The mainstays of our strategy
Circular economy and energy transition are the key elements in our strategy, which guarantees our long-term solidity, integrating business targets with those of sustainability.
- Business model
- Business Units
- Market role
- Numbers
Our business model
Life Company: our role in society
For us at A2A, the concept of Life Company is not a slogan but fully reflects what we are and what, each day, we achieve with concrete action. Being a Life Company represents our common goal: to achieve a sustainable quality of life where we live, for the environment and for the people, by means of a radical change in perspective. Because clean energy can be infinite when we generate it from the sun, from water and from the wind. Because, for us, waste does not exist, only resources: everything can be regenerated and recycled so as to create new energy and new materials.
Our business model, unique in the panorama of Italy’s energy and utilities, is a strongpoint in the generation of shared value. Our diversified activities enable us to achieve chain synergies in the sectors where we are present (energy, waste, water cycle), creating real models of ecological transition.
Our presence in key sectors for people’s daily lives determines an increasing commitment to making our results measurable. In fact, we pay constant attention to ESG (environmental, social, governance) criteria, in a logic of integration between economic, social and environmental aspects in the company’s decision-making processes, in the definition of strategy, in governance and in the definition of our business model.
UN 2030 Agenda: our “Decade of action”
With our Strategic Plan, we undertake to achieve 11 of the Sustainable Development Goals set out in the UN 2030 Agenda.
The six capitals that support our services
Following the logic of “capitals”, we can outline our value creation processes.
- Financial Capital: the economic resources used in production processes
- Manufacturing Capital: all of the real estate, plant and machinery for the production of our services
- Natural Capital: environmental processes and resources
- Human Capital: the skills and experience of A2A’s workforce
- Intellectual Capital: our know-how and intellectual competence
- Engagement Capital: sharing of values and relations with stakeholders with the purpose of increasing collective well-being
Our organization: Digital Plan & People Strategy
People, skills and digitalization: these are the elements which enable us to achieve excellence in our work. We do so with:
- a People Strategy, aiming to improve the well-being and constantly develop the skills of those who work at A2A
- a new Digital Plan, which simplifies and ensures high standards in every corporate process
Our business units
The activity of the Generation and Trading Business Unit is related to the management of the generation plants portfolio(1) of the Group with the dual purpose of maximizing the availability and efficiency of the plants, minimizing operating and maintenance costs (O&M) and maximizing the profit deriving from the management of the energy portfolio through the purchase and sale of electricity and fuels (gaseous and non-gaseous) and environmental certificated on domestic and international wholesale markets.
This Business Unit also includes the activity of trading on domestic and foreign markets of all energy commodities (gas, electricity, environmental certificates).
(1) Total install ed capacity of 9.2 GW.
The activities of the Market Business Unit are aimed at the retail sale of electricity and natural gas to customers in the free market and sale to customers served under protection scheme. Furthermore, it deals with providing energy efficiency and electric mobility services.
The activities of the Waste Business Unit relates to the management of the integrated waste cycle, which ranges from collection and street sweeping to the treatment, disposal and recovery of materials and energy.
In particular, collection and street sweeping mainly refers to street cleaning and the collection of waste for transportation to its destination.
Instead, waste treatment is an activity that is carried out in dedicated centers to convert waste in order to make it suitable for the recovery of materials.
Disposal of urban and special waste in combustion plants or landfills ensures the possible recovery of energy through waste-to-energy or the use of biogas.
The Waste Business Unit includes the activities carried out abroad for the provision of know-how and technologies for the realization of waste pre-treatment plants.
The Smart Infrastructures Business Unit develops and manages the infrastructures functional to the wide range of services provided by the Group, focusing on technology and innovation.
In particular, the Business Unit’s activity mainly concerns the development and technical-operational management of electricity distribution networks, natural gas transport and distribution networks and the related metering service, characterized by important technological evolutions thanks to the use of smart meters. It manages the entire integrated water cycle (water collection, aqueduct management, water distribution, sewerage management, purification). The activity is also aimed at the sale of heat and electricity produced by cogeneration plants (mostly owned by the Group), through district heating networks and ensures the operation and maintenance of cogeneration plants and district heating networks. Also included are the activities related to the management services for heating plants owned by third parties (heat management services).
The Smart Infrastructures Business Unit also develops infrastructures in the field of telecommunications, designs solutions and applications aimed at creating new models of cities and territories and improving the quality of life of citizens.
It should be noted that from January 2021, the Business Unit develops and manages public lighting and traffic regulation systems; finally, it builds and manages a network of recharging infrastructures functional to the electrification of transport.
Corporate services include the activities of guidance, strategic direction, coordination and control of industrial operations, as well as services to support the business and operating activities (e.g. administrative and accounting services, legal services, procurement, personnel management, information technology, communications, landline and mobile telephone service etc.) whose costs, net of amounts recovered from accrual to individual Business Units based on services rendered, remain the responsibility of the Corporate.
Our market role
From multiutility to Life Company, through ambitious goals of growth and sustainability
The ecological transition which is at the core of our investment strategy to 2035 not only responds to the targets set by the Recovery Plan or by the European Union. It is, above all, crucial for the future improvement of the quality of life of us all.
The objectives of our Strategic Plan are already, today, very clear and well formulated. Since our evolution from multi-utility to Life Company began, we have been playing a leading role in Italy’s energy market, with a series of initiatives and an ambitious cycle of investments.
These are the results that we have achieved in Italy in 2023:
In the sphere of the circular economy, we rank first for:
- the treatment of urban waste, in terms of tonnes of waste processed
- the recovery of energy from urban waste, in terms of GWh of energy recovered
- district heating, in terms of m3 of volume heated
As regards the energy transition, we rank second for:
- volumes of electricity sales
- electricity distributed
- generation, in terms of total installed capacity
- installed capacity from renewable sources (hydroelectric, wind, solar and bioenergies)
Our numbers
To invest in the future, a solid base is needed
For us at A2A, the financial performance and positive results achieved represent the solid base from which we can set out on our pathway to external growth and the broadening of our role in the sphere of the energy transition and the circular economy.
