…does not exist.
A sustainable economy could exist, that is, the production of goods and services arising from work – on which our Republic is supposed to be founded – that leads to a profit. Finance cannot be sustainable: it is money that grows through interest unrelated to any production. Sustainable finance is in itself a contradiction in terms.
I thought my small business was sustainable.
Many factors led me to think so, and I’ll list them:
- I don’t use any fuel to get there
- the energy used comes 100% from renewable sources – my supplier guarantees it: there’s even a certificate on the front door
- many of our suppliers are “organic” businesses: Fattoria Biosole, l’Orto Bioattivo di Firenze, CarneBio from Fattoria il Palazzo (links at the bottom of the page).
- from what they tell me, our staff and collaborators are happy to share the cooking adventure with us
- we bring Italian Cooking to the world together with teaching about personal health and the health of the planet
But these don’t seem to be the features that make a business a sustainable business.
To tell the truth, I suspect these features are actually hindered, and that businesses which in my opinion are truly sustainable and “circular” are even being wiped out. Sadly I know some of them, and I’m sure you who are reading know some too.
What does “sustainable business” mean according to the rules of the PNRR (Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan)? What is “investigated” in the – mandatory – ISTAT business census? What is required to obtain the Sustainability Certification – which takes a process of about a year made of questionnaires and changes to the business, which have to be filled in under the guidance of a specialised, and duly paid, firm – ?
First of all, that the use of cash be eliminated. I still haven’t understood why using cash is not sustainable. At the moment all businesses are required to accept credit and debit cards.
Let me open a parenthesis on this, with a small example to show what using credit cards means. Obviously I’m referring to myself and my business, since it’s the example I know best, but it applies to everything, including the little cup of espresso.
Years ago a doubt struck me: I accept credit cards and I pay a fee. Nothing to say about the fee, it’s a service and it has to be paid (even though, since it’s the State forcing me to accept credit cards, the fee looks like a legalised kickback to the banks). Anyway, having “cleared” the fee, which I had already accepted as “due”, let’s do a more precise calculation. Let’s say that out of 100 euros I get 98. I issue a receipt for 100 euros and I pay taxes on that total, starting with 22% VAT. I ask the bank: can you invoice me for the fees, so I can deduct the VAT? The bank doesn’t issue invoices. The VAT on the fee is not deductible. There must be a misunderstanding. I book an appointment with a VAT officer – back then you could, since COVID you can’t even speak in person to a real person any more -. I go to the Revenue Agency, leave an ID document at the front desk, which keeps it until I leave (???). They walk me to the officer’s door and make me wait in the corridor. The officer isn’t ready – despite the appointment. Finally I go in and explain it step by step. The officer doesn’t understand. I don’t understand why he doesn’t understand, after all it’s his field, I’m a cook. I repeat. He looks at me as if I were stupid. Then he says, as if it weren’t obvious: “ah, yes. But these are expenses. You have to count them as expenses”. Really? I had noticed they’re expenses, I’m the one paying them. In fact I’m the one paying the VAT instead of the bank. The officer rolled his eyes and didn’t say another word.
The card obligation will be followed by “non-existent money”: bitcoin, so to speak. In other words: we won’t have money any more, and something tells me we won’t have control over the “virtual” kind.
The ISTAT questionnaire asks whether we invest in “investment funds” (forgive the repetition) and in what percentage. Knowing what these investment funds invest in is a good question that involves a good deal of research. I asked it to my bank manager, who answered with a facial expression similar to the one the VAT officer dismissed me with a few years ago. The ISTAT question also requires an answer about the percentage of money allocated to sustainable finance investment funds, based on the money spent by the business. That is, Istat wants to know how much of the money spent by the business goes to sustainable finance funds.
I’m a cook. But this roundabout questioning is pernicious. Leaving aside the fact that they don’t need to ask anything, because algorithms and computers with cross-checks can find out everything, even how many hairs I have on my head, let alone money put into a fund through a bank! But the question is pernicious.
Hey you! how much money did you put this year into the investment fund…. ?
between you and me, since few people read this blog anyway, the dots in my head stand for these words: of the mafia boss who, behind the curtain of saving the Earth, buys himself private jets?
Still on the subject of words used with different meanings, a document from the Italian Sustainable Investment Forum states: EU Regulation 2020/852 introduced into the European regulatory system the taxonomy of environmentally sustainable economic activities, a classification of the activities that can be considered sustainable based on their alignment with the environmental objectives of the European Union and compliance with certain social clauses.
Here is the definition of Taxonomy from the Treccani encyclopedia:
Taxonomy: In the natural sciences, a term often used as a synonym of systematics , but which more precisely refers on the one hand to the rules of nomenclature, and on the other to the techniques for the theoretical study of the phylogenetic classification of living beings, through the exact definition of the principles, procedures and rules that govern it. Once based essentially on morphological and morphometric criteria, taxonomy also makes use of biomolecular, physiological and serological methods and assessments, combined with advanced techniques of statistical analysis.
The term taxon (pl. taxa) is used generically to designate a systematic grouping of any rank (species, genus, family etc.).
A term used in the natural sciences has been borrowed; it’s a classification based on morphological criteria (are we close to eugenics, or am I wrong? I’ll close that parenthesis right away).
In short, businesses will be classified according to their degree of sustainability.
How sustainability is “assigned” and “by whom” is another question. They may be energy companies or accredited consultancy firms that, for a hefty fee, put businesses through a series of questionnaires. A micro business gets the same questionnaire as a big factory. From the questionnaire I started reading, the questions don’t seem to be of the kind: do you use organic products? No. Those aren’t the questions. Many of the questions aren’t about the business in question, but about the businesses it deals with.
The Sustainability Certification looks set to become mandatory soon: the fundamental requirement is not “being sustainable”, as I wrongly and naively thought, just as I thought I was fine with my “clean” business conduct. No. In reality you are sustainable, and can get certified, when you deal with sustainable businesses. With sustainability achieved through parameters diametrically opposed to the ones I thought were right. A system of concentric circles that touches other concentric circles or breaks them: a control system where the control is carried out by businesses themselves on other businesses: I work with you if you are “sustainable” (again, sustainable according to the “official” parameters). If you’re not sustainable I can’t work with you, otherwise I won’t count as sustainable myself. In this way we carry out a collective murder-suicide of businesses. Only those that suit the system stay alive. Not those that suit the community. In this way businesses will police other businesses, if only because they won’t be able to work with the “unsustainable” ones.
Am I a visionary?
Prove me wrong about what I’ve written. I’d be happy and very relieved.
- Fattoria Il Palazzo, Organic meat
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