At the end of 2015, VIU entered the United Nations Global Compact, a United Nations initiative that aims to encourage businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies.
After this first success, on February 23, 2016, VIU also joined as Founding Member the Global Compact Network Italy Foundation. Launched in 1999, the Global Compact initiative counts today 13000 corporate and other stakeholders participants, in 161 countries worldwide.
Companies and institutions joining the Global Compact initiative publicly commit to align their corporate strategies and operations with the 10 Global Compact Principles on human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption and to take steps to support UN goals, in order to create a sustainable and inclusive global economy that delivers lasting benefits to people, communities and markets.
The local networks, as the Global Compact Network Italia, work to advance the initiative and its 10 Principles at country level. They help companies understand what responsible business means within different national, cultural and language contexts and facilitate outreach, learning, policy dialogue, collective action and partnerships.
The commitments and the achievements of the Members are periodically assessed through the submission of a report, namely the Communication on Progress (COP) or Communication of Engagement (COE). This document reports on the benefits of Sustainability – in terms of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption - for the Member institution, including, for example, the integration of corporate sustainability into operations, the internal information sharing, and the strengthening of the relationships with stakeholders and investors.