UNITED NATIONS, New York, 23 September 2019 — Eni has been confirmed today as a Global Compact LEAD participant, in a sign of its ongoing commitment to the United Nations Principles for responsible business.
In an announcement at UN Global Compact Leaders Week in New York, Eni was identified as one of the most highly-engaged participants of the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative.
“This recognition is an important testimony of our commitment to integrate sustainability into each of our activities and an encouragement to continue to combine it with financial stability,” said Claudio Descalzi, Eni’s Chief Executive Officer. “Environmental, social and business sustainability are key to help us shape the future,” Mr. Descalzi added.
Eni’s business model focuses on long-term investments and looks beyond short-term profit goals, to transform the company and make it ready to face global challenges and contribute to delivering on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. It drives the integration of sustainability into all of the company’s activities – from the reduction of greenhouse emissions to the respect for the environment; from Human Rights to the people’s training; from the promotion of local development to access to energy.
As part of its initiatives to deliver on this strategy, Eni is working in partnership with international organizations, governments and non-governmental organizations to promote sustainable development in host countries, with a specific focus on the SDGs. It signed partnerships with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for access to clean and safe water, with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to pool expertise on energy access and sustainable development and with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) to focus on youth employment, agricultural value chains, renewable energy and energy efficiency.
In a further acknowledgement of Eni’s commitment to sustainability, the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB) chose Eni – the only energy company among the six companies selected – to highlight potential approaches to more effective human rights management in its upcoming report “Learning from Peers.” Eni’s practices are used as a case study in the “Performance: company human rights practices” section, which evaluates the factors and processes that enable the respect of rights and the prevention and mitigation of human rights risks and impacts.
Similarly, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)’s analysis of the sustainability reports published by around 200 companies worldwide puts Eni’s Eni For at the top ten of its ranking (the full 2019 analysis, called “Reporting matters”, will be released next month).
The United Nations Global Compact is a global movement of sustainable companies and stakeholders that take shared responsibility to shape a sustainable future. It supports companies in aligning their strategies and operations with ten universal principles on human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption; and in taking strategic actions to achieve broader UN goals, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Eni has demonstrated its commitment to the UN Global Compact this year by participating in Action Platforms on “Reporting on the SDGs” and “Financial Innovation for the SDGs.” Each UN Global Compact Action Platform convenes business, Global Compact Local Networks, leading experts, civil society, Governments and UN partners to solve complex and interconnected issues and innovate around the Sustainable Development Goals.
CHRB is a collaboration led by investors and civil society organisations dedicated to creating the first open and public benchmark of corporate human rights performance. The Benchmark provides a comparative snapshot year-on-year of the largest companies on the planet, looking at the policies, processes, and practices they have in place to systematise their human rights approach and how they respond to serious allegations.
WBCSD is a global, CEO-led organisation of over 200 leading businesses working together to accelerate the transition to a sustainable world. WBCSD aims to make their member companies more successful and sustainable by focusing on the maximum positive impact for shareholders, the environment and societies.
- Eni’s Communication on Progress (CoP) and other related information is available in its Participant profile on the UN Global Compact website, https://www.unglobalcompact.org/what-is-gc/participants/3359-ENI
