On 20 September 2018, the prize-giving ceremony held at Auditorium Bosch in Milan marked the conclusion of the ninth edition of the Good Energy Award, the initiative devised by Bernoni Grant Thornton to reward those businesses that invest in an innovative market, in an environmentally-, economically- and territory-friendly way. The numerous applications received this year show that sustainability and efficiency are increasingly becoming hot topics for businesses of all sizes and industries.
The independent panel of experts, chaired by Professor Maurizio Fauri of the University of Trento, selected the winners for each of the 4 categories:
We especially congratulate the winners, who stand out for their innovative and original projects. But we would also like to praise all participants, who had the courage to showcase their stories and their energy efficiency and environmental sustainability initiatives.
Sharing projects and initiatives with others helps spreading a culture of energy efficiency and sustainability. This is one of the targets that we have set with our award and that we believe we have reached given the great number of businesses involved over these nine years.
These stories are a clear demonstration that the choice to implement energy efficiency policies needs not be guided only by law provisions, but that green investments can create, in the medium time, not only a more sustainable business with a reduced environmental impact, but also a more profitable one.
We hope that a regulatory framework will soon be devised, encouraging businesses to invest in sustainability and efficiency, not just providing for mere economic incentives, but rather introducing a performance-related scheme aimed at reducing the tax burden in the medium/long term as well as the red tape involved when investing in the reduction of consumptions/increase of energy efficiency (both of production plants and buildings).