(Finance) – Everyone knows what sustainability is, just over half of Italians have heard of the 2030 Agenda, but very few know the ESG objectives. This is what emerges from a preview of ESG Culture LAB Annual Report “The culture of sustainability in Italy”, edited by Eikon Strategic Consulting Italia Società Benefit, according to which 97% of Italians have heard of sustainability at least once, but only 24% know what the term ESG refers to, acronym for Environmental, Social, Governance, criteria that must be taken into account to verify the environmental, social and corporate governance of a company or organisation.
A figure, that on knowledge of ESG, which goes hand in hand with the numbers on the diffusion of these issues on social networks by the 300 main Italian companies. According to the results of the ESG Social Channel Tracker, the monthly focus of the ESG Culture LAB of Eikon Italia Società Benefit, in fact, on approximately 146 thousand contents published by these companies on their social accounts in the period between January and October, only 11% involved ESG issues. Yet, the posts belonging to this niche attracted the attention and involvement of users, obtaining a better engagement rate than other contents, reaching the 0.48% versus 0.31% for content not related to ESG topics.
As regards ESG criteria, the ESG Social Channel Tracker shows that companies focus above all on communicating environmental issues, with 62% of posts, while the social area is much more marginal, with 36%. In fact, from the data collected, only 2% of posts are dedicated to projects or initiatives related to women or young people. Yet, precisely the posts related to women and the female universe achieve a very high engagement rate (0.64%), double that of other themes and even higher than ESG themes.
“And if we consider that social media is one of the main sources of information from which Italians draw news relating to ESG objectives, we realize the importance of these analyses”, he comments Paola Aragno, vice president of Eikon Italia Benefit Society and professor of Communication Metrics at LUMSA University. According to the ESG Culture LAB Annual Report, in fact, more than 30% of Italians have heard about sustainability objectives on social networks, on par with newspapers. Primary source of information is television (59%).
The entire ESG Culture LAB Annual Report will be presented Wednesday 29 November at Palazzo dell’Informazione during the event “The new challenges of sustainability”, edited by Eikon Italia Società Benefit in collaboration with the Adnkronos Group. The event will also see the participation of the Minister of Business and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso, of the President of Popolari Europeanisti Riformatori and former Minister for Equal Opportunities Elena Bonetti, of the Vice President for Human Capital of Confindustria Gianni Brugnoli, of the Scientific Director of ASviS Enrico Giovannini, the Rector of La Sapienza University Antonella Polimeni and the President of Valore DCristiana Scelza. Banca Ifis, Eni, Gruppo Fs, Philip Morris Italia, Poste Italiane and Simest will participate in the event. Edison is also a partner of the initiative.