“Today the challenge is to address ESG or CSR issues with a global approach in the context of corporate strategies”. Rossella Locatelli, full professor at the University of Insubria, deputy director of CreaRes, president of the listed BF and member of the boards of agricultural consortia of Italy, third term on the board of Intesa Sanpaolo and president of the risk committee, looks to the near future of sustainability in Italy between the banking and industrial systems.
“The acceleration imposed by European and international guidelines has brought out the need for the approach to sustainability to be systematic and must be rooted in the corporate culture and originating from the sharing of values and listening to all stakeholders” underlines Locatelli, who adds: “We must not forget, however, the fact that companies, whether industrial, service or financial, must look at economic and financial sustainability with a long-term view, which is the prerequisite for their survival, but which must be reconciled with objectives relating to the social and environmental impact of the business activity. Attention to shareholders and the reasons for their investment in the company’s capital is important ».
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What needs to change, therefore, are also the demands of the market and institutional investors, as is already happening. «In“ The short view ”Tommaso Padoa Schioppa already denounced as a critical element the fact that financial markets often ask for a short-term yield. This does not coincide with the concept of sustainability, which must become a request of the market and of the shareholders. The push towards behaviors that respect the sustainability objectives must start from a widespread investor orientation, as well as from a regulatory solicitation. In this way the system can push managers to take concrete actions to extend the time span of their decisions “Locatelli points out, adding:” In promoting an orientation towards sustainability, the role of governance and in particular of the boards of directors is fundamental. give elements of stimulus to management. A very important tool is also represented by the variable remuneration systems that can be built, in the long-term incentive part, by inserting evaluation parameters linked to ESG indicators ».
On the other hand, companies cannot be expected to change their business and strategies towards a more sustainable development for mere ethical reasons. «Where there are rules that reward and elements that make the value choice convenient, management will be more inclined to make decisions consistent with sustainability objectives. The regulation attributes to the banks a fundamental role to push companies towards ESG choices, because there are and are being developed rules according to which banks are required to evaluate the creditworthiness also on the basis of the ESG profile of the subjects financed “.
Sustainability issues that the credit institutions themselves must also address internally. «Banks with regard to climate change problems are greatly urged by the ECB, which is carrying out a process of analyzing the positioning of banks with respect to climate change risks (physical and transitional). On the one hand, banks are forced to assess and manage the impact of climate change on the riskiness of their loan portfolios. On the other hand, the development of credit policies that lead to the selection and exclusion of companies operating in sectors that have an impact on the climate can only be the result of a serious and difficult process of analysis. Choices of exclusion also generate costs and for this reason they can only be made in the logic of graduality and therefore in the medium-long term »emphasizes Locatelli.