In its business activities, the Generali Group aims to promote a culture of sustainability, contributing concretely to high quality economic and social development, respecting and promoting human rights in all its spheres of influence.

The Group’s sustainability strategy features four main priorities: promoting sustainable growth over time; valuing the people who work within the Group; supporting the communities in which the Group operates, supporting social, cultural and sporting initiatives; encouraging a reduction of direct and indirect environmental impact.

Since adhering to the Global Compact initiative in 2007, the Group committed itself to integrating into its policies, strategies and activities, the ten universally accepted principles relating to human rights, labour conditions, environmental protection and the fight against corruption. The sustainability measures undertaken have allowed the Group to make an important contribution towards the success of such principles within the context of and in the relations with all its stakeholders. In the second year of adherence to the Global Compact, the first annual Communication on Progress (CoP) was drafted for activities carried out in 2008.

Increased Group commitment in the various spheres of sustainability results in continuous adjustment and improvement of instruments and specific bodies.

Responsibility for sustainability on a Group level lies in the hands of the Corporate Centre General Manager and Chief Financial Officer (CFO), who chairs the Sustainability Committee, the CSR Committee in Italy and the Environmental Management System Committee.
The Sustainability Committee is a decision-making body in the Corporate Centre with control over Group sustainability issues on a global level. The Committee includes representatives from the corporate departments that are most involved in implementing social and environmental policies and also representatives from all countries where the Group has operations.
So as to improve the organization and coordination of activities in the social and environmental field, it was deemed necessary to introduce governing bodies on a national level. Recently a CSR Committee for Italy was set up. Similar committees are to be replicated in each country that is chiefly involved in the implementation of Group social and environmental policies.
In early 2009, the Eco-Committee, the Group environmental body, was reorganized thus becoming the Environmental Management System Committee to support an important international project aimed at introducing a corporate Environmental Management System (EMS). The committee comprises the Sustainability Report contacts from the main countries in which the Group operates. Following the introduction of new duties allocated to their roles in this project, said contacts have also become Corporate Centre contacts for all social responsibility issues.

The Corporate Centre includes the CSR unit that reports directly to the General Manager and CFO and coordinates all Corporate Social Responsibility activities, both within the Group and in respect of the markets, also ensuring ongoing dialogue and involvement with stakeholders. The same unit also coordinates the process of collecting information for the Sustainability Report and drafts and publishes this document in the field of Financial Reporting.