Our actions to support sustainable growth and the economic and social development of Italy are based on transparency and ongoing dialogue with our stakeholders. This starts with widespread interaction with local areas throughout the country.

Our stakeholders

74% showed a growing satisfaction for the frequency of involvement (+18 pp vs 2022)*

Engagement with our stakeholders and civil society is fundamental for guiding our strategy increasingly in an effective manner.

In this dimension, we value the inclusion and participation of our stakeholders in order to define our strategic priorities.

The efficient working of our business model, which collects resources from local areas to return them in the form of economic, social and environmental value, must go hand in hand with an ongoing, constructive dialogue sharing the requirements and needs of local areas and their communities.

At operational level, opportunities for stakeholder engagement stem partly from company initiatives, and partly from requests from stakeholders. External stakeholder engagement activities are monitored and managed by the responsible operating areas of Group Companies, coordinating with the “ESG Engagement and Artistic Heritage” area of the Parent Company. A task force coordinated by the “Institutional Relations and Civil Society” area, assists the Communication, External Relations, Art and Culture and Administration, Finance, Control and Sustainability Departments in analysing and managing critical aspects/complaints from civil society, and potential disputes also concerning ratings.

* Results from the Survey on the Quality and Transparency of Stakeholder Relations of the CDP Group, administered as part of the 2023 Materiality Analysis.

Transparency and dialogue

Our commitment to sustainability can only be achieved through a shared approach. In fact, our actions add real value to the challenges we want to take on only if - starting from our ambitions - these actions consider the interests and expectations of all our stakeholders. This is why a constant, open, constructive and transparent dialogue with all stakeholders is an essential part of our strategy. And for this reason we have issued a Policy that identifies the engagement procedures and channels for the continual involvement of our main stakeholders, in order to establish concrete relationships and generate shared value.

Engagement initiatives

The approach to transparency and dialogue basically revolves around the initiatives we adopt to involve and consult our stakeholders during the year.

With the aim of ensuring transparency and accountability in our policy-driven approach, consultations are held with sustainability experts and representative of civil society on the CDP Group’s Policies which are being issued.

Pursuing a cooperation consolidated in 2022 with the first Multistakeholder Forum, engagement activities continued, such as the launch of the ESG Community, the new network on ESG topics that covers some of the main economic sectors of Italy, and the event held on 4 December Eyes on a sustainable future, an important occasion for the management of Europe’s main national promotional banks to discuss the challenges of sustainability and the role of finance.

Furthermore, as a testament to the Group's commitment to local communities, more than 350 employees donated over 3,000 hours of volunteer work, together with leading non-profit organisations.

Dialogue with ESG rating agencies

Confirming its commitment to continuous improvement in ESG performance and a high degree of accountability to stakeholders, CDP achieved important results in ESG raters' ratings. 

In 2023, the Moody's Analytics rating increased another 3 points compared to 2022, reaching a score of 70/100, thanks to the improvement on the environmental and governance front, while remaining unchanged in the "Advanced" category the social profile rating. As for the ISS score, CDP's rating stands at C-.

In February 2024, Morningstar Sustainalytics rewarded CDP's performance by assigning an ESG Risk Rating (i.e., the rating on risks related to a company's ESG factors) of 4.4, an improvement of nearly 10 points from the previous one in October 2022. CDP thus ranks in the "Negligible" category, the best according to the agency's assessment. Influencing the positive rating is the solid management of ESG risks at the governance level and the strong integration of the corporate sustainability strategy within the core business.

Support to local areas

To maintain and consolidate relations with our stakeholders, a nationwide presence and vicinity to businesses and local public administrations are cornerstones of our strategy. This is why we have invested in the development of a network of operators and set up new representative offices.

Besides our institutional premises, today we have 14 local offices and 14 infopoints (CDP Points), where businesses and local authorities can contact us, and where we can support administrations, in a structured way, in implementing National Recovery and Resilience Plan investments. To consolidate our capacity to operate in emerging areas that are strategic for our economy, we have opened offices outside the European Union, starting from Belgrade, Cairo and Rabat.