Because the greener companies will see exports explode. Sace report
Green companies prove to be more constant than non-green ones also in terms of presence on international markets. What emerges from the recent report by the Sace research department
The relaunch of the main western economies after the Covid19 storm passes through strategic plans such as the Build Back Agenda for the USA and the Next Generation EU (NGEU) for the European economies. In Italy, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) is the tool through which the Government, relying on NGEU resources, aims to overcome the main structural weaknesses that have historically held back the potential of the national economy.
The PNRR: focus on competitiveness
The Plan is developed around three strategic axes, digitization and innovation , ecological transition and social inclusion and is divided into six Missions: digitization, innovation, competitiveness, culture and tourism, green revolution and ecological transition, infrastructures for sustainable mobility, education and research, inclusion and cohesion and health. Investments will be all the more profitable the more they are diverted to competitive areas of the production system.
Sustainability: from ethics to profit
The latest SACE report “ Back to the future: anatomy of a post-pandemic recovery ” argues that environmental sustainability is no longer just a question of ethics, but increasingly a lever for the competitiveness of businesses . According to a survey carried out in 2020 by the Tagliacarne-Unioncamere Study Center on 3 thousand manufacturing companies, "companies that have invested in processes and / or products with greater energy savings and / or less environmental impact show a greater propensity to export: a company green out of two exports, while for non-green companies this ratio is one to three ".
Greener, more international
Green companies prove to be more constant than non-green ones also in terms of presence on international markets . "Among the exporting companies, the regular ones, that is not occasional ones (that is, which have always exported from 2017 to 2021 inclusive) are more frequent in the case of eco-investing companies – continues the report -. Added to this is the higher capacity of green companies to export to more markets, with an average of 22 destination countries against 17 for non-green exporting companies ".
Green investments a stable commitment over time
Furthermore, exporting companies are more committed to the strategy of investments in ecological transition than non-exporting ones. In fact, according to the data of the report, not only is the share of those that have already invested in green in the 2017-19 three-year period higher for companies that export (17% vs 11%), but the share of companies that they have already invested in green in the past three years and will also invest in the three year period 2021-23 (18% among exporters vs 11% among non-exporters).
Sustainability pays off
The reasons for the greater green orientation of exporting companies are many. These include an international demand formed by consumers and companies increasingly attentive to the sustainability of products "from the raw materials used at their recycling rate, passing through the sustainability of the processes by which they were created". It is also why companies investing in environmental sustainability have not only a greater international openness, but also a greater propensity for exports: the share of foreign sales to total revenue in the case of green companies is higher than six percen-tuali points compared to non-green businesses. The export performance of green companies is also better "the share of these, which declares an increase in exports in 2021, is higher than that of non-green companies". The report notes that the green component drives both internationalization , that is the ability to export, as well as the strengthening of the presence on foreign markets measured as regularity of presence and propensity to export. It is no coincidence that exporting companies are the ones most inclined to focus on the green to increase their competitiveness, also aware of the risks that climate change represents for their company and society more generally.
A support for the green turning point since the fourth industrial revolution
Another factor driving green investments comes from technologies. According to data from the Tagliacarne-Unioncamere Study Center, there is a strong relationship between 4.0 technologies and openness to exports . The most modern technologies, in fact, reduce distances, favor the acquisition of information, speed up decision-making processes and allow “tailor-made” productions with respect to sudden changes in demand. In this sense, exporting companies show that they have a higher inclination towards the adoption of technologies related to Industry 4.0 . Specifically, companies that have invested in both environmental sustainability and Industry 4.0 ("green & digital companies") are more widespread among exporting companies than non-exporting ones.
Green exporting companies: large and young
The Sace report found that green exporting companies are more concentrated in the medium-large size class (25% are in the 50-499 employees class, against 10% of non-green exporting companies and 3% of non-exporting ones. ), in the North (71% vs 67% and 58%) and in sectors with high or medium-high technological intensity (33% vs 28% and 12%). In addition to being older on average, they are also younger on average . Firms whose ownership is in the hands of under 35s show a slightly greater propensity to export than those led by older management. Green exporting companies have a greater share of cases in which there is parity of gender representation within management, thus highlighting the "strength of the mix". Finally, green exporting companies see a slightly higher presence of family-owned companies, and among these the best positioned are those with management outside the family. Another case in which resorting to the "mix" between tradition and innovation pays off.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/perche-le-imprese-piu-green-vedranno-esplodere-lexport-report-sace/ on Mon, 27 Sep 2021 04:08:44 +0000.