Centrality of people

People are the foundation of our success. We are committed to creating shared value through projects that promote corporate wellbeing, enhance competencies, protect health and safety, valorise uniqueness and individual involvement.

gruppo di persone in piedi che assistono ad un evento

Our objectives and action lines

By listening to our people in an attentive and proactive manner, we are pursuing a strategy of valorising human capital and protecting human rights. This perspective is reflected in our “Centrality of People” objective as per the 2024-2028 Sustainability Plan, which comprises five lines of action associated with: employee wellbeing, skills development, people engagement, health and safety, diversity and inclusion.

The Plan also envisages targets for overseas companies, with a view to ensuring uniformity of treatment for all our people and bringing economic and social value to the local communities, in economic scenarios that are very different to Europe.

Action lines, results and targets for 2028

Action line	Action/Company	Target @2028	Actual 2025	Actual 2024
Employee wellbeing	Welfare enhancement	Increase in the number of users	6,031 people	5,942 people
	Review of office layout	Design of new layouts	Completed	/

Action line	Action/Company	Target @2028	Actual 2025	Actual 2024
Skills development	Corporate Academy	6,500 people trained per year	3,850 people trained	5,045 people trained
	Corporate Academy	140 internal faculties involved	174 internal faculties	31 internal faculties
	Digital training	15 training courses	13 courses	14 courses
	Digital training	5,000 participants	5,211 participants	3,184 participants
	Training	22 h of training per capita/year (Italy)	27 h per year	32 h per year
	Training on sustainability	100 people certified as “Sustainability Professionals”	55 people trained 41 people certified	22 people trained and certified
Skills development (foreign countries)	Specialised training (Aguas de San Pedro, Consorcio Agua Azul)	ASP staff involved: 97%	ASP: 93%	ASP: 86%
Skills development (foreign countries)		CAA business sectors: 95%	CAA: 80%	CAA: 70%

Action line	Action/Company	Target @2028	Actual 2025	Actual 2024
Health and safety	Culture of safety	Injury frequency and severity rates < average over the last three years	IFR: 5.84<6.00 ISR: 0.24>0.23	IFR: 6.44 ISR: 0.22
	Culture of safety	Near Misses resolved >90%	81%	52%
	Digitisation of HSE processes	Digitisation of operating companies: 100%	46%	0%
	Trials of innovative equipment (areti and Acea Ato2)	Youcare kit and man-down device: 120 people	107 people	19 people
Health and safety (foreign countries)	Safety and prevention training (Aguas de San Pedro)	90% employees involved	99% employees involved	80% employees involved

Action line	Action/Company	Target @2028	Actual 2025	Actual 2024
Supplier health and safety	Training on safety issues	Supplier injury rate < three-year average	0.17 < 0.21	0.23
	Digitisation of process to verify technical and professional qualifications	Companies involved: 100%	13%	/
	Supplier site inspections	15,000 inspections per year	15,747 inspections	15,003 inspections
Supplier health and safety (foreign countries)	Safety and prevention training (Consorcio Agua Azul)	90% supplier training attendance rate	66%	67%

Employee wellbeing

Ensuring a balance between professional and personal life is an integral part of the commitment to our people, based on the recognition that work-life balance measures contribute towards increasing employee satisfaction and improving the organisation’s overall performance.

With this in mind, we foster the wellbeing of our people, also through our Wellbeing, Inclusion and Belonging Plan, which in 2025 was further strengthened and enhanced by way of dedicated initiatives.

The Plan is based on six fundamental pillars: health, family care, supplementary pensions, economic benefits, corporate wellness and solidarity.

The main initiatives carried out include:

Oncological prevention campaign in collaboration with Susan G. Komen Italia;
Self-defence courses for female employees, attended by around 200 people;
Mental health support programmes including the introduction of an online psychology service;
Corporate wellness services with a view to promoting physical wellbeing, already used by 10% of company staff.

In 2025 we refurbished the company-run nursery “Un fiume di emozioni” (a river of emotions), adding new furniture, an educational programme featuring English language lessons and creative and educational workshops, also extending the facility’s opening hours.

Furthermore, for the fifth consecutive year we obtained the prestigious Top Employers certification, an official recognition of excellence in HR policies and strategies, for our contribution to people’s wellbeing and improvement of the working environment, entering the Top 20 of Top Employers Italy 2026.

Skills development

In our business, skills represent a key factor for the company’s growth. Consequently, the Internal processes for the valuation of human capital are based on both training and development activities and the efficacy of assessment processes, with a view to creating a culture that is increasingly performance-oriented and supporting our people in their journey towards continuous improvement.

With this in mind, we set up the Acea Academy, the high-level operational training centre which opened its doors in 2025 and provides for the involvement of internal trainers to enhance the competencies of our staff and operate an ongoing knowledge transfer. For this purpose, the Academy began rolling out a model dedicated to the recruitment and preparation of personnel involved in the teaching activities for the creation of a Register of Internal Trainers, with a view to valorising internal technical and professional know-how, consolidating the transfer of the Group’s culture and distinctive expertise. We pay special attention to sustainability skills and have therefore also conceived a specialist training course that qualifies participants as “Sustainability Professionals” (UNI PdR 109:2024).

Lastly, in 2025 we launched the first Executive Master in Water Management, also open to external stakeholders, to develop advanced strategic skills for the sustainable management of water resources and accompany the sector’s digital transition.

People Engagement

Our model is based on systemic dialogue, people’s active participation and an internal communication system.

These elements represent the pillars of our people engagement strategy, through which we are committed to disseminating awareness of Acea’s principles and values and strategic objectives, reinforcing a sense of belonging and participation and, lastly, maintaining a positive internal atmosphere, improving the operational efficiency of all our companies.

In 2025 we organised the first Transformation Tour, an itinerant journey set up with a view to meeting our people, sharing industrial goals and promoting the innovative projects developed thanks to internal skills.

In order to encourage the development of new solutions and enhance the role of people in the transformation processes, we hosted “I AM – tu all’ennesima potenza”, the first event of its kind in Italy dedicated to the application of artificial intelligence and robotics in the management of water, energy and environmental infrastructures.

Conceived as an open space for involvement and discussion, the initiative, organised by a.Quantum, facilitated the active engagement of staff from various operating companies, fostering curiosity, sharing of experiences and an exchange of competencies.

Our staff were protagonists as regards not only content fruition but also the material interpretation of technologies with respect to the daily processes, strengthening awareness and sense of belonging to the Group’s transformation path.

Health and safety

Our aim is to foster a widespread culture of safety throughout Acea’s companies and enhance awareness at all levels of the organisation. We are committed on a daily basis to the prevention and reduction of occupational accidents within Acea and throughout the entire supply chain, involving our partners in initiatives aimed at improving safety performance.

In addition to ongoing training and awareness campaigns, intended above all for workers engaged in high-risk activities, we promote specific initiatives such as the “Report and prevent near misses” cycle, which in 2025 involved over 1,000 people. At the same time, we initiated an accident management system evolution path, introducing a new classification of events and increasing our analysis of the causes. The model provides for identification of high-potential (HiPo) accident events, assessed on the basis of their potential severity, and the activation of safety alerts for the timely notification of risks and monitoring of corrective actions. Accident prevention activities are supported by regular site inspections.

Application of the principles and behaviours defined in specific Occupational Health and Safety guidelines, in addition to providing for the observance of prevailing regulations, allows us to establish high Safety standards by adopting best practices shared within the company in order to ensure the constant enhancement of workplace safety operational management. With this in mind, we have set up certified Management Systems according to international standards (ISO 45001) integrating the processes with innovative risk reduction technologies.

Our overseas commitment

Our 2024-2028 Sustainability Plan also includes specific objectives for our overseas companies, with the commitment to ensure consistency, fairness and uniformity of treatment for all our people, in each of our sectors of operation. More specifically, for the companies located in Perù and Honduras, targets have been defined with regard to health and safety training, designed to promote a prevention culture for our staff and throughout the supply chain, as well as objectives and initiatives concerning the improvement of specialist skills and the spreading of a D&I culture.