Icma is a B Corp®!

Being a Benefit Corporation means committing.

As of May 2020, after surmounting a long and thorough assessment process, Icma has become part of the B Corp® group, a global movement involving companies that want to make their contribution to historic cultural change to protect the environment and favor social development.

Being a Benefit Corporation means voluntarily committing to a journey of continuous improvement concerning environmental impact, the wellbeing of employees, the active role in the community to which the company belongs, but also to the general mission of the company, including ethics, responsibilities, and transparency; all of this while maintaining the nature of an organization that pursues economic goals.

B Corps® aim to rewrite their way of doing business, putting sustainability at the same level as profit, making it a success factor rather than a slogan. This can enable the enterprise to stand out for its uniqueness, generate value, and thus ensure its future.

To become a certified B Corp®, a company has to pass a strict evaluation and control process involving all the corporate functions, analyzing every aspect of the production and organizational model to conduct their B Impact Assessment. The score must be validated by an accredited third party.

Icma has been certified as a B Corp® with a score of 84.6 and is the first European company in the paper industry to embrace the values of this new business paradigm. The assessment takes into account the sustainability practices, initiatives, and results obtained in five thematic areas.

 

Impact Report

As a Benefit Corporation, ICMA proposes to create value for its community and for the world.

The Impact Report is a tool that aims to assess the tangible effects produced by the company’s choices in the social, environmental, and sustainability spheres, against its defined objectives.

Today, in this first impact report, the company wishes to communicate with its customers and community using the utmost transparency about what actions have been tangibly carried out to protect the environment and favor the social development of the area and what the next planned steps are.

Doing business means contributing to a better future for everyone.

Respect for the Environment.

Environmental sustainability has always been at the heart of Icma’s corporate strategy.
In numbers (Environmental assessment 2015-2018), this commitment translates to:

-11% of water use
-15% of CO2 emissions
-13% of energy use (47% of the energy requirements are covered by renewable sources)
-19% of waste
-8% of methane use

 

Several examples of initiatives carried out for environmental sustainability include the Rinascimento circular economy service, the innovative 100% R Bases — recycled papers produced without bleaching, with reduced water and energy consumption, and less CO2 emissions —, and participation in the Treedom program, whereby we planted a forest in Cameroon to offset CO2 emissions and protect biodiversity.

The Wellbeing of Workers.

Led since its foundation by generations of women, Icma is a company that appreciates and values the female workforce.

In the company, the female presence includes:
100% of governance
66% of management roles (of which President and CEO)
49% of employees
100% of external collaborators 
50% of the sales sector

The company also collaborates with schools and universities to provide internship opportunities.

Flexible or part-time work hours are agreed upon when requested by the workers.

All the employees receive performance awards or individual bonuses throughout the year and a part of profits are distributed as bonuses to workers.

Community Commitment.

Awareness of the company's social role in spreading community wellbeing feeds into various initiatives:

For 27 years, Icma has provided scholarships to the children of employees who have excelled at school.

In January 2020, the Municipality of Mandello del Lario awarded the 2019 civic merit, the “Grigna d’oro”, to Icma’s president Silvia Buzzi, for the attention shown to associations, the territory, society, and people in difficulty.

Responsible Governance.

The B Corp® certification is an acknowledgment of the journey on which Icma has long embarked, whose objectives can be found in its Manifesto, starting from a desire to:

"Create beauty through innovation, transforming paper ethically and sustainably” and “Pass down from generation to generation the values of ethics, culture, workplace dignity, and sustainability that have always inspired the women leading Icma".

Among the initiatives undertaken during the Coronavirus emergency, Icma took part in the #iopagoifornitori (#IPayMySuppliers) campaign, commiting to respect the payment terms of suppliers.


Customer Guarantees.

In this area, Icma has quality certifications issued by third parties, formal quality control mechanisms, and feedback processes.

The B Corp® certification is another significant result for the Icma 2030 Lab, a research program aimed at promoting dialogue inside and outside of Icma, involving the company management together with partners, institutions, universities, and research centers, to introduce new approaches and methodologies for sustainable development, in keeping with the United Nations’ Agenda.

Environment

Icma's effort towards sustainability.

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Rinascimento

Turn your company's cellulosic scraps into elegant recycled creative paper.

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