OMTRA is the first Benefit Corporation of Lainate! It has been announced by
Lainate Notizie, which is the magazine that shares the news to the citizens. Lainate is strategically located between Milan and Malpensa International Airport, which makes it an ideal place for OMTRA's operational office.
"We are happy to be part of the community and very proud to have set this record" says Giorgio Spadoni, CEO of OMTRA "Our goal is to be an example for other companies. We hope that in the future the number of Benefit Societies will increase and that this will be reflected in the quality of services provided to the community and the attention paid to society and the environment."
Dont' miss the translated article below!
FEBRUARY 2022
LAINATE NEWS
HAPPENING IN THE CITY page 27
A concrete commitment for the planet and for the community:
OMTRA IS THE FIRST BENEFIT CORPORATION IN LAINATE!
From mid-November 2021, the Lainate (Milano) company OMTRA has officially become a Benefit Corporation (SB, or Società Benefit in Italian). This classification is for companies that aim to integrate business with social goals and environmental impacts. These companies must commit themselves to safeguard the planet and the community with concrete changes to their bylaws and statutes.
Thus OMTRA a leader in Italy for the archiving/storage and the certified destruction of paper and electronic material, with over 65 years of history, is among the first Italian companies, and the first ever in its field to take this step.
The origin of Benefit Corporations is relatively recent. It was in 2006 when this legal business model began to emerge in the United States. The first Benefit Corporation in Italy dates back only to 2016. This was the first time this status was attributed to a company that also uses profit as a tool for the creation of social value. In Italy, the phenomenon is rapidly growing, especially after an extraordinary and complicated year like 2020, with over 900 companies registered by April 2021, 316 of them in Lombardy alone. The pandemic has changed the order of priorities and triggered a strong process of change.
The fact that the city of Lainate now has its first example gives hope that it is only the beginning... and that others follow the example.
OMTRA was founded in Milan on the intuition of Silvio Spadoni to manage logistics innovation for international companies. Since 1956, it has been at the service of various sectors including law firms, multinationals, insurance companies, banks and government agencies. Although time has passed, the company’s management has remained family-run, passing into the hands of Silvio’s son Giorgio and, later, his granddaughter Giovanna, who have carried on the work with passion, expanding the business.
Some examples of activities?
They range from digital transformation, to physical and digital archiving, but also storage vaults for photos, historical documents, books and computer equipment, self-service storage, sustainability strategy and reporting... all certified and using US software, procedures and standards. Doing good things for the territory has been a concrete commitment for OMTRA for years (which it has now formalized by becoming a Benefit Corporation) by hiring, training and accompanying people with socioeconomic difficulties toward paths of autonomy and reaffirmation. This is a way to give back a piece of its value to the community.
Benefit Corporations: what does it mean?
Benefit Corporations (B-Corps) are companies that are concretely committed to creating a positive impact on society and the environment. Social responsibility and environmental sustainability are such important values for the company that they become goals, part of the corporate purpose. Benefit Corporations, in fact, do not only act to satisfy the economic interests of the main stakeholders (such as partners and shareholders), but they set a goal to contribute to the well-being of the community and the environment.
By law, Benefit Corporations must be transparent, by attaching and publishing an environmental and social impact report together with the company’s financial reports, in which they state the objectives achieved, those not achieved and those to pursue in the following year.
In Benefit Corporations, the typical values of the profit logic are accompanied by the ethical principles of environmental sustainability, such as attention to renewable energy sources and the reduction of waste; and social goals, such as gender equality and inclusion. Therefore, these are still for-profit companies with a business model that reconciles the search for profit and the creation of a shared and continuous value for the environment and for people at their core.
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Disclaimer: The title of “Benefit Corporation” in this article refers to an Italian legal and business classification, not to be confused with the American “B-Corp” certification. OMTRA also intends to become an American B-Corp certified corporation in the future.
Credits: Lainate Notizie