The Group's Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) Strategic Plan

For Poste Italiane, being sustainable means defining a clear ESG strategy and integrating these topics into the strategic objectives set in the 2024-2028 Strategic Plan.

Through our strategy, which is built on concrete financial, operational, and sustainability objectives, we aim to support the country's development and digital evolution, acting as a guide for responsible and inclusive growth.

These objectives further demonstrate the deep integration of sustainability into our business, as articulated in Poste Italiane Purpose:

Grow responsibly thanks to the decisive contribution
of its people to the sustainable success,
innovation, digitisation and
social cohesion of the country.

The social and environmental impacts generated by the Group place the process of integrating sustainability into the business model at the centre of the value creation process for the company and all its stakeholders, with the aim of contributing to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Poste Italiane's Sustainability Strategy consists of the Strategic ESG Plan and a set of sustainability policies.
 

• The Strategic ESG Plan encompasses all the specific objectives and targets, both qualitative and quantitative, that the Group has set for the purpose of continuously improving its sustainability performance.
• In addition, the policies adopted incorporate all the principles, qualitative objectives and different management methods, regulating in a synergistic manner the various issues that emerged from our materiality analysis and the areas required by Legislative Decree no. 254/2016.

The Strategic Plan hinges on Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) principles and responds to sustainability challenges by setting targets up to 2030, in terms of reducing the Group’s and supply chain’s emissions, complemented by socio-economic aspects such as developing people's skills and enhancing resources to foster change, promoting the values of diversity, equal opportunity and inclusion, and catering for the expectations of all generations, including younger workers.

At the heart of the strategy is the ambition to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, in line with the goal of containing global warming to below 1.5 °C.

The Poste Italiane Group's sustainable development strategy is embodied in the ESG Plan, which has been renewed by taking into account the results of the materiality analysis and in synergy with the new "2024-2028 Strategic Plan”, and incorporates specific short-, medium- and long-term objectives, in order to make our path towards sustainable progress transparent and verifiable.

The updating of the sustainability strategy was influenced by three main drivers:

• the definition of the new Business Plan;
• requests from rating agencies;
• regulatory developments.

The ESG Plan continues to be organised in eight pillars, whose targets are updated annually according to a process of continuous alignment with strategic guidelines, results achieved and best practices, to increasingly integrate sustainability along the entire value chain.
 

INTEGRITY AND TRANSPARENCY

Poste Italiane recognises ethics and transparency as the founding values of the corporate identity from which it derives its origin and which support the company in driving a responsible business and managing stakeholder relations in a direct and honest way.
 

PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT

We are aware that human capital is a key element in creating competitive advantage and achieving the Group’s objectives, and believe it is essential to invest in the promotion of training programmes for employees, identifying training as a key factor in ensuring the ongoing development of professional and personal skills and in making the most of each Group employee.
 

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSIONS

The Group’s Corporate Policy confirms the company’s commitment to safeguarding the rights of all the people in its value chain, with particular attention to certain categories of stakeholders such as its own workers, suppliers and partners, local communities, customers, migrants, children, people with disabilities, and victims of discrimination and any form of violence. 
 

VALUE FOR LOCAL COMMUNITIES

The company has always accompanied local communities where it is present on a daily basis towards modernisation and digitisation processes, thereby promoting the well-being of citizens and socio-economic development, with the aim of creating a positive impact on the community through organic and widespread social inclusion initiatives.
 

GREEN TRANSITION

We have chosen to follow and encourage a cultural approach that protects the environment, through more knowledgeable actions with regards to energy, water and waste management, to support the green transition in our own business while positively affecting the communities in which we operate. 
 

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Poste Italiane places customer satisfaction as the central objective of its quality policies, reserving a fundamental role in the process of listening to all its customers.
 

INNOVATION

We identify innovation and digitisation as two key drivers for strategic progress, committing to integrate our products and services also with those of third parties, in order to offer cutting-edge technological solutions.
 

SUSTAINABLE FINANCE

Poste Italiane incorporates ESG criteria into its investment decisions, promoting the sustainable economic and social development of the Group and the entire national economy.



We have incorporated 53 new ESG objectives into our 2024-2028 Plan to ensure the creation of shared value and alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

To support our commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2030, we have outlined projects in four macro-areas:

• Logistics
• Real estate
• Culture of sustainability
• Sustainable finance

The actions address both direct emissions generated by our facilities and indirect emissions produced upstream and downstream by our suppliers and customers.

In addition, in support of the Green Transition, Poste Italiane has almost completed the overhaul of its vehicle fleet (to be completed by 2024) with electric and low-emission vehicles and continued on the virtuous path towards the complete energy efficiency of its buildings.
 
With regards to Sustainable Finance, group companies have launched funds that promote environmental and social aspects.

Moreover, the Group's entry into the energy sector further strengthens our presence in this field and our ability to meet citizens' needs. In particular, the "Poste Energia" offer stands out for its focus on environmental sustainability, promoting responsible consumption practices and offering electricity from 100% renewable sources produced in Italy, with carbon dioxide emissions from gas released for consumption fully offset.
 

In alignment with our values and one of the material themes identified (Staff training and development), we have invested heavily in the training of our people, focusing on the development of the skills also required by new businesses, health and safety in the workplace and respect for human rights, essential tools for a competitive advantage in the market, as outlined in our purpose.

Additionally, there are specific initiatives for each individual pillar:

• For Integrity and Transparency, a new Fraud Management Centre was inaugurated, which monitors the security of transactions carried out in post offices and online 24 hours a day, and we have almost completed (80%) the Integrated Anti-Fraud Platform (PIAF).
• For People Development, in 2023 alone we provided 6.5 million hours of training and strengthened the Welfare platform; with respect to the areas of diversity and inclusion, the LGBTQ+ Inclusion Policy was rolled out in 2023 and formalised in early 2024, supported by the Active Parenting Policy from 2022.
• For Diversity and Inclusion, the LGBTQ+ Inclusion Policy was rolled out in 2023 and formalised in early 2024, supported by the Active Parenting Policy from 2022.
• For Creating value for the country, multiple initiatives have been launched as part of postal, financial and digital education programmes.

The "Polis Project - Houses for Digital Citizenship Services", launched in 2022, is a practical example of how it is possible to promote the economic, social and territorial cohesion of the country and to overcome the digital divide in small towns and inland areas – around 7,000 municipalities with a population below 15,000 – by becoming home to the digital services of the public sector.

The ambitious project envisages total investments of around €1.2 billion to be implemented by end-2026 and the allocation by the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy of total contributions of €800 million.

In 2023, the Group confirmed or improved its ratings of excellence in the main ESG ratings used by the main market players. In December 2023, Poste Italiane was ranked as the world's "Sector Leader" for sustainability in the insurance sector according to the S&P Global rating agency, subsequently being included in the 2024 edition of the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook, falling within the Top 1% of the S&P Global ESG Score 2023, and confirming its presence for the fifth time in a row in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index World and the more selective Dow Jones Sustainability Index Europe.

In addition, the Group was not only reconfirmed as a leader in the fight against climate change by CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project), placed for the third consecutive year in the "Leadership" bracket of the international rankings with an A- rating, but was also ranked by Sustainalytics as a Top ESG Performer from a panel of more than 15,000 companies assessed globally, maintaining a Low ESG Risk Rating.

These prestigious recognitions are followed by further confirmations in equally important indices, such as the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI), Integrated Governance Index (IGI), FTSE4GOOD, Euronext MIB ESG and Equileap Global Gender Equality in addition to several other indices of the Euronext Group.

Lastly, the Group also maintained its "AA" rating from MSCI, owing to the major progress it has made in the social sphere, improving its corporate sustainability performance and leadership in the sector.

Discover all our ESG ratings and recognitions.