Growens shares its fifth Sustainability Report

For the fifth consecutive year, Growens publishes its Sustainability Report. 

The 2023 edition sees the light at the end of a deeply transformative year for the Group and brings some innovations, including an update of the materiality analysis and the introduction of new people-centered policies.

“With the sale of MailUp+Contactlab and Acumbamail to the TeamSystem group and that of Datatrics to the Spotler group, in 2023 Growens underwent the most significant transformation in its twenty-one years of activity. A transformation that affected the business, and also had a strong impact on people and the social composition in which Growens operates, from a variety of points of view.

For this reason, a key commitment for 2023 was to take care of our people, supporting them in handling this evolution, both emotionally and professionally. 

We activated change management and group counseling courses, as well as a cornerstone plan to update technical and soft skills thanks to a public grant, enabling each person to find a new balance and to refocus their goals in the new company structure.”

These are the words, used by CEO Nazzareno Gorni and the President Matteo Monfredini to comment on the past year, as outlined in the Letter to the Stakeholders in the 2023 Sustainability Report.

Materiality Analysis

Like every year, a structured process was put in place to identify the main impacts that the Group’s activities have or could have on the ESG sphere. This enabled a detailed definition of the reference context both inside and outside the organization.

Growens first conducted a benchmark analysis on a sample of 15 competitors, peers and comparable companies and then reviewed all the existing internal documentation, including the strategic plan, company policies and the sustainability plan.

Then, it carried out an analysis of public files, articles and other similar documents on the impacts generated by companies in the IT industry, ending with an assessment of the main international standards and frameworks adopted in sustainability reporting.

The process went on with the impacts clustering, on the basis of their mutual level of affinity, obtaining a list of 15 ESG topics that was subjected to quantitative assessment by the Top Management and a representative sample of the main categories of Group Stakeholders.

Such topics were split into 5 areas that were submitted to the main categories of Company Stakeholders through an online questionnaire (in Italian or English according to the recipient).

At the end of the process, 3.30 was defined as the materiality threshold value, thus identifying and prioritizing 12 material topics for the Growens Group.

2023 sustainability highlights

The 2023 Report is divided in three macro-areas, corresponding to the three components of the ESG acronym: governance, environment and social. The main highlights are listed below.

Governance 

• Female presence in the BoD
  The Board of Directors is made up of five members, three of whom are executive and two hold the independence requirements provided for by Article 148, paragraph 3, of Legislative Decree 58/1998 (TUF). The presence of women in the BoD is 40% (2 directors), twice the law requirements.
• ESG guidance
  Growens provides its Business Units with strategic ESG guidance.
• No cases of corruption
  Since the Company was founded, no cases of active or passive corruption have been recorded.
• R&D and innovation
  At the heart of the business, continuous investments in technology and processes.

Environment

• Offsetting our carbon footprint
  Growens offsets the carbon footprint of all its business units by planting trees, creating its own forest, and supporting forest conservation projects.
• Company vegetable garden
  Growens has chosen to invest in zero-km agriculture, launching the Growers at Growens project, a communal garden on the terraces of its Cremona offices. All employees take care of it, enjoying the products.
• Sustainable Mobility
  To get more information about the operational tools and best practices for the mobility management, the Facility Manager of Growens attended a training course on the strategic management of sustainable mobility. This training was held in accordance with the methodology European EPOMM and the guidelines adopted by the competent ministries on August 4, 2021.
  This training led to a careful management of corporate cars and to the promotion of green mobility.

Social 

• Flexibility & hybrid work
  With the WoW program, that in 2023 turned two, Growens keeps guaranteeing to the whole organization a hybrid, flexible way of working, for an optimal work/life balance.

• No accidents at the workplace
  Out of 275,000 hours worked, no accidents or occupational illnesses, neither at work nor during commuting, were recorded during the 2023 fiscal year, in line with the previous years.
• DEI Committee
  Growens launches an internal Diversity, Equity & Inclusion committee with the explicit aim of concretely increasing awareness, dialogue, and transparency on the issues of equality, diversity, inclusion, and access to opportunities, thus enabling the organization to ensure equal growth and representation for every person.

Wrap up

As previously mentioned in the letter to the Stakeholders, Growens is entering a new era where the business will be focused, more than ever, on international markets, continuing to operate in accordance with its values. In other words it will keep respecting the competitiveness, the environment and people. 

Discover all the sustainability initiatives of Growens, downloading the 2023 Sustainability Report.