Sustainability and the stock exchange

ESG Observatory, ninth edition for an initiative by Plus24-Sole 24 Ore

The monitoring of companies listed on Piazza Affari was carried out again this year together with researchers from the University of Milan-Bicocca

by Elisabetta Moscatelli

23 December 2025

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

When in 2017 Il Sole 24 Ore decided to launch an Observatory dedicated to the state of sustainability in the small and medium-sized companies of Piazza Affari, the word ESG was still a term for insiders. Environmental and social policies, as well as evolved governance processes, were not an obligation for most listed companies.

It is in this context that the Esg Observatory of Plus24-Il Sole 24 Ore, developed by the newspaper together with the Research Department and later in collaboration with the University of Milano-Bicocca, takes shape. The aim is to provide a systematic measurement of the ESG maturity of companies, with an approach based on verifiable and standardised data.

The questionnaire

Since the first edition, the basis of the project is a questionnaire structured in four sections that investigates policies, objectives and results in the three ESG dimensions. The questions are addressed to all companies in the Mid Cap, Star, Small Cap and Euronext Growth Milan segments.

A scheme that anticipated the demands formalised by the European Union with the Non Financial Reporting Directive (Dnf) and currently with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (Csrd).

An evolving project

Over the years, the questionnaire has been progressively updated and refined to highlight new topics in the area of sustainability. In the document submitted to the Piazza Affari companies, ample space is given to critical issues and advantages in adopting sustainability-friendly behaviour and related reporting.

A decisive step was then the collaboration with the University of Milano-Bicocca, which made it possible to introduce three important synthetic indices: the Esg Awakeness Index, the Sustainability Monitoring Index, and the Sustainability Governance Index, used to classify companies into performance bands.

The perimeter of the ESG Observatory has thus been extended in the latest edition, the ninth, to 344 listed companies; 35% of the companies interviewed responded (122), with coverage of new topics and greater analytical depth on issues such as the reputational risk online with the use of social media and the risks connected to the phenomenon of greenwashing. A summary of the updated results will be published on the Sole 24 Ore website in the sustainability section starting this Saturday (www.ilsole24ore.com/sez/sostenibilita/osservatorio).

The Observatory has thus acted as a sort of sustainability gym for listed Italian SMEs, helping them to measure their level of maturity well before the CSR extended reporting obligations to ever larger segments of companies.

The prize

Since last year's edition, an annual award has been introduced to recognise companies that demonstrate consistency between strategies, objectives and results. The award ceremony was included in the 24 Ore Group's calendar of events dedicated to sustainability with the webinar 'Sustainability 2.0: a perspective beyond standards'. There were 6 winning companies, chosen from within the analysed sample, according to a solid methodology constructed by the University of Milan-Bicocca. Masi Agricola was the winner in the Euronext Growth Milan category, while Italmobiliare for the Euronext market positioned among the companies with "excellent" scores according to the indices, followed by Sesa, El.En, Iren and Sit, in a tie.