How can a publishing company be sustainable? This seemingly simple question constantly guides our reflection on corporate social responsibility.

In order to respond effectively to this question, the company also needs the contribution of all its stakeholders in order to fully understand their needs and demands.

In our path to sustainability, we wanted to give a new centrality to relations with stakeholders. This resulted in a more complex and systematic plan for the involvement of the Mondadori Group’s stakeholders. We started with an internal process within the company to update the stakeholder map: identifying them, starting from the organizational evolution and activities of the company, and grouping them into more homogeneous categories. The new stakeholder map guides the planning of the engagement activities put in place each year in order to understand together what the Mondadori of the future should look like.

Dialogue with employees and collaborators: what we learned

The results of the stakeholder mapping highlighted the need to involve the people working in the Group in a survey on sustainability issues for the company. The questionnaire, sent to employees and collaborators, registered a feedback of 49% and, in addition to providing a ranking of priorities on issues relevant to the analysis of materiality, it gave us many hints and suggestions to address the responsible management of the company. The need for training is very much felt: to face the new challenges of publishing and communication in a world in continuous and rapid evolution, but also to better understand issues and problems related to sustainability

Ranking of relevant topics for employees

  • 1. Enhancement and management of human capital
    2. Digital evolution
  • 9. Climate change
    10. Diversity
  • 3. Promotion of reading and socio-cultural growth
    4. Management of environmental impacts
  • 11. Freedom of expression and publication
    12. Life cycle of paper products
  • 5. Education and the school world
    6. Transformation of business models
  • 13. Brand management
    14. Business integrity and combating corruption
  • 7. Responsibility for content
    8. Product accessibility
  • 15. Privacy and personal data protection
    16. Market abuse