Our priorities

The definition of priority (or material) issues is an essential step not only in non-financial reporting but also for the management of risks and for strategic sustainability planning. We identify these themes through the materiality analysis process, which is based on stakeholder engagement activities.

The material themes are all the aspects that reflect the significant economic, environmental and social impacts of the organisation or which could greatly influence stakeholders’ decisions. In 2020, out of 23 themes analysed, as many as 14 are a priority for the group; in particular, the themes that recorded a significant increase in relevance are: Health, safety and well-being of employees, management of the direct and indirect environmental impacts linked to the business and Diversity, inclusion and equal opportunities.

The cornerstone of the materiality analysis is stakeholder engagement, the process of collecting the priorities and opinions of internal and external stakeholders most impacted by our business. To this end, we have identified 8 categories of stakeholders. For each of these, the most effective listening channels and methods have been defined.

We carried out our first materiality analysis in 2017, and we have enriched it each year with more structured activities. In 2020, we renewed the evaluations of our external stakeholders, asking more than 130 stakeholders to tell us their priorities. The results were then crossed with those recorded in 2019 by the internal stakeholders, hence spawning the 2020 materiality analysis.

Stakeholder engagement channels and methods