Crediti di Impatto Sociale: un quadro introduttivo.

Businesses are nowadays facing profound transformations in the way they carry their business activity. Today, any decision should take into account not just the company’s requirements and the costumers’ wants, but also the long-term interest of consumers and society. This is an imperative suggested by the Stakeholder Theory, which clarifies that a business differentiating between the value delivered to its stakeholders is destined to failure. Business’ stakeholders could be classified under three main categories, the Triple Bottom Line: society, environment and economy. For each category, a variety of tools and instruments is available for the businesses, to support them improve their social, environmental, or economic sustainability. Carbon credits are a great example of an effective tool that is aiding companies to reach net zero emissions gradually, with a positive impact on the environmental area. However, little importance is given to the social impact, which is merely often defined as a “co-benefit” to the environmental impact. Hence, this paper has two main purposes: 1. To deepen the reasons behind the limitations to implement a “Social Impact Credits” system, that could benefit the social area through companies’ investments. 2. To suggest new solutions that make use of technological innovation to fill the gap between the companies’ requirements and the long-term interest of society. To reach these objectives, I’ve been performing the social impact assessment of Utravel Srl Società Benefit to understand the challenges and opportunities faced by companies, and I worked on a paper defining a blockchain-based startup project in the field of sustainability. The first activity clarified that companies are capable of building alone a strong purpose tied to their business activity, but are in need of new and practical ways to engage with their stakeholders. The second activity provided a possible solution to engage stakeholders and involve them in strategic decisions transparently, by using blockchain technology. These results allow to set an initial framework for the “Social Impact Credits” system, that is capable to solve the outlined limitations, and set the basis for multistakeholder collaboration to achieve more effectively each organization’s purpose.