(Teleborsa) – “As emerges from the investigation by Intesa Sanpaolo on business sentiment, the growth potential of green investments in Italy is high. In the two-year period 2021-2022 only 5.7% of Italian companies with at least 3 employees used renewable energy sources; it rises to 10.4% in industry in the strict sense. They weigh above all delays of smaller companies. Thanks also to the Transition 5.0 plan, an acceleration of green investments is expected in the coming years”. Gregorio De Felice, Chief Economist of Intesa Sanpaolowho spoke at Trento Festival of Economy 2024this year entitled “QUO VADIS? The dilemmas of our time”, delving into the green challenges that the Italian economy is called upon to face.
“On the green transition front, companies are focusing on these main strategies: increase in energy from renewable sources, increase in energy efficiency, separate waste collection, use of secondary raw materials. Furthermore, the industrial districts – continues De Felice – confirm that the search for suppliers who reduce the environmental impact is higherespecially on the part of medium-large companies, often with the function of ‘leader’. This produces a “trickle-down” effect towards smaller companies, which are induced to make sustainable investments to continue to be strategic partners”.
“Among the district companies with the highest unit margins (i.e. those positioned above the third quartile for EBITDA margin both in 2019 and 2022), the share of companies that use self-production energy systems is higher and equal to 16.6% ; in the rest of the companies it stops at 11.6%. 26.8% of high-margin companies have an environmental certification, compared to 19.35% of companies without one”, continues De Felice, underlining the relevance of the returns on investments in sustainability.
“The acceleration of green investments requires the inclusion of qualified professional figures in the company: according to Unioncamere, the share of companies that have invested in green skills has gone from 49.4% in 2018 to 56.4% in 2023.
In the 2024-28 period Unioncamere estimates that businesses and PA they will be looking for more than 2.3 million workers with an intermediate level of green skills (almost 2/3 of the five-year requirement); instead, almost 1.5 million employees will be sought with high green skills (more than 40% of the total)”, concludes the Chief Economist of Intesa Sanpaolo.
