The supply chain sustainability will be the main focus of the UN Global Compact Network Italy (UNGCN Italy) participation at COP27, the United Nations Climate Change Conference scheduled until November 18th in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
UNGCN Italy, which represents the United Nations Global Compact - the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative - across Italy, will launch internationally the Position Paper on companies’ commitment in Sustainable Supply Chain Management.
The document is the brainchild of the work carried out since February 2022 by UN Global Compact Network Italy with a highly-committed working group of more than 30 Italian business participants of the United Nations Global Compact. This paper discusses the theme in terms of three main pillars, namely: the reduction of Scope 3 emissions, the promotion of human and labour rights and the circular management of negative externalities.
The conference entitled “Sustainable Supply Chains: responsibilities and opportunities for businesses” is scheduled on November 17th from 10.30 a.m. to 12.00 a.m. EET (from 9.30 a.m. to 11.00 a.m. CET). It will be hosted at UN Global Compact’s Climate Ambition Hub in the Green Zone at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh. The meeting will also be streamed live on UN Global Compact Network Italy's YouTube channel.
As representatives of the institutions will be attending: Alessandro Modiano, Special Envoy for Climate Change to the Minister for Ecological Transition in Italy, Livio Spadavecchia, Counsellor, Directorate-General for Development Cooperation, Ministry of International Cooperation and Foreign Affairs of Italy, and Alexandra Kuxova, Policy Officer at the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG Grow) of the European Commission. As representatives of the companies will be attending Guido Alfani, General Manager of Carbonsink and Marco Giulivi, ESG Leader at Edison. They will be joined also by Nicolò Sartori, Senior Researcher at Enel Foundation. The UN Global Compact will be represented by Anna Kruip, Senior Manager Environment and Climate at the UN Global Compact, and Marco Frey and Daniela Bernacchi, respectively Chairman and Executive Director of the UN Global Compact Network Italy.
“We are going through an international crisis which is increasing the instability of our business community. However, this seems to affect particularly small and medium-sized companies” – said Marco Frey, Chairman, UN Global Compact Network Italy. – “In the first two years of the pandemic, the Italian government had allocated substantial financial aid to SMEs, and this allowed smaller businesses to overcome the emergency phase and the consequences of the measures taken to contain the spread of the virus. Nevertheless, the current context is even more complex because of the significant increase in energy costs and the enormous difficulties in finding some raw materials. Many Italian SMEs had not yet closed the revenue gap from the pre-Covid level when the effects of the war in Ukraine came forward. In this scenario, the Big Players’ supply chain approach can be read as a strategic perspective geared toward greater resilience for SMEs, which are the real players of national and transnational supply chains. Stable and regular supply chains represent a reduction in risk for larger companies, but, at the same time, they are a market and business guarantee for smaller ones. Been involved in the sustainability strategies and policies of the Big Players represents for SMEs a unique opportunity of training, acquiring new tools and increasing skills.”
“Participation in the United Nations Climate Change Conference - COP27 is an extraordinary opportunity of visibility and thematic sharing for our Network and the companies that contributed to the production of the Position Paper on sustainable supply chains” – said Daniela Bernacchi, Executive Director, UN Global Compact Network Italy. – “A unique stage to reiterate the importance of an urgent and ambitious commitment of the private sector in tackling global warming, which could have a disruptive impact on ecosystems and biodiversity, but also on people and communities, causing a dramatically increase in hunger and migration. The Climate Action carried out by our companies is based on a deepening awareness and is characterized by a growing commitment. However, there is still a long way to go in order to get to desirable levels both in measuring the impacts of emissions’ reduction policies and in engaging production and value chains.”
» The event’s agenda is available here.
