Editorials
Protecting the Ocean for a Sustainable Planet
The health of the ocean is in critical condition, and it is deteriorating at a rate and in ways scientists say are unprecedented in the history of our planet. Huge amounts of plastics and chemicals are dumped into the environment every year in all parts of the world. Overexploitation of fish stocks has pushed fisheries of several species beyond the threshold of sustainability, with serious implications ...
Bringing Innovation to EU Public Administrations
The communication “Enhancing the European Administrative Space,” also known as “ComPAct,”[1] was adopted by the European Commission on October 25, 2023. It is innovative in that, for the first time, the Commission proposes a comprehensive set of actions in support of administrative modernization and cooperation in and between Member States at all levels (national, regional and local). The ...
European Capital Markets: The Lost Decade and Draghi’s Wake-Up Call
European stock markets are thriving, but this is not necessarily a sign of a broader positive trend. In fact, if politicians and bureaucrats fail to act, the Union could lose the historic opportunity to create the European capital market it so desperately needs, especially in light of the challenges posed by the "Three Ds"—deglobalization, demographics with declining birth rates, and decarbonization. ...
A Forward-Looking Vision. Rethinking HR Strategies and Public Employee Roles
People are an organization's most adaptable asset, embodying a diverse set of skills, roles, expectations, and motivations that evolve over time. The organization can choose to be a passive bystander to this change, or it can play an active role by facilitating and managing change: in the former case, organizations that are slow to respond to contextual demands risk being unprepared for crises and ...
To Be or Not to Be: Sustainability Between Strategy, ESG, and Reporting
Driven by a series of institutional and political pressures—from Climate Conferences to the Green Deal, from Non-Financial Reporting and Sustainable Finance Directives to those on transparency and greenwashing—the debate on corporate sustainability has often become muddled and highly ideological in recent years. With over three decades of experience in sustainability management, and having observed ...
Beyond illusions, within limits: business and the sustainability challenge
Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, we have drawn on natural resources as if they were limitless. The air and water, the soil, the fish and the trees, all living things seemed at our disposal. Economic science has long suggested that wealth results from the combination of only two factors of production: capital and labor. As Jean-Baptiste Say wrote in 1803 in his book on Political Economy: ...
A New Approach to Sustainable Supply Chain Management
In recent years, growing regulatory pressures and stakeholder expectations have heightened the need for transparency and accountability across entire production chains, driving companies to adopt new management models. On September 10th, Italy officially adopted Directive 2022/2464/EU – known as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) – through Legislative Decree 125/2024, published ...
Why Sustainability is Worth It (Even if Showing It Off is No Longer in Vogue)
“You’re good, and they throw stones at you. You’re bad, and they throw stones at you,” sang Gian Pieretti and Antoine at the Sanremo Festival in 1967. Fifty-eight years later, the sentiment described in the Italian song risks silencing the conversation on sustainability. The term 'greenhushing' refers to companies minimizing or completely avoiding communication about their environmental goals ...
The sustainability pendulum: stakeholders set the course
Sustainability took several hits in 2025, though none delivered a knockout blow. Regulatory progress slowed in both the U.S. and Europe, and mounting political pressure might suggest a retreat. Yet the underlying trend remains intact. Stakeholder demand continues to exert powerful influence beyond regulation. Clients, employees, local communities, and the media still expect measurable, verifiable ...
The EU roadmap towards nature credits: new opportunities for business and risks management
Currently, if you cut a tree, you get revenues from timber. In some cases, you can even get money when you replace it through “reforestation schemes”. If you keep it alive, allowing it to continue to capture carbon and keeping intact the larger forest ecosystem, you are not remunerated. This is what should change and what nature credits (or biodiversity credits) could make possible. Recently the ...