Webuild S p A : Investment in innovation, safety, sustainability to renew infrastructure sector ’s production capacity along the supply chain

PNRR has caused a paradigm shift for sector with Genoa Bridge, Public-Private alliance to guarantee on-time execution of quality projects

NAPLES, June 20, 2022 - "Demographic growth, urbanisation, resource scarcity and climate change are global challenges that require companies to rethink their priorities and business models. Infrastructure can play an important role in addressing these challenges, and today this issue is very much present on the political agenda. In Italy, the Genova San Giorgio Bridge built by Webuild represented a strong sign of change in the value of the infrastructure sector. It was an experience that showed that, even in Italy, infrastructure can be done quickly and properly, addressing regional and national challenges, if all parties involved are aligned with one other for the execution of a project with a renewed sense of responsibility towards the country's regions." That is what Massimo Ferrari, General Manager of Webuild, said at Tech Talk "Sostenibilità e Costruzioni: un binomio impossibile?" ("Sustainability and Construction - An Impossible Pair?") organized by Tecno Group

"Infrastructure projects are today built and managed with processes and performance indicators that are measured to achieve clear and transparent objectives of sustainability. Webuild has adopted a sustainability strategy that brings together the Group's industrial and commercial policies with those of sustainability," Ferrari said. "We are addressing climate transition by developing innovative solutions to improve the environmental sustainability of our projects and the activities that they perform. We have become a sector benchmark for health and safety, developing expertise, diversity and inclusion. We are contributing to improve the efficiency of the sector by resorting to innovation and digitalisation. With our ESG Plan, we are aiming for a new set of objectives, which today have led to 99% of our revenues being admissible in the EU green taxonomy."

"For the Board of Directors, ESG issues are becoming increasingly more important for risk management aspects. Reputional harm can be a result of not taking into account their importance within productive and managerial processes. The amount of money managed by ESG investors has exploded with leading investors saying that companies that do not adhere to the principles of ESG risk underperforming their peers."

"In the current geopolitical context, we must reconsider ESG and sustainability concepts, so that energy security and poverty reduction are considered just as important as energy transition and the fight against climate change. At this moment in time when the Market has witnessed a deep transformation with respect to the past, the authorities must take on a more strategic role to supervise the behaviour of many operators."

"Infrastructure can become a growth accelerator: one euro of investment in infrastructure has an impact of four euros on the GDP. It is a fact that can be applied as much to the North (of Italy) as to the South. Infrastructure can also play a role in cultural development and aggregation with the construction of cultural and sports centres, such as the Al Bayt stadium that we built and where games of the next World Cup will be played out in Qatar."

"The change that Italy is experiencing at this stage is the big opportunity that we were all waiting for, a change to be reborn and to create a new paradigm for the infrastructure industry. All the great international plans for recovery focus on infrastructure to mitigate the effects of the pandemic, create employment and improve the competitiveness of every country. It is important that the financial system continues to support the sector, especially for the guarantees. The future of construction sites and infrastructure pass through investment in innovation, safety and training and sustainability that allow for a regeneration of the productive capacity of the sector along the entire supply chain."