3. Governance and sustainable business development

Social responsibility, corporate citizenship and sustainability are an integral part of Snam’s governance and corporate culture, and represent the key components of its business development and value creation model, which incorporates respect for people, the environment and the entire community.

Therefore, within Snam’s sustainable development model, its corporate governance serves to facilitate the creation of value for shareholders, while also accommodating the interests of the Company’s various stakeholders. This takes place through the identification of activities covering guidelines for strategy and business coordination and for the management control system. These activities contribute in a specific way to determining the best conditions in which Snam can interact with its environment, ensuring oversight of issues of mutual interest and compliance with both external and internal rules. In this context, Snam promotes constructive dialogue, both within and outside of the Company, with its stakeholders, with the ultimate aim of orienting its actions towards the creation of shared value.

Its corporate management processes are based on the principles set out by the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the fundamental conventions of the ILO and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. Snam highlights its commitment to these issues through its adherence to the UN Global Compact, the most important international sustainability initiative in the world, which aims to promote and disseminate 10 ethical principles concerning human rights, the environment, workers’ rights and anti-corruption. Finally, the commitment for a sustainable development is also reflected in environmental protection as part of the Company policies. Therefore, Snam intends let environmental and economic development coexist by protecting, in the same time, the territory.

In order to present the value created and the sustainability of its business transparently alongside its operating results, in 2015 Snam developed an integrated reporting model for financial and non-financial data and information, in accordance with the framework proposed by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC). This model is described in the ‘Report on Operations’ section of the Financial Report.

With regard to reporting, Snam continues to publish its Sustainability Report, drawn up in accordance with the GRI-G4 guidelines, since this is considered an important tool for managing the sustainability process and communicating with stakeholders. The Sustainability Report is approved by Snam’s Board of Directors⁷.