Open-es, the initiative for a sustainable ecosystem
The digital platform to measure and improve ESG performances

The achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals requires the transformation of the economic, industrial, and social system.

This process is a challenge that involves all kinds of businesses, from big industrial groups to SMEs, given the increasing number of requests and stimuli on ESG performances (Environment, Social, and Governance) by stakeholders such as customers in procurement processes, banks, investors, institutions, associations etc.

In this context, it is essential to collaborate and set clear targets that allow all businesses (especially SMEs) to focus on concrete actions related to their business evolution, going beyond bureaucratic compliance.

This is why Open-es, a system wide initiative that brings together the industrial, financial, and institutional world, was created. The digital platform wants to support and engage with all companies willing to undertake a path of measurement and growth of all their sustainability’s dimensions.

An alliance, created by Eni, Boston Consulting Group and Google Cloud in early 2021, joined by important Italian and international partners.

Today, Open-es counts in 2024 more than 25.000 participating companies. This is due to the platform’s collaborative and open nature that allows all kind of companies to take part in the initiative and also allows partners to engage their value chains. A true and unique community that contributes to a sustainable development path through collaboration and identification of priority actions.

 

Standard Metrics and Transparent Evaluation Model

Developing in ESG terms means undertaking the right path to guarantee the business’ future. However, to ensure the structural transformation of the ecosystem, it is essential to share the same measurement criteria and comparable results, as for the accounting standards in financial statements.

It is therefore necessary a shared approach, based on standard metrics able to cover different sectors and business models. Open-es does so through the adoption of the Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics, a set of metrics for corporate sustainability defined at the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council in September 2020.

Through a guided process, companies in the Open-es community can:

  • Measure their sustainability performance and obtain a ESG profile
  • Share their data and sustainability information with clients and other stakeholders, without replicating them
  • Access sector’s benchmarks to confront themselves with similar entities, and personalized development plans enabling them to identify priority actions to be adopted to grow and improve
  • Obtain in a simple and rapid way a first draft of their Sustainability Report, a document that is increasingly required as a rewarding element within the PNRR
  • Collaborate with the community, asking for and giving advices, valuing the undertaking’s experiences and sustainability strategies and benefitting from the sharing of other companies’ best practices.

Moreover, Open-es allows companies to engage with their suppliers and compare the supply chain’s ESG performances integrating them within its decision-making processes.  This is possible by accessing on Open-es specific statistics and reports on their sustainability performances and incentivizing them to improve.

 

Training and support to the path to Sustainable Development

Open-es represents a stimulus and support for the transformation involving all realities, encouraging collaboration among different sectors and providing a wider set of possibilities and solutions with an innovating, simple, and intuitive approach.

Open-es allows you to share and distribute benefits along the value chain, focusing on businesses’ growth plans and creating collaborations and opportunities for the entire value chain.

For this reason, the platform has been enriched with a new and important area, the Development Hub, where you can find services and products offered by providers or innovative ESG realities:

  • Training courses and modules for employees, to wider their competencies and encourage sustainable behavior in the company
  • Services and tools to measures the company’s environmental impact and sustainability score
  • Support in defining and implementing an action plan that brings together sustainability and business
  • Products and services to communicate, in an efficient way, the company’s commitment to sustainability and reinforce its position on the market
  • Validation and certification services on the undertaking’s activities, including projects and data on sustainability
  • Financial solutions to optimize corporate sustainability
  • Services to support the company’s participation to sustainable finance programs

Other solutions will soon be added to support companies in their circular and sustainable transformation.  

In November 2021, the platform launched the “Open-es ESG Skills | The community meets the experts” initiative, a series of free events for companies and employees to improve ESG competencies.

The events are open to the entire Community, reflecting the values of collaboration and sustainable growth characterizing the platform. Through their participation, companies can discuss with industry experts specific aspects of ESG issues, such as CO2 emissions calculation, Sustainability Reports, ESG Certifications, opportunities and goals of the PNRR, ESG and the relations between banks and companies, Social and Governance Sustainability, Supplier Management and many other topics of great relevance.

In 2022, through an analysis of the Open-es data of 2,600 Italian companies (ESG Navigator), the main gaps and areas of strength were identified and priorities and actions were defined to enable them to improve their competitive and sustainable positioning. From this analysis, 12 priority issues emerged on which companies are called upon to focus to accelerate their sustainability journey, namely: circular economy, biodiversity, stakeholder engagement, water resources utilisation, value chain management, climate change, governing body quality, energy efficiency, governance objectives, human rights, ethical behaviour and dignity and equality. In addition to the action plan, the tools needed to implement the identified actions were made available on Open-es.

Open-es represents an important step towards to the creation of synergic and collaborative businesses. A unique system to collaborate with Italian and International realities as well as engaging and supporting customers and suppliers, in a common path of improvement and sustainability.

What are you waiting for? Register and join the Open-es Community!

 


Tags
Open-es
ESG
SupplyChain
Sustainability
Collaboration
Development