Following the interest shown about the theme and optimizing resources, avoiding duplications and overlapping, in the pursuit of the common objective of spreading the culture of economic ethic and of CSR in the field of economic development of Treviso Province, the Chamber of Commerce decided to involve in the project also other Bodies and/or Trade Associations that intend to collaborate in an operative way to the various activities that are going to be started. The first step of this active involvement was represented by the signature of three different Protocols of Agreement ,the last 22nd March, with the following Partners:

• The Comunità Montana del Grappa (Mountain Community of Grappa) thatis the responsible for the start-up and the management of 5 informative physical and telematic counters, in the Province of Treviso, concerning the themes of active aging and corporate social responsibility, following the model of the CSR-SC Project, co-financed by the Equal Project “Age Management” of the European Union;
• “Proetica” Association that was founded the 18th May 2004 byTreviso Unindustria, Association of Licensed Public Accountants of Treviso and College of Professional Accountants of Treviso to boost and enlarge the knowledge and the spreading of corporate social responsibility;
• Treviso Tecnologia, Special Enterprise, which has already realized different initiatives related to promotion of environmental and ethic certifications, in the field of corporate social responsibility.

In the Press Conference it was highlighted that in the cultural spreading of concepts of CSR, the respect of law is implicit, but the ethic behaviour goes beyond norms. For example, if an enterprise applies policies of training and improvement of employees, it will obtain an added value in terms of increased professionalism, collaborative attitude and costs reduction. Another task of the CSR counter of Treviso is the transmission of necessary information to start or to continue the “course” of CSR and also to point out the best practices on a national scale.

The main activities planned for the 2005
Summing up, the main activities planned in the Protocols of Agreement above mentioned for the current year are:

• To participate to the Project “Global Compact, for a better economic world. Make it possible. Dream it today”: it is an ideas contest for a promotional campaign of ethical acting culture in the economic field through the world of school and university. The announcement of competition will be addressed to students attending the lasts two years of high school in the Province or the firsts two years of the University of Treviso. The objective of the competition is the development of an original project, which will besuggested to enterprises that intends concretely to adhere to the 9 basic principles fixed byGlobal Compact and regarding workers rights, human rights and environment protection (the partners of the project are Proetica, C.C.I.A.A. of Treviso, Unicredit Group and TrevisoProvince). The official presentation of the announcement will take place the 21st April;
• To participate to the realization of the Convention fixed for the 4th May 2005. “Social Responsible Enterprises are more competitive” (partners: Proetica, C.C.I.A.A. and TrevisoProvince, Unicredit Group Bank ). The Program will start with the speech of Federico Tessari, President of the Chamber of Commerce of Treviso and that ofSergio Bellato, President of Proetica and the opening relation by Franco Tagliente, Proetica Responsible and moderator of the discussion. They will be followed by Stefano Zamagni (University of Bologna), “Advantages for enterprises that make social responsible chooses”, and “The meaning of CSR”, (Corporate Social Responsibility), with a video presented by Gianni Moriani (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice). The round-table conference will be organized through declarations of some Italian enterprises involved in activities referable to the theme of Corporate Social Responsibility: Gianluca Beschi, Investor Relations Manager Sabaf PLC, Fernando Bordin, General Manager of Fonderie del Montello PLC, Riccardo Della Valle, Manager of Social Budget of Unicredit Group and Tonino Dominici, General Manager Box Marche PLC. In conclusion, there will be the projection of a video about examples of CSR activities related to environment and human resources, presented by Carlo Luison, with a final report by Ferruccio Bresolin of the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice;
• To start a List entitled “CSR oriented” with enterprises that begin with the specific “CSR counter” a guided course concerning the valorisation of social responsible behaviours;
• To promote and to support enterprises candidacies to national or local prizes (it is also possible a convention in Maranello at Ferrari in the end of June 2005). In addition, a Trevigian enterprise has already been recommended to compete for a prize, promoted by National Unioncamere, on Corporate Social Responsibility for the year 2005;
• To report to the Partners (Proetica and TV Tecnologia) enterprises that intend to develop courses on the specific themes of Social Responsibility with special costs reductions for a possible consultancy;
• To train counter operators for Partners of the Project;
• To map enterprises that in their territory of competence started actions of Social Statement to implement the special database of the Chamber of Commerce of Treviso, with the collaboration of counters managed by the Comunità Montana of Grappa, which is the manager of the Pedemontana of Grappa and Asolano DIAPASON Territorial Pact.

The wide sensibility noticed on the theme of Corporate Social Responsibility will involve in a short time all Trade Associations and the other interested subjects, in developing jointly two key factors: competitive advantage and enterprise awareness. It is out of doubt that ethic and economy are strongly connected, economic acting and social activity show extraordinary synergies and market and society aren’t separate elements.
In conclusion, the Chamber of Commerce of Treviso and its partners are actively engaged in following Trevigian enterprises during the “Process” of Corporate Social Responsibility.
Many other initiatives are already in progress and will be notified when all planning elements will be completed.

In short, we remind enterprises that the agreement to CSR project allows:

• to benefit from the advantages already listed, which result from the adoption of a socially responsible behaviour;
• to highlight with no costs socially responsible behaviours, both at provincial level (through the creation of a special provincial database at the Chamber’s seat) and at national level;

Antonio Biasi
From "The Economy of the Trevigian Marca ", April 2005