Sustainability and digitalisation: a powerful pairing

PODCAST: Future-proofing business? Think digital sustainability

Digitalisation and sustainability together are a business force to be reckoned with

New research shows that businesses that invest with digital transformation and sustainability as a combined goal will thrive in the future. Intesa Sanpaolo, with its hugely successful banking app and a series of sustainable finance products, has shown the possibilities and benefits of combining the two. Listen to the podcast to hear discussion from Marco Cesareo, Digital Business Partner – International Subsidiary Banks, on the potential of this powerful pair to engineer change.

New research from Accenture finds that companies who fully embrace both sustainability and digitalisation are two-and-a-half times more likely to thrive as best performers in the future. It suggests that sustainability and digitalisation can and should be combined to ensure business resilience.

“These are the most important engines of economic growth in the future,” says Marco Cesareo, Digital Business Partner – International Subsidiary Banks. “There are strong correlations between these two factors. Companies that carry out transformation based on these concepts combined are more eligible for future growth.”

Intesa Sanpaolo has always put both sustainability and digitalisation at the top of the agenda. Recent examples are its successful mobile banking app and partnerships with Google to create two large regional data centres in Italy. The bank is also the first financial services strategic partner of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Intesa Sanpaolo is committed to net zero by 2030 for the bank’s own emissions and by 2050 for its investment and financing portfolios. The bank has also joined net-zero alliances across its businesses.

Its total emissions have been reduced by 60% since 2008. In Italy, it uses 100% renewable energy and it is committed to rolling out renewables to its worldwide business by 2030.

With a focus on sustainability coming from the very top – Cesareo credits Chief Executive Officer Carlo Messina with setting an example for the whole bank – Intesa Sanpaolo has used finance to make a change.