Beyond the direct workforce

Eni and the Eni Foundation have a longstanding tradition of projects aimed at improving the health conditions of local communities, with engaging women a priority. Raising awareness of women’s health is key to achieving community behavioural change in hygiene and other important issues relating to maternal and child health. Eni's cervical cancer screening project in Mozambique is particularly relevant. Moreover, Eni Foundation website includes several stories on these projects, which have the ambition of protecting women’s health during childbirth, preventing transmission of HIV from mother to child, and fighting deadly diseases and malnutrition in Africa and Asia.

Eni has been working with educational institutions to promote ‘technical-professional’ career paths with a focus on attracting female students to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education programmes. These initiatives are aimed at motivating girls to undertake studies in STEM fields and participate in professional and technical activities of interest to the O&G sector. Eni is the main sponsor of InspirinGirls, a project to help girls in lower-middle school overcome gender stereotyping and become fully aware of their potential. The project promotes STEM studies to encourage ‘technical-professional’ career paths. The initiative, which over the last four years has seen the organisation of around 140 female role modelling activities, involving more than 6,900 girls and boys in 107 secondary schools, has been extended from 2020 to include an international web platform (Video Hub), for which an initial group of around ten role models from Eni's international operations has also been recruited. To promote social innovation, Eni's 100+ ‘role models’, professionals with a predominantly technical-scientific background, talk about their educational and professional experience, with a view to career guidance in the various areas of opportunity available locally. Eni also takes part in COME, a project run in partnership with Fondazione Mondo Digitale (FMD). Eni supports this initiative as a sponsor of interactive formats and meetings with its role models to help young people discover emerging areas and professional roles, with a specific focus on the impact that technologies have on the entire value chain of energy production. In 2020, through the Fondazione Mondo Digitale Coding Girls programme, two further initiatives were put in place and are still ongoing, made possible with the support of Eni colleagues giving accounts of their experience and activities.  Eni's commitment, participation and sponsorship of the initiative has been confirmed again for 2021. 

In addition, Joule - Eni's school of entrepreneurship, supports startuppers and entrepreneurs with a specific focus on gender equality. Joule's activities promote the empowerment of women through entrepreneurial training and encouraging business ideas through its Human Knowledge programmes  (HK Open and HK Lab) and Energizer, the ecosystem’s accelerator. The Human Knowledge Open programme (HK Open) is free and accessible to all future women entrepreneurs and startuppers. The program covers legal, economic and financial topics as well as the generation of new innovative businesses moving from the use of a linear business model to a circular business model. In addition, thanks to its community, Joule is also a network that allows women to share their business stories, make new contacts and explore opportunities. Women's participation in Human Knowledge has now reached 40% of the total number of participants (called Joulees). This represents an important success factor for Joule, supported by the fact that female entrepreneurship in Italy is present and effective. In this regard, Joule continues to believe and invest in female entrepreneurship by pursuing its project to increase the proportion of women in its programs.  It is no coincidence that the Joule web series, featured in the HK Open programme, was inspired by the story of Tiziana Monterisi, who works in the field of natural architecture and is the founder of Ricehouse, the startup that creates sustainable buildings from rice waste. Tiziana has been a guest at Joule events several times to illustrate what means to do sustainable business by transforming a traditional reality into an innovative and circular one, and to address the challenges for female entrepreneurship. Her experience, the difficulties she encountered and the great satisfaction she experienced are an inspiration for Joule, to support the development of innovative business ideas for women through training, startup acceleration and collaborations.

Eni believes that sustainable supply chain business model can create and provide value for all stakeholders, thanks to the organisation of activities based not only on the protection of human rights, but also on the principles of Diversity & Inclusion. A working environment enriched by cultural, religious and ethnic plurality, and one which is non-discriminatory in terms of equal opportunities, is a driving force for innovation and better performance, because it improves the overall company climate, the sense of belonging and motivation, and so attracts and retains the best talent. For this reason, in line with the objectives of the JUST (Join Us in a Sustainable Transition) initiative, aimed at involving the entire supply chain in sustainability issues, Eni is committed to reducing and eliminating all possible forms of discrimination, including discrimination on the basis of race, caste, nationality, religion, disability, age, gender, sexual preference, trade union membership and political affiliation. To achieve this, Eni ensures its suppliers are committed to guaranteeing equal opportunities during the recruitment process and professional careers of their own employees.

In order to offer solid assistance and support to Suppliers in the cultural transition process necessary to seize the opportunities offered by a more sustainable and inclusive approach to business, Eni launched "Open-es", a systemic initiative open to all companies and supply chains in different industrial sectors. In a common virtual space, accessible without any financial commitment, Suppliers can measure and report their ESG position through standard metrics, access gap analysis and benchmarking, follow a specific development plan to improve their sustainability performance and compare notes, inspiring each other to grow together in terms of awareness and skills. Developed with the Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics, a set of metrics defined by the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Open-es model has four pillars: People, Planet, Prosperity and the Principle of Governance. Each Pillar is in turn developed into Milestones, understood as topics of particular relevance in promoting the sustainable growth of supply chains. Diversity & Inclusion is addressed by the Dignity & Equality Milestone, within the People Pillar, which not only covers SDGs 5, 8 and 10, but above all allows the most significant corporate performance to be recognised.

To achieve these objectives, Eni through Open-es motivates its suppliers to integrate initiatives and policies with regard to the well-being of their employees, as well as verifying, with specific indicators such as company turnover and absenteeism rates, the actual health of the suppliers' workforce. During the qualification phase, it investigates how suppliers ensure equality and the recruitment of talent regardless of irrelevant personal characteristics, also examining these issues through audits at suppliers based on the SA8000 standards. Eni also requires that the selection of suppliers along the supply chain takes into account the commitment to social responsibility and the protection and respect of workers. In addition, Eni recognizes a competitive advantage in selected tenders to suppliers who ensure an equal team during contract execution.

Eni has always been committed to making honest, truthful and correct communications with respect to the public and consumers. Eni's advertising communications, both institutional and commercial, are always carefully carried out in compliance with the law and Eni’s code of ethics, and with full attention to the accuracy and reliability of the information they contain. Fair and correct communication requires a method of conveying accurate messages while also building on the company’s values. Key pillars of Eni’s mission are, among others, respect for the dignity of every individual and the recognition of diversity as a fundamental value for human development.  In all its advertising and marketing content, Eni always ensures from the outset that its communications do not convey gender or ethnic stereotypes, particularly with regard to the role of women or ethnic minorities. The role of women in society and their representation in the media is an issue that Eni has always dealt with carefully, paying close attention to the messaging, language, images and roles used to represent women featured in its brand advertising. In all its brand advertising and content, Eni always ensures that different ethnicities are fairly represented, for example by carefully selecting the actors and the roles assigned to them to ensure that everyone is respected equally. These issues are closely considered throughout the entire process of designing and producing Eni’s advertising and marketing content, being key drivers in the choice of messages and how they are conveyed to the public.