On 28 May, a webinar took place built around a single question: how can a small or medium-sized enterprise transform sustainability from a bureaucratic burden into a real competitive advantage? Four different but complementary voices came together to answer it. Aram Chantal Mbow, CEO of Innovamey, opened with a reading of the global context. Stefan Grbović, CEO of TreeBlock, brought the technological perspective. Ivan Alessio, Innovation Manager and Chartered Accountant at Studio Bartolozzi Alessio & Partners, offered the economic and financial one. Simona Bianchi, CEO of Tecno-Beton Group, closed with the testimony of someone who has already walked this path first-hand.
What followed was a rich conversation, grounded in concrete data and operational insights worth setting down.
The Starting Point: the World Is Changing Faster Than We Are Responding
Opening the webinar was Aram Chantal Mbow, CEO of Innovamey, with a portrait of the global context that leaves little room for passive optimism. We are consuming natural capital at a rate faster than the planet can regenerate it. Plastic, to take an example that has almost become a symbol of this acceleration, speaks for itself: half of all plastic ever produced has been manufactured in the last fifteen years, and much of it will persist in the oceans for centuries.
But the crisis is not solely environmental. Mbow raised the issue of the gender gap with a striking figure: at the current pace, it would take 123 years to achieve full gender parity. She also introduced the concept of intersectionality, a reminder that people are never reducible to a single identity: experiences of inclusion, access, or exclusion are always shaped at the intersection of multiple factors, and companies that want to be genuinely responsible need to be able to read them.
That was the backdrop. Then Mbow shifted her angle: in this context, sustainability has become an economic driver. It reduces operating costs, opens access to grants and funding, and helps attract and retain talent. Younger generations look for companies with a credible purpose, not just perks on paper. And more than 80% of consumers, according to data presented by Innovamey, are today willing to pay more for sustainable products.
ESG, Credit and Supply Chains: the View From Those Who Do the Maths
Ivan Alessio offered a precise reading of how sustainability is entering the economic and financial decisions of SMEs, often more quietly than one might expect. Banks no longer look solely at balance sheet figures: they examine governance, processes, and risk management. Clients, especially the more structured ones, are beginning to demand transparency across the supply chain. Markets reward companies that can tell their story credibly.
Opportunities do not emerge on their own, he said: you need to know what you do, why you do it, and be able to communicate it clearly. This matters even more when it comes to subsidised finance. Regional and national grants, non-repayable contributions, incentives for innovation, digitalisation, and internationalisation: the range is broad, but those who do not actively monitor this landscape risk leaving it to others. Subsidised innovation, in this sense, is a real lever that many SMEs still underuse.
Innovamey and the WayS Framework: Knowing Where You Are to Know Where You Are Going
Returning to the floor, Aram Chantal Mbow presented Innovamey’s approach in greater detail. The organisation, with a network of more than 40 ESG partners selected across Italy and abroad, works to help companies build more inclusive environments capable of retaining diverse talent. Its main instrument is WayS, the proprietary strategic framework that transforms sustainability from a compliance exercise into a tool for positioning and growth.
WayS helps a company understand where it stands today, identify risks and opportunities, and build a concrete vision with a corresponding roadmap. It is not generic consultancy: it is a method that leads to decisions, plans, and measurable KPIs. An approach that Tecno-Beton experienced first-hand, as Simona Bianchi went on to describe.
TreeBlock: ESG Data Becomes a Tool, Not a Burden
Stefan Grbović, CEO of TreeBlock, brought the technological perspective. The starting point is one familiar to anyone working in the sector: collecting ESG data, structuring it, turning it into reports, and keeping it up to date is an activity that consumes an enormous amount of time. And time, for an SME, is the scarcest resource of all.
This is where TreeBlock’s value comes in: not only reducing errors and automating data collection, but giving back real hours to the people working within the company. TreeBlock One, the all-in-one platform designed for consultants and businesses alike, enables automatic carbon footprint calculation, management of scope 3 emissions and supply chains, production of ESG reports across multiple standards (CSRD, ESRS, GRI), development of decarbonisation plans, and LCA analysis. Treeby, the proprietary AI integrated into the platform, supports operational decisions in a contextual and precise manner. All of this comes with a certified audit trail: every change is tracked, every piece of data is verifiable, and every report is sanction-proof.
Grbović also raised a point that is often underestimated. The exemption from ESG regulation affecting around 80,000 Italian SMEs does not mean stepping outside the system: the demand simply shifts into supply chains. Those who supply large companies or wish to take part in structured tenders already find themselves having to meet reporting requirements imposed by their clients. Those who do not prepare in time risk exclusion from tenders, loss of competitiveness, and increasingly difficult credit access conditions. The demand, in other words, does not disappear: it simply changes who is making it.
Tecno-Beton: When Sustainability Becomes Company Culture
Closing the circle was Simona Bianchi, CEO of Tecno-Beton Group, a company active in the design and construction of industrial plant systems that has long integrated sustainability into its identity. Her account was concrete and direct: Tecno-Beton undertook the WayS journey with Innovamey, transforming intentions into a structured strategic plan built on management listening sessions, internal surveys, stakeholder interviews, ESG analysis across multiple pillars, KPI definition, and roadmap construction.
The company’s strategic pillars, building better, growing together, creating value, are not slogans: they reflect a change that first passed through the people within the organisation. At Tecno-Beton, Bianchi explained, employees feel they are part of something. And it is precisely this internal cohesion that strengthens the company’s external positioning: greater credibility in tenders, easier engagement with structured supply chains, and a company narrative that holds because it is true.
A Shared Direction
The thread running through the entire conversation was not sustainability itself. It was something more concrete: the gap between what companies know they need to do and what they actually do. A gap measured in data not collected, funding opportunities missed, talent not retained, and supply chains arrived at unprepared.
What emerged clearly is that this gap closes when an organisation decides to look honestly at itself: to understand where it stands, what it produces, how it communicates, and what it can improve. And when it has the tools to do so in a structured, measurable, and credible way.