internally, with the ability to give externally those answers and services to foster the sustainable development of air transport. New space and air traffic management platforms and systems will ensure increasingly efficient flight paths, which will allow the Italian system to increase its production capacity, companies to consume less fuel for the benefit of the environment and costs, as well as shorter flight times to passengers. ENAV is already at the forefront on this. Suffice to say for example the Free Route, enabler of a decrease of about 640 million kg of CO2 from 2016 to date."

In a video message, Minister Enrico Giovannini thanked ENAV for the commitment it is showing in the area of sustainability. "The issue of decarbonization is today at the heart of the business activities of all aviation companies," the minister stressed. "We need to facilitate and accelerate this process, knowing that a 55 percent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030 is a feasible goal. The Minister of sustainable infrastructures and mobility will play its part by maintaining a close dialogue with all stakeholders in the sector." 

ICAO President Sciacchitano took stock of the recovery of air traffic and the measures put in place by ICAO to ensure the industry's resilience during the pandemic, arguing that the world needs to come out of the Covid experience with an increasingly "green" aviation perspective, toward ultimate decarbonization.

The Sustainability Day was also an opportunity to trace ENAV path in valuing skills and diversity, issues that see the company at the forefront with dedicated policies and projects. Thanks, for example, to the "Diversity Assessment for Inclusion", a survey carried out jointly with Rome La Sapienza University, the ENAV Group has developed an action plan to increase a corporate culture aimed at inclusion, respect for others and diversity, elements that contribute to the social and business success of any organization.

ENAV therefore continues to invest in people and innovation in the awareness that the latter must increasingly represent the main element to drive change and achieve the goals inherent in the sustainable development goals (SDGs).