More environmentally conscious stakeholders? Women under 35

A study conducted by the University of Brescia and the Open University in the United Kingdom on the results of a survey conducted by Acque Bresciane in 2021/2022 has revealed who the company's stakeholders are and what they really care about when it comes to sustainability.

The survey, conducted in 2021/2022 among 246 individuals between the ages of 14 and 79, identified four different stakeholder profiles and as many views on what the focus of sustainability is:

• Ist group: represented by "environmental activists," who are very sensitive to environmental issues as such, composed of 60 percent women with an average age around 35 years old;
• IInd group: composed mainly of company employees, with average age around 45, who put ethics and constant attention to worker safety first. Sixty percent of respondents in this category are male;
• IIIrd group: mainly represented by users, for whom a good relationship with customers is the main duty of the company;
• Group IV: composed of those who attach equal importance to sustainability related to water service and attention to working conditions.

In the third and fourth groups, 65 percent of respondents are male, with the average age differing little between the two categories: 41 for the former and 43 for the latter.

In summary, the study shows how stakeholders are a diverse reality, with a bias toward certain social and political aspects of sustainability. This is a step forward in studies on stakeholder engagement, which until now have limited themselves to emphasizing engagement as an organizational practice to increase the value of the companies that practice it, without delving into the type of instances represented.