CO2ALITION 2023 PROGRAM KICKED OFF WITH FIRST WEBINAR DEDICATED TO KEY FACTORS FOR A CREDIBLE DECARBONIZATION STRATEGY

CO2alition’s 2023 program officially kicked off on March 28 with the first webinar The Key Factors for a Credible Decarbonization Strategy. The goal? To initiate a preliminary discussion with companies, analyzing the pillars of an effective decarbonization strategy and the operational steps to implement it.

Five pillars that can influence effectiveness and credibility of climate action

The first is prioritization, that is, the need to create a hierarchy within the company's many sustainability goals, giving special emphasis, to that of climate neutrality. The second relates to defining the scope of action and reporting, which should widen as much as possible to include all significant elements of the value chain, but on the other hand should not distract the enterprise from the need to improve its processes. The third ingredient is partnership, i.e., the ability to establish a productive relationship with one's context, without thinking of running in isolation, and to team up and create opportunities for exchange and networking, one of the founding goals of CO2alition. The fourth is called mitigation and refers to the fact that the first commitment must be to analyze, sector by sector, the potentials for action and possible solutions downstream of which to be able to set credible goals and targets, leaving any offsetting activities a marginal role and choosing quality initiatives. The last is resilience and means working so that the enterprise can continue to thrive, despite the climate crisis, by acting on the dimensions of process/product adaptation and land and people protection.

The operational steps

The first step in developing a decarbonization strategy is to create awareness and develop skills within the company; in fact, it is necessary for the commitment to decarbonization to be understood and internalized by the entire corporate population. As a second step, it is essential to conduct an accounting of one's emissions in order to understand the current situation and define a clear starting point. Only then, by processing the outputs of the previous steps, can an evolution plan be structured, which consists of defining reduction targets and a set of actions to be completed.

The 2023 program

The new CO2alition program, an initiative launched on June 15, 2022, and which has seen 85 Italian companies amend their bylaws by formalizing their commitment to climate neutrality, is centered on a model of ongoing work and collaboration that will allow all members to identify the most suitable path, areas of strength and areas of greatest potential for improvement to help accelerate the transition.

Over the course of the year, companies enrolled in the program will participate in a number of webinars, meetings, and workshops aimed at concretely supporting climate neutrality challenges and where hot topics will be explored, best practices shared, and collaborative solutions developed on sectoral and cross-sectoral issues, such as green logistics, offsetting, renewable sources. But that's not all. Joint actions are also planned to be brought to the attention of institutions and events and sharing moments outside, with the aim of raising awareness of these issues among press, stakeholders and citizens.

CO2alition is an initiative open for all companies to join. For more information on how to join and register for the 2023 program write to info@co2alizione.eco or visit the “Get involved” page.

"In the last few years- explains Andrea Barbabella, Head of Energy and Climate Area at Fondazione per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile, "we have witnessed an exponential growth in the number of initiatives and companies committed to the race for climate neutrality. This is certainly positive, but precisely because of this extreme speed combined with an incredibly challenging goal, the risk for many companies of falling victim to the trap of greenwashing and suffering negative reputational impacts has also grown exponentially. Through the work of CO2alition, we want to demonstrate that by pooling knowledge and positive experiences, decarbonization strategies can be implemented that are sufficiently ambitious and at the same time effective and entirely credible."

Eric Ezechieli, co-founder of NATIVA, says: "With the launch of the new program, CO2alition is poised to become the movement where things happen and thus represent not only an innovative formal commitment to climate neutrality, but also a movement of businesses that choose to systematize to innovate their practices and processes. The climate neutrality challenge is so complex that it is critical for businesses to collaborate, to accelerate the learning curve and avoid wasted energy."