Focus on workplace safety and process efficiency with a view to sustainability as a tangible response to the global energy transition

Milan, November 28, 2023 – "The growth of the Webuild Group has allowed it to reach a scale where it can structure a continuous innovation process, to also apply to the acquired smaller companies and the entire supply chain, in order to gain global competitiveness. The use of artificial intelligence and new technologies in the infrastructure sector has ensured extraordinary results in some areas that are strategic to us, like ensuring the safety of people during construction. For safety alone, in fact, from 2020 to 2022, the Group has provided 1.4 million hours of training, for direct and third-party employees, helping to create a widespread safety culture even in smaller companies of the supply chain."

This is what Webuild General Manager Massimo Ferrari emphasized when he addressed the "Digital Transformation and Technological Innovation for a Sustainable Future," topic at the opening ceremony of the second edition of the "Sustainability and Green Management," Master's programme organized by RCS Academy Business School. 

"Webuild, thanks to a focused strategy, has established itself in recent years, as an international leader in the infrastructure sector, with a presence in 50 countries, 85,000 employees (including direct and third-party personnel), and a 1.3 percent share in the Italian market, well below what our competitors recorded in their domestic markets. We operate in a global market that has grown nearly 10 percent between 2019 to 2023. Despite the pandemic and the geopolitical crises, the sector has grown significantly. It has, in fact, almost doubled the +5% mark achieved in the 2014-2018 period, driving the energy transition. The global dimension reached by the Group allows us to develop efficiencies that, thanks in part to technological innovation, open new opportunities, both in terms of margins and cash generation, and in terms of competitiveness and entry into new segments, such as building complex data centers throughout Europe. We often invest in low-cost, but high-performance technologies created with small-to-medium-sized partners. We are increasingly using artificial intelligence and other technologies in many processes such as counterparty evaluation and due diligence operations. But our biggest investments are focused on ensuring the safety of the people who work with us and our partners’." 

Mr. Ferrari, who is also a member of the Scientific Committee of the Master's programme, continued by saying that "Today, public and private clients pay an increased attention to the results achieved on the basis of the qualitative and quantitative indicators guided by sustainability criteria, which therefore become a competitive factor for participating in tenders, as well as an evaluation element used by banks and financial analysts. We are witnessing a rising expectation on the effort to reaching the net zero goal, making a tangible contribution to the decarbonization process, in addition to the challenge to achieving the zero accidents at work goal."