{"id":308,"date":"2023-10-13T15:26:36","date_gmt":"2023-10-13T13:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fondazionelottomatica.test\/corporate-welfare-and-sustainability\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T17:03:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T15:03:20","slug":"corporate-welfare-and-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fondazionelottomatica.officine06lab.com\/en\/corporate-welfare-and-sustainability\/","title":{"rendered":"Corporate welfare and sustainability"},"content":{"rendered":"

More and more companies are choosing to pursue sustainability. An excellent example of this new sensibility is corporate welfare, especially when it involves local stakeholders.<\/em><\/p>\n

byValentino Santoni<\/em><\/strong>, Percorsi di secondo welfare<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sustainability is no longer a choice. In fact, more and more manufacturing companies \u2013 Italian and international \u2013 are paying attention to their conduct in terms of environmental, social and community impact. As Giuseppe Catturi<\/strong> pointed out in the article entitled Corporate Power, Pandemic and Smart Working.<\/em><\/a>, we are witnessing a paradigm shift in the way companies act: no longer focused on the power-success-profit relationship, but attentive to fostering sustainable, fair and inclusive economic growth.<\/p>\n

A radical change is taking place in the way we do business is underway This applies both from the production point of view (raw materials used, waste recycling processes, environmental impact, etc.) and the relationship with human and \u201cintangible\u201d capital, i.e., that set of non-material factors that enable a company to differentiate itself from its competitors. For example, corporate culture, intellectual property, expertise<\/em>, management skills, training, staff experience, trust in business and collaboration.<\/p>\n

In this direction, companies are strengthening their ESG investments, covering the three areas Environmental<\/em> (environment), Social<\/em> (social impact) and Governance<\/em> (stakeholder relations). A category within which a multitude of actions by companies can fall. First, there are interventions related to the energy transition, decarbonisation and the use of renewable sources, but also to the circular economy. And then socially oriented initiatives, such as CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) practices. Lastly, of course, but certainly not least, there is corporate welfare, especially if implemented with actions that relate to the company\u2019s stakeholders, from employees to customers and the territory.<\/p>\n

The role of corporate welfare for the 2030 Agenda<\/strong><\/h2>\n

From this perspective, corporate welfare can be interpreted as a tool for the pursuit of a business model that is more attentive to the dynamics of sustainable development. Corporate welfare<\/a> refers to the set of benefits, perks and services that companies and employers make available to their employees as a supplement to regular pay. These measures are fully consistent with some of the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) defined by the UN 2030 Agenda.<\/p>\n

These include, in the first instance, Goals 5 \u2013 Gender Equality, 8 \u2013 Decent Work and Economic Growth, and 9 \u2013 Enterprise, Innovation and Infrastructure. Regarding Goal 5, which aims to achieve gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls, business interventions are crucial to foster the spread of measures inherent in work-life balance. We need only think of parental and family leave, flexible working hours and smart working, but also of the costs borne by companies for nursery fees, school and recreational activities for children and young people. Such interventions are useful in promoting women\u2019s employment and, as a result, partially counteracting the disparities that persist in the labor market.<\/p>\n

Corporate welfare is also decisive for Goals 8, which aim to stimulate lasting, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and 9, which aim to build a resilient infrastructure and promote innovation and responsible and sustainable industrialization. The set of measures and services made available by companies to their employees represents an element of profound innovation in the labor relationship and contractual exchange. Unlike salary and other contractual provisions, welfare is in fact the only element within the company-employee relationship that deals with a private and personal issue, such as that of well-being. In this way, the economic organisation takes on completely new aspects, once unrelated to the \u201cnormal\u201d employment contract.<\/p>\n

Second, corporate welfare can then be relevant to Goals 3 (Health and Welfare) and 4 (Quality Education). This is because, through occupational welfare interventions, it contributes to the creation of an integrative social protection system that can provide new responses to social needs. Through structured welfare plans, companies-but also the social partners-have the opportunity to encourage the spread of supplementary health care and sectoral and intersectoral funds (crucial for Objective 3). In addition, organisations can promote training and learning formulas for their employees (and also their children) by supporting training courses and through the reimbursement of school and university activities (Goal 4).<\/p>\n

Businesses and sustainable mobility<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Corporate welfare plans can also promote sustainable mobility (a key theme for Goal 11-Sustainable Cities and Communities and Goal 13-Fighting Climate Change). This term refers to all those actions and practices aimed at reducing the environmental, social and economic impacts of travel. Sustainable mobility interventions \u2013 which usually focus on the use and dissemination of alternative fuel means, but also on the reinterpretation of the spaces of the city and the territory \u2013 therefore aim to limit air and noise pollution, road congestion and traffic, accidents, land consumption caused by the construction of roads and infrastructure and the costs of travel both for the community and for the individual.<\/p>\n

Companies have a keen interest in contributing to the pursuit of these goals. As argued byASviS, the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development<\/a>, this is particularly dependent on the impacts generated by travel between workers\u2019 residences and company headquarters. This is precisely why truly sustainability-conscious companies could focus on two strategies: the implementation of agile work-which allows for less frequent travel and thus reduces mileage and pollution-and the initiation of interventions related to sustainable mobility. Regarding the latter issue, the legislation regulating corporate welfare already provides tax benefits for the provision of collective transportation services (such as company or inter-company shuttle systems) and for the purchase and reimbursement of season tickets for local, regional and inter-regional public transportation (including for the employee\u2019s family members). But this kind of practice is only one of the possibilities for companies to engage in mobility. Especially in the aftermath of the pandemic, many organisations started to invest in the implementation of plans to simplify and optimise employee travel through mobility management<\/em> actions.<\/p>\n

A new approach to sustainability practices in the company<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Corporate welfare practices and investments in work-life balance are a strategic way for companies to strengthen their commitment to sustainability. In fact, for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda Goals, it is essential to actively involve productive realities as well. And corporate welfare is certainly one way to do that. The issues in which companies can make a difference through welfare are many. These range from countering poor work to education, from health to physical and psychological well-being, from supporting employment and economic development to organizational innovation, from sustainable and reduced-impact mobility to gender equality and work-life balance<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But it doesn\u2019t end there. Corporate welfare also allows for experimentation with new forms of stakeholder collaboration and community involvement. Welfare practices are often implemented through the establishment of networks and partnerships involving the local productive fabric, social partners, service providers (and particularly the Third Sector), and local merchants. In this direction, corporate welfare is an opportunity to involve the territory more closely, fostering a logic based on what Porter and Kramer<\/a> have called \u201cshared value<\/em>\u201c, i.e., the (not only economic) shared value that is generated thanks to collaboration between the stakeholders of a territory.<\/p>\n

Welfare facilitates the creation of networks and, in this direction, encourages the company to abandon its isolated monadic nature even more: it pushes it to open up to the territory and to actively involve it. And that is why this phenomenon manages to intercept the various facets of the concept of sustainability, becoming indispensable for any organisation that wants to define itself as environmentally and socially responsible.<\/p>\n

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