FROM WASTE TO GIFT: THE VALUE TO A COMPANY OF TURNING ITS SURPLUS INTO DONATIONS
In small steps, but steadily and steadily, the culture of recovery is making inroads, and surpluses redistributed in recent years are increasing, although the margins for growth in the trend, are definitely wide.
The rule of the 5Rs – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Collect and Recover – introduced by the Ronchi Decree back in 1997, is still a fundamental pillar for an economy and lifestyle that strive toward sustainability and solidarity and at the basis of which there can only be the value of giving.
DONATE NOT TO WASTE
A “friendly” anti-waste legislation ( Law 166/2016 “Gadda” ) and a new and more pronounced awareness of the value of donation in corporate governance and development have certainly started the path to foster the culture of giving, recognizing the added value it can bring for the community in terms of social inclusion, but also for the territory, the environment and for a more sustainable economy.
“Giving is not a gift, but presupposes a sense of community.”
(Cit. Hon. Maria Chiara Gadda)
Today it is no longer sufficient to limit oneself to the feeling of outrage, putting in place sporadic mechanisms of generosity. Faced with the phenomenon of waste, companies have realized that they need to structure themselves in a systematic way, with a well-defined modus operandi and with resources and technological tools that provide useful and certain data to “give value” to the act of giving.
Marco Raspati CEO of Recuperiamo, is an authoritative voice when it comes to the management of food and non-food surpluses, the fight against waste and the numerical translation of the results achieved, at the corporate level, by the culture of giving.
“The act of giving is not only part of an individual’s personal sphere,” Raspati says, “but if structured and coupled with new technologies, it can help companies make their mission of sustainability and corporate social responsibility tangible and concrete.”
“If what we donate is transited and tracked within tools that can process firm data on the entire donation and recovery process, we are able to obtain key indices for building a company’s Impact Report”-continues Raspati.
“Regusto is, in this respect, an innovative technology platform and the first true sustainability portal at the European level. Thanks to blockchain technology, we are able to track donation flows and derive certified data to generate social and environmental impact indices derived from the donation. In this way, companies come into possession of important information to build the Social Report and communicate their image in terms of sustainability and corporate social responsibility.”
WE ARE WITNESSING A PARADIGM SHIFT
If until now the limits of certain economic dynamics were highlighted and spot solutions were proposed to temper their negative effects, today it has become clear that action must be taken first. Economist Stefano Zamagni, author of texts on the gift economy, as well as professor and president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, often speaks about this, explaining precisely how gift should no longer be understood as a single restraining action, but must enter the economic process and be part of it as an indispensable element of the circular economy.