From mid-November 2021, BCCI Member OMTRA has officially become a ‘Benefit Corporation’ (SB, or Società Benefit in Italian). This classification is for companies that aim to integrate business with social goals and environmental impacts. These companies must commit themselves to safeguard the planet and the community with concrete changes to their bylaws and statutes.
Thus OMTRA, a leader in Italy for the archiving/storage and the certified destruction of paper and electronic material, with over 65 years of history, is among the first Italian companies, and the first ever in its field to take this step.
The origin of Benefit Corporations is relatively recent. It was in 2006 when this legal business model began to emerge in the United States.The first Benefit Corporation in Italy dates back only to 2016. This was the first time this status was attributed to a company that also uses profit as a tool for the creation of social value. In Italy, the phenomenon is rapidly growing, especially after an extraordinary and complicated year like 2020, with over 900 companies registered by April 2021, 316 of them in Lombardy alone. The pandemic has changed the order of priorities and triggered a strong process of change.