There are five projects focused on corporate social responsibility that will compete for the huge cash prize, offered by the credit institution. The “BancaStato Award for Corporate Sustainability” – launched in the spring by the Cantonal Institute and which has collected about fifty applications – will see the award ceremony on Monday 11 November, at the LAC in Lugano, when the winners will be announced who, overall, will win the 80 thousand francs up for grabs.

The nominations: more than 50!

The “BancaStato Award for Corporate Sustainability”, launched in April 2024 by BancaStato with the aim of rewarding individual projects capable of contributing to the sustainable development of the territory.
The award was born in the wake of the sustainability strategy of the Cantonal Institute and was promoted in collaboration with the Economics Division of the Department of Finance and Economics, the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Crafts and Services of the Canton of Ticino (Cc-Ti) and the Association of Ticino Industries (AITI), with the scientific support of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) and SQS Switzerland.

Every small and medium-sized enterprise (SME), therefore with fewer than 250 employees, based in Ticino could submit its own project provided that it was already in the implementation phase and therefore already demonstrated its concreteness by releasing positive impacts on an economic, social or environmental level.

Only 5 in the final for the BancaStato Award
Over the past few months, the jury, composed of representatives of the institutions and promoting bodies, has assessed the candidatures according to precise criteria: breadth, extent and durability of the impact generated, innovativeness of the project and its ability to be effectively replicated, as well as its coherence with the sustainability approach of the companies that presented it.

The overall evaluations led to the selection of five finalists. Here they are:

  • Wastewater treatment plant in the Nepalese textile sector, by Purest (Lugano). The project focuses on the concept of technology transfer in the Cleantech sector between Switzerland and developing countries and the promotion of good practices in the fashion sector, helping to strengthen the reputation of Ticino.
  • Circular Economy Ambassador, by Circular Lugano (Lugano). The project offers companies the possibility of signing up for annual subscriptions through which the employees of the companies themselves can access a multiple set of tools and objects for free. This promotes the spread of the circular economy, reducing waste and avoiding unnecessary emission of further CO2.
  • Karma Metrix, by Xago Europe (Balerna). The project revolves around a proprietary algorithm that measures the CO2 emissions of websites, allowing companies to think about emission containment policies in the context of increasing digitalization.
  • MUS-E, by BAG-E Sagl (Caslano). As part of the daily delivery of hot meals to some Ticino offices of Pro Senectute Ticino and Moesano, the project involved abandoning disposable tableware and plates and adopting washable and therefore reusable material.
  • Tisana Monte Generoso, by cofti.ch (Chiasso). The initiative promotes local organic herbs for the marketing of a herbal tea whose production chain is based on sustainability.

Who will win? Everyone at the LAC to find out

The 2024 edition of the award will end on November 11 at the LAC in Lugano, when the winning projects will be announced and presented in the evening. The total prize money is 80 thousand francs: 50 thousand will be awarded to the first place, 20 thousand to the second and 10 thousand to the third.

During the evening, Daniel Dubas, the Federal Council's delegate for Agenda 2030, will give a speech entitled "2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: Challenges and the Role of Business in Implementation".

The BancaStato Award and Sustainability

The award was born from BancaStato's desire to further support SMEs in the many dimensions of sustainability.

For the Cantonal Institute, this is part of a broader commitment to the economy, the environment and sociality: a commitment that has recently received a further boost thanks to the adoption of a specific sustainability strategy. For BancaStato, this strategy represents a natural evolution of what has been done historically. For over a hundred years, the Institute has worked specifically in favour of the territory: for BancaStato, the public mandate coincides with the purpose defined in Article 3 of the Institution Law, namely "to promote the economic development of the Canton and offer the public the possibility of investing savings in a safe and profitable way".

At the beginning of the millennium, the Board of Directors of BancaStato had further specified that this goal had to be achieved by adopting responsible behavior also from a social and environmental point of view.

This basic orientation was further developed and enriched in 2023 thanks to the new sustainability strategy. It integrates sustainability objectives into the corporate strategy in a systematic and structured manner, and therefore provides the Institute with adequate tools to implement a medium and long-term approach that considers aspects such as climate change and the environment, relations with the local community, transparency in corporate governance and the increased awareness and sensitivity of customers and investors towards sustainable financial products.

This allows BancaStato to better respond to the evolving regulatory framework of the Swiss banking sector and to offer the people of Ticino an even more modern Bank that is even closer to their needs as customers and citizens.

(On the cover, an image from the previous edition)