Stakeholders

The figure of the multiutility customer is in continuous evolution and the relationship with the company changes and develops in light of these changes. Acea is committed to being a reliable and high-quality partner to satisfy the demands of its clientele, equipping itself with the most up-to-date interaction systems, facilitating evolving dynamics on the markets served, continuously monitoring the feedback of its own customers to collect their comments and rework them into operational responses. Digital technology continues to be constantly implemented as evolving communications infrastructure with the customer: the installation of digital meters in remote management has achieved coverage of 99.33% of the population. In the new configuration of the energy market, the figure of prosumer (energy producer and consumer) has been consolidated: in the distribution network of Areti, there are 11,344 active prosumers - +9% over 2016 - of which about 7,000 are Acea Energy customers. The commitment to continuous improvement of services rendered to customers guides the planning of activities in the water field, for example, first intervention response times to a breakdown have been reduced. The efficiencies of these interventions will then be constantly checked using in-depth and widespread customer satisfaction surveys.

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.

A sustainable organisation tries to aim at and project itself in a future dimension, imagining its own role in in the development of the whole context. To do this, Acea has designed and Industrial Plan 2018-2022, feasible, reliable and innovative, that has restored, reinvigorating and renewing, the industrial vocation of Acea, heavily concentrated on the creation and management of modern and resilient infrastructures. The innovative nature of this design is corroborated by the simultaneous integrated sustainability planning that has made synergies in the development of company goals in both the industrial dimension and the general creation of value for all the stakeholders.

Acea is being constantly renewed, for example, by creating the first innovation plan of the Group and instituting a special company department dedicated to innovation. At the governance level, Acea has created the Committee for Ethics and Sustainability, allying itself with the most recent indications of integrated corporate governance.

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.

Regarding the suppliers, for certain contracts (water, electric and civil) awarded with the most advantageous bid, Acea has consolidated the provision of awards linked to sustainability, safety instruction of the workers who perform the work; provision of ecological tools used during the activities; possession of joint certifications in quality, the environment and safety. For assignments falling within the Code of Public Contracts, regarding work with high manual intensity, as provided by law, it has included the social clause of reorganisation of the workforce for the outgoing contractor compatibly with the organisation of the new employer. In terms of green procurement, Acea applies the minimal environmental criteria (CAM) adopted with the Decree of the Minister of the Environment in all the contract specifications of pertinence and is committed, by an extension project compatible with the purchases to be made, to the CAM approach for commodity categories not covered by the legislation of Ministerial Decrees. Following this positive experience gained with the TenP platform, elaborated with Global Impact Network Italy based on the 10 principles of the “global covenant”, Acea decided to make itself independent and integrate the topics of sustainability (social responsibility/environmental management) in a self-assessment questionnaire managed directly on the Vendor Management platform of Acea. The integration of sustainability into the aspects of reference in relations with qualified suppliers was further developed over the year, providing the possibility to audit the second party in addition to quality, environment and safety, also in energy and social responsibility, in a path to support improvement in the supply chain.

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.

The natural environment is the scenario where the activities of the Group are performed and is to be preserved with a responsible and efficient use of resources, protecting sources, safeguarding the natural areas where the plants and service networks encroach, mitigating the physical and the external impacts generated in the ecological context of the operating processes. The widespread adoption of Environmental management systems is a concrete response on the importance of environmental dynamics for Acea and a managerial tool for continuous improvement in performance. Consider for example energy generation where the repowering initiatives constantly act to modernise plants also by pursuing better environmental impacts in terms of emissions, or the integrated water service where Acea’s responsible management in resources starts from the provisioning stage, to make it available to people and ends with the commitment to restore the runoff to the receptacle body in the best condition possible. Finally, the environmental services linked to waste management cannot be overlooked, where the commitment to the ecosystem regards both operating processes, just think about the environmental efficiencies brought in the innovative project of the Ecobelt® WA belts in the waste to energy plant of San Vittore del Lazio, or the transformation of waste with a view to circular economy, as occurs with sludge treatment for water purification.

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.