Net Zero by 2040 and social commitment, Fater's actions and projects

Rome, June 26 (Adnkronos) – Net Zero goal by 2040 thanks also to constant comparison and dialogue with suppliers. And a social responsibility action that translates brand purpose into concrete activities on the territory and for communities. Fater, a company founded by Angelini Industries in 1958 and since 1992 in joint venture with Procter & Gamble, active in the personal and home care sector, describes its ESG activities in the 2023-2024 Sustainability Report, entitled 'Every Day Matters'.

Daniele Eccher dall'Eco, Corporate Sustainability Senior Manager of Fater, discusses the Report's key points with Adnkronos.

The chapter 'Every Day Together', in particular, is dedicated to stakeholders. At the center is the theme of listening developed through the analysis of double materiality. "Three years ago we conducted a very in-depth analysis with the engagement of almost 400 stakeholders including employees, suppliers, customers, associations, the academic world, precisely to listen to what were, from their point of view, the most relevant issues that Fater should pay attention to in the development of an integrated sustainability strategy - explains Eccher dall'Eco - This first approach allowed us to define our sustainability strategy and also measurable targets that, in a perspective of transparency, we publish annually with our sustainability report, a voluntary initiative since Fater is not a listed company".

In the 'Every Day Climate Protection' section, the report focuses on environmental results and objectives. “One of the targets that Fater has set itself in the ESG field is to combat climate change by reducing its carbon impact: we joined the Science Based Targets initiative – Sbti in 2021 and we communicated and then validated our decarbonisation targets both in a medium-term perspective, to 2030, and in a long-term perspective, with the very challenging goal of Net Zero by 2040 – he says – We know that to achieve these objectives it is more essential than ever to work by engaging all the actors who are upstream and downstream of Fater in a more intentional and specific way since over half of the company's carbon impact comes from emissions that are outside its scope of action and are related to the raw materials that we purchase from our suppliers, therefore Scope 3”.

So “we have progressively engaged the suppliers from whom we purchase these raw materials to discuss with them how to start a decarbonization process through a series of top to top meetings that are held by Fater management together with the supplier's management”. The implementation of the Ecovadis platform is also part of this process to reinforce the integration of ESG criteria in the selection of suppliers.

The chapter of the report 'Every Day a better society' tells of the commitments on the front of its employees and consumers. "We estimate that our products are present in three out of four families in Italy so we have the honor but also the burden of having a great capillarity. So, for each of our most important brands, we thought about what could be a social purpose, that is, a social purpose", he says.

Lines, for example, collaborates with the NGO WeWorld, committed to guaranteeing the rights of women, girls and boys in over 25 countries around the world. In particular, Lines contributed to the opening of the 'Spazi Donna' (Bologna in 2021 and Pescara in 2022) which have welcomed and supported, since their opening to date, over 700 women in difficulty. Against stereotypes and gender discrimination, the brand has also developed the initiative Questions Uncomfortable @School Lines involving a total of 250 thousand students from 442 middle and high schools in educational programs on respect between genders, for a total of 3,039 classes. Around 100 thousand students in the 2023/24 fiscal year alone.

In the case of the Ace brand, “the social purpose is to personally contribute to the care of our home, which is the world”. Hence the action alongside Retake to raise awareness of the importance of the recovery of urban spaces, through the project 'Scendiamo in piazza'. “We have coupled this initiative with the development of a specific formula of Ace, the anti-hate formula”, says Eccher dall'Eco, explaining that it is a specific formulation of the product, not commercialized, used to remove hate messages from walls.

“With Pampers we have developed a digital platform, the Pampers Village – launched in 2021 in partnership with Heart4Children – in the Coccole Pampers app, which has been and will increasingly become a physical and not just virtual place where new parents can exchange opinions and follow podcasts on all the topics that concern, in fact, parenthood”, explains Fater’s Corporate Sustainability Senior Manager. Finally, in collaboration with Fondazione Onda, Lines Specialist has developed the '-Pausa +Te' campaign and created a portal that offers support, practical advice and free consultations to help women experience menopause in a positive way.

As part of these ESG actions, carried out over the years, it is important for the company to measure and report the progress achieved. “We do it because we believe that you only get what you measure,” Eccher dall’Eco emphasizes, emphasizing the commitment to “transparency towards the many stakeholders we have engaged in the development of the double materiality analysis.” Furthermore, “it is a way to push ourselves and be even more committed to achieving the goals we have set ourselves every year: reporting for us is a way to draw a line, look at ourselves internally, give an answer externally and above all also listen to what may be the stimuli that arrive.” In this sense, “we are carrying out a beautiful project with Microsoft that has also used us as a global case history to develop a platform, also customized in some aspects for Fater, that can support us in collecting this flood of data.”