Snam : Social innovation and territorial development key focus at Snam’s 2018 Partners’ Day

Snam met with its key stakeholders today at its Partners' Day 2018 event, held in Milan at the Officine del Volo. Around 500 people attended the event including suppliers, customers and employees of the company, institutions, members of the financial community and media. The event was marked by the attendance of Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who was welcomed by Snam Chairman Carlo Malacarne and CEO Marco Alverà.

Attendees at the event included, amongst others, the President of the Lombardy Region, Attilio Fontana, the Undersecretary for Regional and Autonomous Affairs, Stefano Buffagni, the Member of the Italian Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and Environment, Stefano Saglia, the Chairman of the Fondazione Cariplo, Giuseppe Guzzetti, the Chairman of Cassa depositi e prestiti, Massimo Tononi, the Chairman of Enel and of the Italian Committee for Corporate Governance of Borsa Italiana, Patrizia Grieco, the President of the Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, Mariella Enoc, the President of SEAT, Luca de Meo, the CEO of Acea, Stefano Donnarumma, the CEO of A2A, Valerio Camerano, the CEO of Italgas, Paolo Gallo, and the CEO of State Grid Europe Limited, Liang He.

Partners' Day marks a continuation of the 'Supplier Workshop' event which was established by Snam a few years ago and was an opportunity to reflect on the role companies play in promoting a virtuous circle of innovation and growth for Italy and its regions.

Snam CEO, Marco Alverà, said: ' Partners' Day is an important moment of dialogue and exchange between the company and all its stakeholders, particularly the network of large and, importantly, small and medium-sized Italian companies, which we work with on a daily basis to contribute to the growth and sustainable development of our country. Chairman Malacarne and I are very honored to have Prime Minister Conte at the event, as well as the many other companies and institutions.

The ability of companies to work together as a network adds a huge amount of value to both society and regions, and the future will increasingly be based on models of this kind. Snam has about 1,700 accredited suppliers, 90% of which are national SMEs. We manage around a thousand construction sites in Italy, we contribute approx. 3 billion a year to Italian GDP and generate work, directly and indirectly, for over 17,000 people'.

Snam Chairman, Carlo Malacarne, commented: ' Partners' Day reflects Snam's expertise in building networks through bringing together entrepreneurial and social organisations to create long-term relationships in the regions in which Snam works. This attribute is shared with our supply chain and continues to create a competitive advantage for us and our suppliers'.

During Partners' Day, Snam presented three new initiatives to its stakeholders around the areas of innovation and energy transition and social enterprise.

The first is the Snamtec project, in which the company will invest €850 million by 2022 in building the energy company of the future: a company that is increasingly renewable, technologically-advanced, digital and open to partnerships and alliances with businesses and regions.

The second is the 'Social Supply Chain', a policy that facilitates the direct involvement of social enterprises in the supply chain and promotes their employment as subcontractors through the introduction of incentives as part of the evaluation process.

The third, demonstrating Snam's commitment to technological innovation, is a new Open Innovation platform, 'Snam Up', which will allow all its employees to propose new projects and develop entrepreneurship, as well as bringing the company closer to the start-up ecosystem.

Partners' Day was also marked by debates around two key themes: firstly, regional social development policies, in which foundations and the network of companies are playing an increasingly central role alongside national and local institutions; and secondly, the role of companies as drivers of sustainable urban growth through energy efficiency initiatives and technologies to reduce emissions.

A further discussion was focused on energy: exploring the forecasted growth of natural gas in the global energy mix and the development of new renewable sources such as biomethane and hydrogen.

Following the morning plenary session, ten technical panels were held in the afternoon dedicated to topics of particular interest to the business, from supply chain innovation to digital transformation, networks and construction site safety to open innovation, and energy efficiency to the new Agile ways of working that the company has adopted. The day began with the signing of a strategic agreement between Snam and SEAT around sustainable natural gas and renewable gas mobility in Europe.

Snam works with approximately 1,700 suppliers, mostly small and medium-sized Italian companies, across more than 600 different product categories. In 2017, Snam's procurement of goods and services generated €850 million and the company invests approx. one billion euro a year throughout Italy, generating a three-fold impact to the economy.

Last year, Snam launched a Foundation to establish social projects in local areas and also created the Snam Institute, which provides around 90,000 hours of training per year for its employees and suppliers. Snam is one of only four companies globally to collaborate with Transparency International in the fight against corruption.