Liveable. Fair. Achievable in the long term ensuring and possibly improving the retention capability of the system. The concept of sustainability embraces a myriad of features and expresses itself in all the fields of society, environment and economy.

Concretely, it translates into a drive towards business solutions that may be alternative to those historically proposed, in light of the collective necessity to regain responsibility for being architect of a scenario in which the fulfilment of needs is pursued in respect of that of future generations.

The impacts on business are evident. One needs only think of the pressure suffered by undertakings required to account not only for their own actions – to make some examples: reduction of the level of pollution caused, use of resources which do not harm the environment, reduction of waste through the increased efficiency of their own manufacturing systems, production of good more and more respectful towards consumers’ health, etc. – but also for the actions performed by their entire supply chain, from suppliers to distributors, down to the relationship with the client who becomes an active and responsible part for consumption, as well as activities of disposal and recycling.

Not just this. The requests for transparency on the ways in which businesses relate to and manage the people who work for them, inside and outside the business itself, are equally urgent.

Also public and private investors increasingly expect that enterprises treat their employees (and disclose the policies regulating such relations) in a manner that each individual can express his own potential, and they appreciate all the initiatives destined to make the relationships with their own commercial partners governed by clear rules.

The reference point for businesses is, as always, the market. But just the market demands that business activity ensures virtuous spill-over effects for the global village, definitely, also in an ethic perspective on the production of goods and services.