Stakeholders

For a company that delivers essential public services on the territory and mostly subject to regulation by the public authorities, the relationship with institutions is essential both for planning activities and their exercise. Acea represents a strategic infrastructural asset of the territory and consequently interacts with the public administrations to contribute to a superior need of the public interest, as for example, national security for emerging phenomena like cyber security. Of no less importance is the relationship with the local agencies that express specific demands for the population or the environment, just think about the Area Management Authorities in the water sector, complementary counterparts of the integrated water service companies. For emergencies of a social or environmental type that generate widespread negative impacts - just think about the example of extreme weather events linked to climate change - Acea has proven its approach for thinking globally and acting locally by taking a position with respect to the institutional initiatives of international importance such as the UN objectives of sustainable development or also the Alliance of Italian enterprises for water and climate change, in the context of the International Water and Climate Summit held in October under the aegis of the Minister of the Environment and in collaboration with, among others, the Economic Commission for Europe of the United Nations and the International Network of Water Basin Institutions.

Acea manages relationships with capital markets to gain the best sustainability conditions of financial provisioning, diversifying the sources and making investment in the company safe and of value for investors (equity and debit). More than 60% of the debt stems from operations of bonds placement. The relationships with analysts, credit rating agencies, banks and shareholders are imprinted in the dialogue and construction of a relationship of mutual trust: meetings with the financial community, like the roadshows, are numerous (meeting about 160 operators) at the same time as the main company events and are carried out on the most important European forums.
The attention of the ESG analysts (environmental, social, governance) toward Acea has been consolidated in structured rating activities, corresponding, from the company side, to an ever greater awareness and capacity to create value in ESG aspects, thanks to the growing commitment of the internal departments assigned. In 2017 Acea confirmed important positions in the Carbon Disclosure Project (class leadership) and was newly included in the Ethibel excellence investment register.

The staff of Acea are determined to continue the activities and the success of the organisation. The attention to topics of safety, instruction, involvement, devoted to all co-workers, is thus a value of the internal corporate culture that is constantly provided in specific and widespread initiatives on the topic of safety. For example, one indisputable part of the complete comprehensiveness and implementation of the work, with benefit to over 3,000 employees, was organised as Safety Week, with meetings and initiatives prepared by the Safety Manager of the Group to share values, practices and meanings in work carried out in safety. The new Executive Management, aware of the need for involving co-workers by making them actors in the processes of imagining and improving processes, implemented the new Execution Model, a way of activating the assets of the internal skills that, using a transverse team, are called upon to operate to make important corporate strategic initiates concrete. Attention to diversity and inclusion are aspects that transform the well-being of people into organisational well-being. In this context, two initiatives were indicated for the year: Massimo Ascolto, a survey distributed to all employees with the goal of identifying needs and priorities within the scope of organisational well-being, taking into account the personal and familial peculiarities of the company population, and MAAM (Maternity As A Master) for enhancing the parenting experience during the first years of the children’s growth. Participating in the project were 55 females and 18 males who, along the way of community and coaching learned to capitalise their capabilities of parenting experience to grow the so-called generative leadership.

Acea is working to create the best infrastructure conditions based on collective development. The networks and plants in one modern multiutility are designed toward smart city logic in response to urban contexts, for example, innovation projects are framed that regard the multiservice measuring systems and the technological evolution of public light poles. The safety of the population is another responsibility that Acea feels its own and responds to by providing emergency plans able to ensure systems resilience against critical events, such as environmental, fraudulent or terrorist, ensuring the protection of the collective. The commitment of Acea, however, is not aimed solely at the service infrastructures but also at the construction of networks for solidarity, cohesion and opportunity for the collectives in question; just think about the relationships with the Schools, using alternating study-work plans or the environmental educational campaigns (in 2017, involving more than 5,000 students), or the commitment to develop monumental heritage using initiatives conducted in collaboration with the relevant authorities.