Building a Sustainable Future for Naples: A Collaborative Territorial Network Project

Understanding. Acting. Developing sustainability. These are the keywords behind the project "Territorial Network of Naples: building together the sustainable future of the territory" that Rut Foundation, in collaboration with Form Retail, is carrying forward in the city of Naples with the technical support of Variazioni s.r.l. The project, with the support of Mayor Gaetano Manfredi and under the patronage of the Municipality, involves the participation of 15 companies from the Campania production sector and their collaborators to give life to a permanent social laboratory through which the participating companies can co-design functional responses to: the well-being of people, the development of the territory, and the competitiveness of companies in the market. The General Secretary of the Rut Foundation, Giovanna Martelli, on the project: "We strongly wanted to realize this participatory action-research project, in the belief that understanding personal and family needs together with that of the work context can be a stimulus for reflection to expand the knowledge of these dynamics with the goal of generating positive impacts also in the companies operating in the territory". The starting point is the need to identify and understand the needs of employees and their families, and therefore of the companies to arrive at the elaboration of a proposal that can favor social cohesion in the territory of the city of Naples, responding to the needs of the community through the construction of a permanent Social Laboratory capable of creating a generative and inclusive territorial welfare system - also through the involvement of the local productive fabric. Arianna Visentini, CEO & founder of Variazioni, explains: "Being able to collaborate in the realization of the project of the Territorial Network of Naples constitutes a source of pride for Variazioni. Network experiences contribute to the creation of multi-stakeholder laboratories capable of generating concrete responses in terms of economic and social sustainability: we are convinced that the Territorial Network of Naples can achieve this ambitious goal". Tommaso Isernia, CEO of Form Retail, a partner company of the project emphasizes: "We are very happy to participate in the realization of this project that fully embraces our vision according to which the value of a company is directly proportional to its ability to enhance the personal professional skills and to understand the personal needs of its employees". The project, which has just completed the first phase and is about to enter the second, could contribute to the future birth of a Territorial Welfare pilot to enhance the contribution of all stakeholders, creating an ecosystem capable of generating additional economic value also for the social care service providers of the territory.