Innovation
Research forms the basis for eni’s redevelopment of its traditional business sectors and the launch of new and highly innovative activities, starting from a careful observation and interpretation of the changing operating environment. The company is embedding a management model based on continuous improvement, making the innovation process more systematic, and adopting a more “bottom-up” approach. All of this contributes to the goal of green and inclusive growth as defined in the Global Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio 2012, which is the underlying goal of the Post-2015 Agenda currently being defined.
Business innovation
Since 2013 eni has been reaping the benefits of its research efforts to launch businesses and operations that exemplify the company’s ingenuity and innovative capacity.
The sixth session of the Open Working Group on SDGs defines technology and innovation as “game changers” for the social and economic situation in developing Countries1. The role of energy is also central in this context: “The SDGs must give priority to innovation, facilitating the formation of frameworks to promote innovation in the public and private sectors. [...] Energy activates, business innovates2”.
By 2010 the European Commission, through the “Europe 2020” strategy, was already promoting innovation as the route for job creation in Europe through a new industrial policy based on more environmentally stable technologies and raw materials. At the global level, the change from the Millennium Development Goals to the Sustainable Development Goals focuses on the need to identify new technological and operational solutions to respond to complex challenges such as the redevelopment of traditional industrial sectors and the construction of new business opportunities to create jobs and wellbeing while respecting the limits of our planet.
(1) Open Working Group, Statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, 2013.
(2) UN Open Ended Working Group on SDGs Business and Industry Major Group Statement on Energy, 2013.
