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"It is useless to negotiate the flexibility of budget rules: we need to favour the liquidity of the capital held by Italian households and, at European level, an agreement for investments is needed". This was the claim made by Lucrezia Reichlin today at the conference "Resilience and innovation: a strategy for business and the community", organised by the HERA Group to present its Sustainability Report. The well-known Italian economist, a professor at the London Business School, took on the topic of the Eurozone's weak recovery, touching on Italy's traditional delays in innovation, efficiency and investments, which hinder the creation of conditions favourable to sustainable economic development.

Sustainability was the real focus of the meeting, which throughout the morning featured the participation of important institutional, economic and academic experts. Presentations were given by, aside from the Group's top management, amongst others, Angelo Rughetti (Under-Secretary of State for Public Administration and Simplification), Valentina Orioli (Councillor for Urban Planning and Environment for the Municipality of Bologna), Francesco Ubertini (Rector of the University of Bologna), Gian Carlo Muzzarelli (Mayor of Modena) and Riccardo Illy (Chairman of the Illy Group).

Two words at the very heart of these reflections - resilience and innovation - were used as a basis from which to comprehend the contribution that a multiutility company like Hera can make to the system of the communities it serves and to new development models, made even more urgent by the scenario outlined by Professor Reichlin. In this sense, positive signs emerge from the Sustainability Report of the Group, which in 2015 alone transferred over Euro 1.65 billion in wealth to the areas it serves, performing a fundamental countercyclical function in favour of the local economies, which is even more important considering the significant slowdown in GDP reported by ISTAT in its August monthly report. "If we look at the Group's entire history, from 2002 until today," said Stefano Venier, Hera's CEO, "investments exceed Euro 5 billion: this means that every resident served has received a significant structural contribution in his or her community". On the same wavelength, Chairman Tomaso Tommasi di Vignano also recalled the multiutility company's commitment to promoting and protecting considerable levels of employment: "The Group has more than 8,500 direct employees," he specified, "and in addition to them, there are more than 5,600 jobs created downstream".

At the same time, Hera, defined by Reichlin as "an experience of success in a context of crisis", continues to improve its environmental and energy performance, anticipating important European objectives for 2025 (on the recycling of packaging, already at 66%) and 2030 (on the reduction of landfill use, which has declined to 8.6%), with separated collection rising to 55.4% and electricity production from renewable sources exceeding 70%. Confirming its dedication to local development, with more than Euro 127 million invested in the water sector alone in 2015, the Group is increasingly becoming a "healthy carrier of resilience", capable of transmitting its efficiencies to the system in which it is integrated.

This is good news for everyone, but especially for the cities served by the multiutility company, seven of which are in the top 30 in Italy due to their level of innovation. This ranking was compiled by EY based on research conducted on 116 provincial capital municipalities and presented during the conference by Francois De Brabant, EY Senior Advisor. Analysing the strengths of the areas in which the HERA Group operates, the study highlighted the contribution its services have made to the development of smart cities. Based on a precise survey of innovation initiatives carried out, using the Smart City Index methodology, the study points to the excellent results achieved by Bologna (1st), Modena (8th), Ravenna (10th), Padua (14th), Forlì (18th), Ferrara (19th) and Rimini (21st), while Udine (31st), Trieste (46th) and Pesaro (50th) also performed well.Hera's contribution makes a difference primarily through waste collection and water cycle management, but it has also had important effects in terms of energy efficiency, smart building (with cogeneration and district heating systems) and renewable energies, without overlooking the 1,250 km of fibre optics available to Hera through the company Acantho.