Tech Women for Sustainable Business
Thursday 28 October 2021
It's time to take stock of "Tech Women for Sustainable Business | UniCredit Journey for Impact Transformation", the path that began six months ago and was dedicated to 20 innovative Italian start-ups - with different sectors and geographical origins - but united by a common factor, female leadership.
The "sustainable" growth path for female-led start-ups, launched this year by UniCredit Start Lab and Nativa, has come to an end. The aim of the project was to contribute to the evolution of gender equality and support female tech entrepreneurship with respect to one of the biggest challenges of the moment: integrating ESG factors into business activities, processes and strategies.
UniCredit Start Lab's partner in the initiative was NATIVA, a Regenerative Design Company and the first B Corp and Benefit Corporation in Italy, helps legacy leaders in achieving radical business evolution, to accelerate the positive transformation of economic and cultural paradigms.
The trainings included several activities, with 3 workshops and 40 individual advisory meetings.
All 20 start-ups measured their environmental and social performance through the B Impact Assessment (BIA), a robust tool already used by B Corps and more than 150,000 companies worldwide, which enables them to identify a company's sustainability profile and identify improvement actions in each area assessed (governance, workers, community, environment and customers). A first step not only towards operating in a more responsible manner, but also towards obtaining B Corp certification.
Nativa
Bénédicte Peillon and Matteo Ghedini
"Being a B Corp means changing the way the company operates, no longer pursuing profit alone as its sole objective, but choosing to exist also to have a positive impact on all its stakeholders, such as employees, the Planet and the community. It is a new way of doing business, in which companies do not just compete to be the best in the world but the best FOR the world."
From this perspective the initiative has already shown its first results with two participating start-ups applying for the B Corp.
In a series of articles, One UniCredit reported on the thoughts and drives of the company founders who took part in the programme, asking what motivated them to join the programme and why they believe in ESG matters.