Corporate Social Responsibility

VA Consulting does not manufacture goods and does not run plants. We design and govern marketing systems on behalf of our clients: we select the partners, verify their costs, and make what is delivered verifiable. Our social responsibility therefore runs in two directions, and they must be kept distinct. The first is our own conduct as a business. The second, broader one, is the effect our work has on our clients’ marketing ecosystem and on the partners we bring into those systems.

Scope

This policy applies in full to VA Consulting Srl: its governing body, employees and collaborators working for the company. The affiliates we work with in individual markets are independent entities: we do not manage them and we are not answerable for their employment relationships. We require them by contract to align with the principles of this document.

Principles

Three principles, non-negotiable.

• We do not declare what we do not measure. Where the data exists, we publish it. Where an estimate exists, we call it an estimate and state its method. Where there is neither data nor method, we leave the point open: we do not fill it with a plausible figure.
• Sustainability is not a chapter added from the outside. A marketing system that eliminates waste, reduces supplier fragmentation and forces decisions to be made on evidence is, by design, a more responsible system. It is the same rigour we apply to clients, turned inward.
• Governance is a permanent function, not a project with a deadline. This holds for our clients’ systems and it holds for this policy.

References

We refer to the UN Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030, to the reporting principles of the Global Reporting Initiative, and to Directive (EU) 2019/1937 on whistleblowing.

Relationship with the other documents

This policy states the commitments. The operating rules live in the Code of Ethics, the Privacy Policy and the Cookie Policy, published on our website. Where the two sources diverge, the operating document prevails and this policy is to be corrected.

Our work is done by a stable, senior core team. The quality of what we deliver depends on how long that group stays, learns and is well. This is not a moral principle: it is our production structure.

• Fair and secure employment. Proper contracts, social protection, pay and benefits in line with or above the market standard for the role.
• Continuous development. Training is part of ordinary activity, not an occasional initiative.
• Flexible organisation. Work is distributed by project and hours are flexible by default, not by concession.
• Sustainable workloads. The seasonality of pitches is not a valid reason for permanent overload.
• No discrimination. Selection, pay and progression are decided on competence and results. We do not permit discrimination on the grounds of sex, age, origin, disability, religious belief, sexual orientation, trade-union membership or political opinion. We do not tolerate harassment in any form.
• Health and safety. In a distributed organisation the material risks are not those of a plant: they are screen work, cognitive load and travel. We manage them for what they are, without building an apparatus that does not concern us.

The composition of the group — gender and age-band shares, average tenure — is published each year in our ESG report, as shares and not as absolute figures.

This is where our effect is greatest. Each year we run hundreds of pitches and review thousands of projects: the conditions we set for partners propagate across a surface far wider than our own.

What we ask of partners

Compliance with the law and applicable employment contracts. An absolute ban on child labour and forced labour. Health and safety at production sites and on set. No form of corruption. Protection of personal data. Declaration of every conflict of interest.

These are eligibility requirements, not scoring items: a partner that does not meet them does not enter evaluation.

How they enter selection

ESG and DE&I criteria are part of building the rosters, within the E³ method — Efficiency, Excellence, Ecosystem — with which we build rosters for clients. They are not an attachment to the process: they are in the grid against which partners are compared.

What we verify and what we do not

AURA, our platform, holds a classified database of over 5,000 suppliers and agencies and tracks economic, operational, ESG and DE&I data across brands and geographies.

Today supplier ESG data is predominantly declared by the supplier, supplemented by what emerges in cost validation and final reconciliation. We do not present it as third-party verified, because it is not. Beginning to measure suppliers’ ESG performance is a stated commitment on our roadmap.

The impact on clients’ systems

Through our services and through AURA we help clients make ESG and DE&I data visible across brands and geographies, bring fragmented supplier bases back to governed rosters, and bring full cost transparency to marketing spend. We describe this impact in qualitative terms: we will not invent a figure to represent it.

Our footprint is light by design, not by merit: we have no data centres, production sites, company fleets or warehouses. To present this as an achievement would be dishonest. What we can claim is what we genuinely influence.

• Paperless operations. The company works entirely in digital form.
• Circular hardware. Computers and phones are refurbished and reused, not replaced by cycle.
• Focused travel. We travel where presence changes the outcome, not elsewhere.

What we measure

The estimate of our greenhouse gas emissions follows the principles of the GHG Protocol (WRI/WBCSD). The values published for 2025 are preliminary internal estimates, not third-party verified. Emission factors and activity data will be documented in the formal 2026 measurement.

What we do not measure

For previous financial years we did not systematically collect electricity consumption. Where the data does not exist we say so and leave the point open: we do not reconstruct it after the fact.

Accountability

This policy is approved by the governing body, which is answerable for it. No derogation is permitted for reasons of commerce, deadline or margin.

Review

Annual, together with the ESG report. Extraordinary if the corporate scope or the applicable regulatory framework changes.

Whistleblowing

Anyone — staff, collaborators, partners, clients — can report a breach of this policy or of the Code of Ethics through the channel described in the Code of Ethics, compliant with Directive (EU) 2019/1937. Reports are handled in confidence. Any retaliation against someone who reports in good faith is itself a breach.

Contribution to the community

Donations to charitable, cultural or industry bodies are permitted only if authorised and properly recorded. We make no contributions to political parties or candidates. We take part in the industry bodies that define the standards of our market.

We do not currently have structured corporate volunteering or community-intervention programmes, and we will not present them as such until they exist.

Reporting

The annual ESG report is the instrument through which we account for this policy. It is published in six languages on our website and states, for each data point, whether it is measured or estimated.