Cefriel, a digital innovation center founded by the Politecnico di Milano over thirty years ago, has become a Benefit Corporation, including the “common benefit” in its corporate purpose and thus validating its constitutive mission, i.e., contributing to generate a positive impact on society, the Country system, and the environment through digital innovation.

Through the benefit corporation model, introduced in Italy in 2016, companies that join this model are committed to pursuing one or more common benefit purposes and to working in a responsible, sustainable, and transparent way towards people, communities, territories, as well as the environment, cultural and social assets and activities, bodies and associations, and other stakeholders.

“Cefriel has been always supporting companies and public bodies in starting digital innovation paths based on knowledge sharing, based on sustainability principles, and aimed at promoting development, growth, and widespread well-being” – Stefano Venturi, President of Cefriel, says.

To be Benefit Corporations, organizations are evaluated within 5 areas, i.e., governance, people, community, environment, and customers. Also, they must draw up an annual impact report to describe both their implemented actions and their future commitments. The common benefit purposes that Cefriel intends to pursue concern the fields related to people, communities, the environment, and customers.

“We believe in the value of the impact generated by innovation and digital transformation for the development and growth of Communities and the Country System,” Alfonso Fuggetta, CEO and Scientific Director of Cefriel, says. “We are committed to developing formal and informal networks to reduce the digital divide and foster knowledge exchange between the public sector, the private sector, and citizens, in order to offer equal opportunities to different sized businesses.”

Cefriel will be committed to investing in people by leveraging the aspects of inclusion and achievement of collective and individual well-being, stimulating employee involvement and continuous growth, encouraging continuous learning while adapting it to different individual needs and experiences.

Our commitments for social and environmental sustainability are not of secondary importance, too. They can be respected by focusing on research and the study of new digital solutions and technologies that can allow pollution reduction, also through the participation – as a Research Body – in research and innovation projects and initiatives at a national and international level, as defined by the European Commission.

“We believe – Fuggetta continues – in the value generated by the capability to understand business and customer needs as well as in the sharing of the acquired knowledge. We have always been working as an independent third party, building inside the organizations the necessary skills to innovate, so to improve people’s ecological footprint and the quality of their working life, too, because we are convinced that this can represent an important contribution to the entire Country system”.

Cefriel’s next step will be the B-Corp certification that measures the company’s corporate performance according to the B-Impact Assessment standards and is recognized all over the world.

We wrote and published the 2023 Impact Report that shows Cefriel’s attention and commitment to achieving the defined goals of common benefit. In particular, Cefriel will be committed to investing in its people from both an inclusion and collective and individual well-being perspective, by stimulating their engagement and continuous growth, and fostering continuous training according to different needs and experiences. Not of secondary importance, Cefriel is committed to social and environmental sustainability benefits, by focusing all our energies on researching and studying new digital technologies and solutions, in order to reduce the impact of economic activities on the environment and society.