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The project for an incorporation of Megas.Net and Marche Multiservizi (MMS), the largest multi-utility in the Marche region and part of the Hera Group (which currently holds 49.59% of MMS), has now become reality. Today, indeed, the two companies' Shareholders Meetings approved, in an extraordinary session, the project for a merger by incorporation of Megas.Net into Marche Multiservizi. The merger, which had already been given the go-ahead by the majority of the town councils of the two companies' Municipality shareholders and by trade unions, complies with the regulatory indications provided by legislative decree 175/2016 (so-called "Madia decree"). Above all, however, it represents a strategic operation for the area in question, allowing a range of objectives to be reached, including enhanced service efficiency, expense rationalisation and a more consolidated MMS. The final act of this corporate operation will see the stipulation of a deed of merger, after the amount of time required by law as of the shareholders meetings' resolutions. When the operation is concluded, public shareholders will hold roughly 55% of the share capital of Marche Multiservizi. MMS_Megas_870 press_release.1533042727.pdf 2018-07-31 Read more MMS_Megas870.1520433311.1533042726.png Today, the two companies' Shareholders Meetings approved, in an extraordinary session, the project for merger by incorporation of Megas.Net into Marche Multiservizi mms_megas110.1520433314.1533042728.png

Potentialpark_110 "In an increasingly competitive and challenging context, we need to know how to adapt continuously in order to attract talents that allow the company to keep up with the times - commented Giancarlo Campri, Central Director of Personnel and Organization of the Hera Group. That is why we are particularly pleased with Potentialpark's recognition, and it confirms that we have chosen the right direction. Both inside and outside the company we have always tried to promote two-way communication that is focused on the Group's values, on its growth objectives and on how we can achieve them. Personnel development is one of the levers to achieve these results and explaining what we do, through forms of storytelling and employer branding, is instrumental not just to promote the company, but to get in touch with people that can add value and contribute to our growth." Giancarlo Campri 20180307_CS_Potentialpark_Hera_ENG_REV_DEF.1533304694.pdf 2018-08-03 Related contents campri.1534241219.jpg Again this year, the renowned Swedish research company Potentialpark has included the multi-utility among the most "talent-friendly" companies, thanks to its online communication aimed at young graduates looking for their first job sinistra Potentialpark_110

toputility110 Achieving excellence in any field or industry is no easy feat, doing so year after year even less so. Yet this is exactly what the Hera Group has succeeded in doing at the sixth edition of Top Utility Analysis, which declared the Bologna-based Group to be Italy's most eco-sustainable public service company out of 100 contenders. The report, drawn up by independent company Althesys, rewarded Hera for its"attention to efficient use of energy and resources, improved corporate social responsibility results and the centrality of sustainability to its strategy". This acknowledgement - a repeat of the recognition obtained in the same area in 2015 - follows the Top Utility Absolute award received in 2013 and the Top Utility Communication award of 2014. A shared goal throughout the company, sustainability is the subject of a specific yearly report that ensures all parties can count on complete up-to-the-minute information on the Group's social and environmental impact. The sustainability report is constantly evolving. Following last year's introduction of an indicator showing what proportion of gross operating margin is generated by activities that respond to UN Global Agenda 2030 goals, next year will see an in-depth overhaul to ensure ever-more effective representation of the direct links between actions taken and the contribution to sustainable development. A clear example of this takes the form of the biomethane plant being built at Sant'Agata Bolognese, expected to come on line in the last quarter of 2018. It has been cited by the Global Compact as a world-class example of how to achieve UN Agenda goal n. 7 ("Clean, accessible energy"). Once fully operational, the use of innovative anaerobic digestion and upgrading technologies will allow the facility to produce 20,000 tons of high-quality natural fertiliser and 8 million cubic metres of biomethane (a 100% renewable fuel) from the separate collection of organic waste every year. This is a major project that aims to convert and modernise an existing facility without taking up any more land. It will save over 6,000 tons of oil a year and provide tangible proof that sustainability is, indeed, the way forward. A way forward that starts with families, by collecting and using their kitchen scraps (i.e. the separated organic waste) and ends with real local benefits in the form of a gas that can, for example, power private vehicles or public transport, with immediate improvements in air quality. While that's just one of many examples of how Hera efficiently blends innovation with sustainable development (a wider set of activities was assessed by the survey), it does, perhaps, best represent how the Group's commitment to sustainability translates into a variety of sound initiatives which positively impact quality of life. toputility870 press_release.1519659248.pdf 2018-02-26 Read more toput870.1519659328.png The Hera Group comes out on top again at the sixth edition of the Award, which analyses and promotes the performance levels of the country's main public utility companies toputility110

petisland110 For the Hera Group, sustainability continues to be synonymous with art. Through Aliplast, the Group company that puts plastic through a treatment process that allows its reutilisation, Hera has, fact, provided the raw material with which artist Matteo Peretti created the works that make up PET Island, an exhibition being held at Fabbrica Arte Rimini (FAR) from 17 February to 2 April. The technical sponsor of Peretti's exhibition, Aliplast, engages, every day, in the fight against the pollution that has created the vast island of plastic floating in the Pacific Ocean. It is this island that the title of the Roman artist's exhibition half-jokingly refers to. In this sense, the perception of public duty behind Peretti's work, which examines the collective and social aspects of the subject matter, immediately won favour with the Hera Group, itself engaged in environmental education projects involving some 100,000 students from local schools. With this initiative the multiutility aims to restate its own distinctive commitment to the circular economy; for some time now, this has involved significant initiatives aimed at involving the art world in the regeneration of materials that would otherwise be headed for disposal. One such initiative is the SCART project, which, thanks to close collaboration between Waste Recycling (another Group company) and students from the Fine Art Academies of Bologna and Florence, has generated several events; these include a travelling exhibition consisting of works made entirely from waste, some of which were incorporated on Hera's stands during the most recent editions of the Rimini-held Ecomondo fair. petislan870 20180215_press_release.1519198486.pdf 2018-02-21 Read more pet870.1519198485.png This Hera Group company, a leader in the plastic recycling sector, provided the material for the artist's works, on show from 17 February to 2 April at Fabbrica Arte in Rimini petisland110

topemployers110 For the ninth consecutive year, the Hera Group has confirmed its position as a leader in Human Resources management. This acknowledgement comes from the Holland-based Top Employers Institute which has, since 1991, been researching workplace quality standards in the world's leading companies. According to the Dutch institute, the Hera Group proved to be deserving of "Top Employer" certification on account of "the excellent working conditions enjoyed by employees, a training and development policy that reaches every level of the company and advanced HR management strategies", all of which make Hera "committed to continuous improvement of policies and best practices". Today, Top Employers is a highly sought-after international acknowledgement. The certification process, which has, over the years, become ever-stricter, is based on analysis of objective data and in-depth checks. Key analysis parameters include investment in training and development, welfare and on-boarding policies for new hires, careful planning of selection processes and career paths, targeted talent-growing strategies, a positive corporate culture and an exciting, constructive workplace. Only those companies that achieve the required standards can be listed as Top Employers. In Italy, some 90 companies have been certified this year. These include the Hera Group (the first multiutility to take part in the project, from 2010 onwards), one of just 11 companies to attain uninterrupted recognition. More specifically, the company stood out on account of the "Hextra" integrated corporate welfare plan; set up in July 2016 and covering almost all the Group's 9,000 employees, it is also characterized by a quota of resources that can be "customised" by individual workers to suit their needs. Moreover, as of 2018 employees can convert their results bonuses into further welfare benefits: measures for striking a better work-life balance (smart working, leave/absence management policies and support when returning to the company), development policies and programmes aimed at raising every employee's level of health and safety awareness. What's more, the Group is one of the top Italian companies when it comes to investing in employee training and personal/professional development (it provides about 29 training hours per capita per year). Training experiences have been made more engaging and effective thanks to HerAcademy, the Corporate University that ensures close collaboration between companies and key academic institutions; moreover, 2017 saw the introduction of new, more personalised ways of getting the best out of training as part of the HER@futura programme. The company's heavy investment in training and its ties with the local communities where it operates are also evident in the Hera Educational programme. The latter focuses on providing students with work experience that aims to merge corporate skills with skills acquired in the secondary schools of Emilia-Romagna. Over 200 work experience programmes have been completed since 2015 and the project will soon be extended to schools in Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. The full Hera Group profile, with the reasons and criteria behind the certification, can be consulted at: www.topemployers.it topemployer870 press_release.1519658204.pdf 2018-02-26 Read more topemp870.1519658203.png The multiutility confirms its position as a leader in Human Resources management. The working conditions enjoyed by its employees are recognised as nothing less than excellent, as are training and development policies at every corporate level and continuous improvements to best practices topemployers110

CEO_logo110 The Hera Group – Italy’s second operator in the water sector, with 300 million m3 of water sold and 3.6 million citizens served – now endorses the CEO Water Mandate, the United Nations Global Compact initiative promoted to re-launch the commitment shown by companies to a sustainable management of water resources. Active for years in all areas in which the CEO Water Mandate supports interventions, Hera is the second Italian company to endorse it, after Enel, thus joining over 100 companies distributed across the globe, including Veolia, Suez, Engie and E.On. The CEO Water Mandate, more specifically, indicates an approach to water services that is subdivided into six focus areas, to which the Group fully adheres. They begin with measures concerning a company’s direct use of water and continue with those involving the supply chain, with a further focus area centred around collective action, intended to incentivise collaborations with third parties and thus consolidate good practices. Another focus goes to public policy, to promote sustainable water management in public debate, develop knowledge on the topic and encourage activities related to sector associations. The CEO Water Mandate, furthermore, gives significant value to community engagement, inviting companies to operate in this sense by developing water infrastructures and environmental education initiatives. Specific attention, finally, goes to the issue of transparency, to orient companies towards accurate financial reporting as regards their progress in reaching essential objectives, such as those tied to water. After recently becoming part of the CE100, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation program that brings together the world’s 100 organisations most active in the transition towards a circular economy, and after launching its collaboration with the Global Compact Network Italia, Hera now intends to endorse the CEO Water Mandate. This will confirm the international scope of its operations, which for some time now – as recorded in its sustainability report – have fully respected the path set out by the European Union and the UN’s 2030 Global Agenda. The water sector, moreover, is the area in which Hera has always concentrated the majority of its investments, coming to over 110 million per year – on average – over the last five years. This allows the Group to maintain an over 53,000 km network in good conditions, along with roughly 900 production and purification plants, providing all with safe and affordable drinking water, as guaranteed by over 2,000 analyses per day, and successfully dealing with periods of serious drought, such as the one seen in 2017. One of the strong points of Hera’s integrated water service consists in its orientation towards innovation, turning to avant-garde technological solutions based on automation and remote control of networks and plants in order to guarantee a continuous supply and ensure that leakage in its networks remains among the lowest nationwide. This is the context that saw, for example, the implementation of a technique involving satellite research on water leakage that Hera, the first in Italy to do so, developed in collaboration with the Israeli company Utilis, substantially increasing the amount of water recovered. In a collaboration with the National Health Institute, furthermore, Hera is implementing the Water Safety Plans, European protocols for monitoring all phases of the drinking water production and distribution supply chain. "The challenges involved in water resources must be considered on a global scale", states Stefano Venier, Hera Group CEO. "This is why Hera intends to continue giving shape to its efforts according to the framework set out by the United Nations. In this sense", Venier adds, "the CEOWater Mandate represents a valid tool for activation with which companies all over the world can identify, and come together for the future of the planet. After all", concludes the multi-utility's CEO, "Hera has long been active in all of the focus areas indicated by the mandate, demonstrating its ability to anticipate many of the orientations that the international community has rightly chosen." CEO Water Mandate press_release.1517301518.pdf 2018-01-30 Read more CEO Water Mandate The second Italian company to do so, Hera thus confirms its own orientation towards the objectives set out in the UN's 2030 Agenda, re-launching its commitment to a sustainable water resource management, which in the areas served is worth over 110 million in investments per year https://ceowatermandate.org/ https://www.unglobalcompact.org/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZbpzCTnCqE /group_eng/sustainability/thematic-reports/in-good-waters CEO Water Mandate website UN Global Compact website Video - Curcular economy - Stefano Venier meets Ellen MacArthur Report in good water centrata CEO_logo110

Scart_bo_110 Art works made from waste take their place beneath the Two Towers. From tomorrow until 18 February, the splendid setting of Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande will be hosting "SCART il lato bello e utile del rifiuto", an exhibition organised by Hera Group which brings together works by artists and students from the Fine Arts Academies of Bologna and Florence. For its Bologna visit, the entire exhibition is crowned by a giant 5-metre tall Pinocchio made by Edoardo Malagigi from thousands of old wooden Pinocchio dolls. Angela Nocentini, together with Malagigi, is the coordinator of the installation "Business Wo/men", a group work by the students of the Academies composed of fourteen life-size sculptures of business men and women. Each statue is 100% made from waste materials such as strips of leather, paper, safety belts, frozen pea packages, scraps of fabric, glass, wood and flakes of recycled plastic. The models on which the students created the artworks were made by Nocentini herself, who on Art City White Night on Saturday 3 February will be making the fifteenth model for the installation live. "Waste Anatomy", which is the title of her performance, will begin at 6 pm and involve all those present. On that particularly day, the exhibition can be visited from 10 am to midnight. The exhibition is completed by four wolves by Alberto Salvetti, assembled from tape, paper, wire, bitumen and especially from newspaper pages reporting news about the dispersion of the wolf. [block]div:row-fluid::db:hr_press_comunicazione::box:94[/block] Scart_BO_870 20180129_Con_Scart_in_Bologna.1534756168.pdf 2018-08-20 Read more IMG_20180129_WA0009.1534757655.jpg After Ravenna, Imola, Modena, Udine and Pisa, the travelling exhibition of Hera Group comes to the city tomorrow, to coincide with Arte Fiera. Until 18 February, works made out of waste by young artists can be viewed free of charge at Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande. On Saturday at 6 pm, a performance by Angela Nocentini Scart_bo_110

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Hera Group have finalised a € 110 million financing contract intended to support the 2017-2021 development program of this Italian multi-utility, listed on the Milan stock exchange. Through this loan, the European bank chose in particular to finance 19 projects involved in the waste cycle that are in line with EU directives and foresee interventions in various regions of Italy. 50% of the cost of these projects, coming in turn to roughly € 227 million, will thus be covered by financing from the EIB. More specifically, the line of credit will be destined to further improvements in the performance of Hera's waste management services, above all by increasing the amount of sorted waste, as indicated in the regional objectives set out by the areas serves, but also by Herambiente, the Hera Group company that is a nationwide leader in waste treatment, recycling and recovery. The Group aims at increasing the efficiency of its own processes to a greater extent, and improving the sustainability standards of its set of plants, whose emissions are, moreover, already far below the limits set by law. With this financing, which falls within EIB policies, new resources will therefore be made available in the transition towards the model of a circular economy, a transition to which Hera has long contributed, as is shown by its entry as part of the CE100, the program promoted by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation that brings together the 100 most active figures in this field worldwide. An additional positive element, furthermore, lies in the satellite activities and the consequences in employment which, over the period in which the Hera Group's multi-year investment plan is put into effect, are believed to help reinforce growth in the economies of the areas concerned. The operation provides the Hera Group with an important contribution to the consolidation of its own financial structure and follows up on the collaboration set into place over time between the EIB and the Group: four other operations (concerning investments in waste management and networks) have in fact been signed by the EIB and Hera in recent years, amounting to over € 700 million. Hera_870 press_release.1532967070.pdf 2018-07-30 Related contents sede_Gruppo_Hera_4505.1516717240.1532967068.jpg The loan is destined to support investments in the environment area, with the aim of introducing innovative projects to help further increase the percentage of sorted waste and the efficiency of treatment and recovery plants sede_Gruppo110.1516717243.1532967072.jpg