Investing in Treviso and Belluno: where do we stand on sustainable development

Source: Article by Dr. Renato Chahinian

We indicated the attractions offered by the territory of the two provinces of Treviso and Belluno in the last article, starting from the excellences and difficulties present locally based on the indicators published by Il Sole – 24 Ore on the quality of life. In fact, the opportunities for new sustainable investments, as noted, refer both to the improvement of existing attractions and to the remedy of any deficiencies, in order to achieve social and environmental development, accompanied by economic development.

But in the same article we had also emphasized the importance of another analysis(again referring to our two provinces),related to territorial positioning within the 17 goals of the UN 2030 Agenda for achieving sustainable development. This is essential to better understand what our goals are and how far (or close) we are from them, even independently of the comparison with other territories.

The ASviS Report “Territories and the Sustainable Development Goals.”

This analysis (also mentioned in the previous article) is produced by the Alleanza per lo sviluppo sostenibile (Alliance for Sustainable Development), which is the most qualified Italian organization for the study and promotion of sustainable development.

The ASviS publications are numerous, but among the periodic ones are the Annual Report (for the whole country) and the Territorial Report (at the local level), which measure the national and each territory’s positioning in relation to the UN goals, as well as providing in-depth comments on them and recommendations for the future.

Although the territorial analysis is prepared at the regional level, numerous indicators are cited on a provincial basis (or even relating to municipal areas, where available), and therefore it is possible to configure the situation in the two provinces under consideration as well, also with reference to regional and national averages. In addition, the Report also takes into consideration as well trends found only locally and the main evidence of territorial inequalities, including in relation to the Community Cohesion Policy, as well as natural and anthropogenic risks resulting from ongoing climate change.

Finally, there is no shortage of proposals and recommendations, especially for local public institutions, in order to accelerate the implementation path envisioned by Agenda 2030 itself. But many of these suggestions can also apply to businesses and investor strategies.

The results noted for Veneto

Unfortunately, the national situation of implementation of the 17 UN goals was very disappointing, as in the period between 2010 and 2022:

• with respect to 8 goals, the situation improved only slightly;
• for 3 goals it remained stable;
• 6 goals even deteriorated.

In the Veneto region, on the other hand, the trend was more favorable, since, over the same period:

• 1 goal (goal 3, related to health) achieved a significant improvement;
• 6 goals improved slightly (goals 2, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 12);
• 3 goals worsened (goals 6, 15 and 16);
• the others were not made explicit due to lack of data.

Some regional quantitative targets are also given in comparison with national targets. Without going into details, it can be summarized that in Veneto, compared to the country as a whole, according to the latest available data:

• in the area of social objectives: 6 regional indicators are better than the national ones and only 2 are equal to the Italian average (share of university graduates and gender employment gap);
• in the sphere of environmental goals: only 1 regional indicator is better than the national one (places per km. per inhabitant offered by public transportation), 2 are equal (efficiency of water networks and protected land areas), while as many as 8 others are worse;
• in the area of economic objectives: 3 regional indicators are very positive (employment rate, low share of inactive youth, low share of urban waste produced per – capita), 1 is equal to the Italian average (in the area of research and development) and another is somewhat lower (ultrafast internet coverage);
• in the institutional dimension: one regional indicator is much better than the national one (average duration of civil trials), while another is worse (crowding in prisons).

Generally speaking, however, the Veneto Region has been very active in monitoring and promoting sustainable development, especially with the creation of a Regional Strategy for Sustainable Development, i.e., a Plan that links directly with general regional planning, the Regional Economic and Financial Document, the community planning cycle, and the PNRR interventions, so that all other regional policies can be oriented toward sustainability.

Results in the provinces of Treviso and Belluno

With regard to the provinces of Treviso and Belluno, it should be noted that provincial data regarding the Agenda 2030 goals are more difficult to find and therefore only the main differences of the provincial situation with the national average and limited to 12 out of 17 goals have been identified.

In the province of Treviso the following results can be observed (again compared to the Italian average):

• 3 excellences (in labor, lower inequality and circular economy);
• 3 favorable situations (health, gender equality and water availability);
• 3 situations in line with the Italian average (in education, business, innovation and infrastructure, and quality of institutions);
• 2 situations slightly lower (clean energy and sustainable cities and communities);
• 1 much lower target (life on earth, i.e., for lack of protected areas).

In the province of Belluno, however, the following differences from the national average were recorded:

• 4 excellences (in energy availability, employment, lower inequality and life on earth);
• 3 better situations (health, education and circular economy);
• 2 situations in line (gender equality and sustainable cities and communities);
• 1 slightly lower situation (in institutions);
• 2 much lower targets (water availability and in the business aggregate, innovation and infrastructure).

In general, it can be said that the sustainable situation of the two provinces is better than the regional one, both because of the excellences that are very different from the national average, and because of the lesser goals with significant shortcomings, although not all of them have been taken into account. In addition, it is also to be noted that regional environmental deficiencies only partially occur in Treviso and that in Belluno water difficulties are mostly related to climate changes that depend on global warming. However, it should be noted that still no projected target to 2030 has already been fully achieved and therefore there will be much to do in the coming years.

Priority goals to be achieved

At this point, it is useful to put forward some thoughts on how new investments in the provinces of Treviso and Belluno could be directed to reach the goals of the UN Agenda in 2030. Obviously, no one should be excluded, but everything depends on the activities and possibilities of each local actor (businesses, third sector, Public Administration).

Leaving aside here the P.A. (as local governments are very much conditioned by the directives and funding made available by the Central Authorities) and as well the third sector (which can do a lot, but which depends largely on donations and volunteerism), let us focus the analysis on businesses (which, although with the goal of profit, can dilute it over time in a sustainable development perspective, to create more economic, social and environmental value for the community).

As repeatedly indicated in previous articles, a fair profit in the short term(not maximum) will also lead to economic benefits in the long term, and therefore more resources (human and financial) need to be deployed now to achieve sustainability goals, making sure that business value-added is created that can reward all stakeholders. This can be achieved by increasing productivity, which can only be implemented by improving skills and innovation. Therefore, the priority goals, which are indispensable for achieving the others as well, are No. 8 (decent work and economic growth) and No. 9 (business, innovation and infrastructure). While the former can be considered satisfactory (compared to the national average) in the two provinces under review, the further effort to improve the other social and environmental indicators requires higher growth in added value, fueled by business innovation and that generated by economic infrastructure (especially benefiting small and micro enterprises).

This superior wealth production will enable the needs of the other objectives to be met, which, in turn, will provide the opportunity to achieve new value added and new social-environmental goals. Indeed, in this way, the following other goals can be achieved (again abstracting from public and nonprofit interventions):

• Health – enhancing the health of its employees (and small business owners themselves, possibly including small suppliers and customers) with additional conventions to the benefits provided for the National Health Service. The benefit for the company is to have more present and more cooperative staff;
• 4.Education – improvement especially of training, through supplementary company courses and extended to the entire working life of the workforce, with the advantage of obtaining more skills and higher work commitment;
• 5.Gender equality – facilities or conventions for daycare and after-school care for the children of female employees, as well as a company organization regulated on gender equality and merit, with the advantage of recovering greater attendance at work and superior contributions of previously unexpressed professionalism;
• Water – scheduling of water savings especially in production processes, but also agreements to contain any water wastage along supply chains and conterminous territories;
• 7.Energy – scheduling of corporate energy savings and always extended to the entire supply chain, but also switching to renewable energy for all buildings, all means of transport and all production processes within the competence. This is the biggest commitment, but one that can be achieved with multi-year investments (amortizable in about 10 years) and which will also subsequently allow for the greatest benefits, including economic ones, due to the almost total free consumption of renewable sources;
• 10.Inequalities – It is important that within the business organization there should be no major inequalities, and this should consist mainly in the possible raising of minimum wages (if below a decent threshold) and especially in a containment of managerial and executive compensation (if higher than a normal evaluation of the goals to be achieved), as well as an appropriate graduation of the tasks of all personnel. Such a remuneration approach should profitably be based on the degree of achievement of sustainable development goals;
• 11.Sustainable cities and communities – the contribution of the company’s activity to the community of reference (in terms of employment and added value) is already a fundamental requirement inherent in any business; if further contributions of impact (social and environmental) then occur, both the company’s reputation and social capital grow considerably, which will give further benefits in the future to the company itself;
• 12.Circular economy – although above all, Treviso is the leader in Italy for waste recycling, there is still much to be done to recycle, at the level of second raw material, almost all the virgin raw material still abundantly used in production processes today. The economic benefits of this practice have also been estimated to be very significant in the corporate sector;
• 15.Life on Earth – soil savings and protection of biodiversity are essential for the natural capital of the territory in which the company operates, both with reference to companies in the primary and food macro-sector, and also for all other sectors that, in the absence of such actions, would affect adverse natural phenomena in the long run, capable of damaging every productive activity as well;
• 16.Institutions – solid institutions should not only be public ones, but also private ones such as enterprises, which are strengthened by practicing sustainable activities and cooperating with other institutions for common development. Here again, the principle of reciprocity is essential to achieve significant economic benefits in the long run.

In conclusion, sustainable investment in businesses in our two provinces presents a wide range of opportunities, all harbingers of excellent long-term results in all three aspects of development (economic, social and environmental).

Translated by Cecilia Flaccavento
Intern at the Chamber of Commerce of Treviso – Belluno|Dolomites