The stakeholder engagement process and activities

Easy, the Group’s Intranet, considered a ‘digital workplace’, provides information and serves as a tool to raise people’s awareness. The portal has been renewed thanks to the “Agile” re-design project and was released in July 2020: during the emergency, Easy has become a meeting point for all Snam people, allowing them to exchange thoughts, receive useful information and remain constantly updated.

Webinars are tools used by Snam to conduct training and information activities, during which employees can interact with each other. Among the most popular ones, the medical and scientific information webinar with Prof. Burioni to promote responsible behaviour in pandemic risk prevention and containment and the one with the CEO presenting the strategic plan are worth mentioning.

Workshops bring working groups together to discuss specific topics interactively. For example, with this tool, Snam has engaged employees to assess sustainability issues relevant to the Group in order to update the materiality matrix.

Video messages update employees on the Group’s initiatives and decisions, providing useful information for daily operations and raising awareness of relevant issues. Snam recorded seven video messages from the CEO to update and inform about the pandemic and one video message from Giovanni Albano, a Humanitas doctor working in the Covid-19 wards.

The relationship with the Trade Unions at national and local level is constant: during the year, 155 telematic meetings were held dedicated to the analysis of business development projects, the definition of productivity and profitability indicators for the 2020 Participation Bonus and smartworking methods to guarantee the protection of workers’ rights.

Snam organises numerous initiatives each year to involve employees more closely. This year, such activities were of fundamental importance in strengthening the sense of community and closeness.

• #Distantimauniti: internal engagement initiative implemented to strengthen listening and engagement activities during the pandemic. For more information see the chapter “The power of working together”.
• “Diamo forma al futuro”: support for the planning and promotion of fundraising, in collaboration with Fondazione Snam.
• Support initiatives for colleagues and families: Covid-19 policy, healthcare services, serological test/swab campaigns, smartworking support (smart kit, data SIM and tethering service), Covid-response welfare packages.
• Snamwood: forestation and environmental awareness project, aimed at planting a forest of over 3,300 trees dedicated to all Snam people, in collaboration with Arbolia. An online contest allowed colleagues to vote on the name of the forest dedicated to them.

Active since 2013, it contains Snam’s procurement policy and provides a further contribution in terms of transparency, traceability and completeness of the information provided to current and potential suppliers. As of 31 December 2020, there were 2,275 registered suppliers with very active participation.

Suppliers are constantly involved and updated on Snam’s strategies and operations through questionnaires and online workshops. In particular, 2020 saw climate change and ESG sensitivity as central themes.

Customer workshops provide an opportunity to meet and exchange views on relevant market issues, as well as an opportunity to discuss innovations and operational trends in balancing and transport, storage and regasification activities.
The year ended with three commercial workshops on the topics of transport, balancing, storage and regasification and the Ten-year Plan, four Jarvis project co-design workshops to design in line with customer expectations and a workshop dedicated to assessing sustainability issues.

Customer satisfaction survey addressed to shippers and traders and extended to Snam’s core business activities (participation rate in 2020 was 83.6%, with an average satisfaction score of 8.6 out of 10).

Snam has continued to promote dialogue with shareholders and institutional investors through 10 roadshows held in virtual format.
A total of 345 investors were met in 2020 (of which 140 ESG), up 18% on the previous year.

Snam has organised 15 sector conferences aimed at investors specialising in the utilities and infrastructure sector in order to create a meeting point and dialogue between them and Snam’s top management.

Snam, also through Fondazione Snam, is committed to involving local communities with initiatives aimed at social innovation, improving the environment and energy efficiency.
The engagement of local communities also takes place through employee engagement activities, where Snam employees themselves dedicate part of their time to the Foundation’s activities in support of local communities.

The involvement of schools is mainly through ad hoc projects, such as:

• Young Energy, project aimed at facilitating student orientation and bringing them closer to the world of work through initiatives focused on corporate business.
• Con la Scuola, a project set up by Snam in collaboration with LUISS Business School and Consorzio Elis, aimed at strengthening the link between schools and businesses, thus contributing to the renewal and evolution of schools as an organisation.

Snam works closely with business partners, with whom it creates partnerships, agreements and Memoranda of Understanding of strategic importance for business development. The main agreements signed during the year concerned the creation of infrastructures, research and feasibility studies in the area of new businesses for the energy transition .

Snam believes it is essential to maintain a constant relationship with state, regional and local administrations in order to satisfy requests for information on the company’s activities, promote the acceptability of plants in the area and submit applications to obtain the necessary authorisations for the construction of new infrastructure. In 2020, 50 meetings were held with mayors of municipalities affected by the group’s activities and 2 meetings with local farmers’ associations.

Snam maintains active relations with the Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and the Environment (ARERA) by organising meetings and technical tables, responding to consultation documents and proposals, collecting data and performing continuous monitoring of its work with respect to the Authority’s directives.

In recent years, Snam has strengthened its digital engagement activities by providing transparent, timely and truthful digital communication to all stakeholders, guaranteeing its inclusion in the Webranking podium: a ranking prepared by Lundquist, in collaboration with the Swedish company Comprend, which awarded the Group a score of 91.4 points out of 100.

Snam has adopted an integrated communication style between traditional and digital channels with an immediate language that enhances its commitment to sustainability. Among other communication initiatives, Snam has created:

• Snamcast – Talks to inspire the world: a podcast of eight episodes that aims to give voice to topics related to sustainability, talking about new energy sources, energy efficiency and energy saving, circular economy and many other ideas that generate future.
• Snam Talks: a six-episode video series that presents projects and ideas for a more sustainable future through the stories of men and women from different backgrounds, cultures and professions.
• Influencer marketing campaign with “Il Milanese Imbruttito” to publicise the advantages of natural gas mobility.

Snam works closely with other operators in the sector, especially to create an integrated European network and to continue the development of market-oriented services. At European level, Snam actively participates in technical and research tables about the role of gas in the future energy mix and on how new renewable energy operators can support the energy transition process. In this respect, Snam is a member of the following associations, among others:

• EU Clean Hydrogen Alliance, alliance launched at European level to achieve the Green Deal objectives of zero net CO₂ emissions by 2050, also thanks to the support of hydrogen.
• Oil and Gas Methane Partnership (OGMP) 2.0, organised by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
• CEO Action Group, joint statement for the European Green Deal by the World Economic Forum supporting the Green Deal as a growth strategy for Europe, in the post-Covid-19 recovery towards net-zero emissions, based on circularity, renewable energy and low-carbon industry.
• Alliance for Sustainability, an ecosystem project, in collaboration with growITup (Open Innovation platform created by Cariplo Factory in partnership with Microsoft Italy), aimed at promoting sustainable growth in Italy through digital.
• European Gas Research Group (GERG), a European research group developing research and innovation projects among European natural gas transporters. In 2020, Snam participated in the project for the detection and measurement of natural gas emissions from the gas transport system.
• European Pipeline Research Group (EPRG), a research association on pipeline issues to which the main European gas transport and pipe manufacturing companies belong. In 2020, Snam through EPRG studied the behaviour of steel used in existing pipelines in response to hydrogen injection.