Established in 2019 following a corporate spin-off, Formula Ambiente Spa is a company highly specialised in the collection and transport of urban and special waste. Thanks to a strategic vision and a business approach geared towards environmental sustainability and the enhancement of human capital, this all-Italian excellence has managed to differentiate itself in a highly competitive market, as Chairman Massimiliano Mazzotti, CEO of Formula Ambiente Spa Matteo Brighi and Marcello Rosetti, general manager of Consorzio Formula Ambiente, state in this lengthy interview with three people.
by Roberta Imbimbo
With what mission was Formula Ambiente Spa born?
Formula Ambiente S.p.a. was born in February 2019, following a spin-off of activities by the Formula Ambiente Consortium, a consortium company acting in the name and on behalf of the entire corporate make-up, which today consists of no less than 34 companies almost exclusively cooperatives. As a result of this major corporate restructuring process, Formula Ambiente Spa was born, as it was necessary to establish a joint-stock company that could carry out the entire direct activity of collecting and transporting urban and special waste and accessory services, such as the management of collection centres, cleaning services and the washing of public areas, excluding activities carried out through consortium members. Although recently established, Formula Ambiente Spa inherits a very long history and highly specialised know-how, since the Formula Ambiente Consortium – although not in its consortium legal entity – has been operating in the environmental hygiene sector since way back in 1998. Thanks to a strategic vision and an innovative and dynamic business approach, this all-Italian excellence has experienced exponential growth in recent years, both in terms of turnover (which stands at around 115 million euros for Formula Ambiente), and in terms of organisational structure (Formula Ambiente now employs 1,600 people) and geographical expansion, since, also following major acquisitions, it now operates throughout Italy and mainly in Liguria, Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia Romagna, Tuscany, Abruzzo, Lazio, Sardinia and Sicily.
What kind of market is it in which you operate? What peculiarities distinguish you from your competitors?
Formula Ambiente S.p.a. has succeeded in asserting its role as a primary player in a highly competitive market, dominated by numerous other national players with whom it participates in tenders issued by regional and municipal administrations for the assignment and management of environmental hygiene services. The keys to such success are certainly attributable to several factors, such as a fleet of the latest generation vehicles, constantly renewed and fuelled by alternative fuels (methane, LPG, or electricity); a highly qualified, motivated and goal-oriented team; and the use of green technologies, in line with a company philosophy projected towards environmental sustainability and the circular economy. Formula Ambiente Spa, in fact, has always made corporate social and environmental responsibility its main ethical value, consciously choosing to combine innovation, profitability, competitiveness and respect for the environment. Today, waste, if managed in the right way, can be a very important resource for communities that adopt a circular economy system aimed at maximising the life cycle of products and recycling them at the end of their life cycle to create further value, with the consequence of significantly reducing the costs of their disposal, energy consumption and CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. For this reason, it is very important to aim to raise the level of separate waste collection above 80%: to achieve this very ambitious goal, Formula Ambiente Spa is working hard to make citizens aware of the importance of separating waste in the best possible way, so that it can subsequently be put to maximum use, thus becoming a spokesman for best practices throughout the sector.
How important is human capital for you?
Very much! Especially in this particular historical moment in which there is an objective difficulty in finding highly qualified personnel (who have a C and CQC driving licence), we try to keep talent in the company, continually enhancing the value of each individual resource also with ad hoc training programmes, creating real and rewarding opportunities for personal and professional growth, and rewarding employees for positive results. For example, with our colleagues in the municipality of Marsala, who have been particularly virtuous in the separate collection of waste – reaching 78%, a very important number for a region like Sicily where the level is generally around 47% – we shared the bonus (the 50% attributed to them corresponds to about EUR 130,000) that the municipality awarded us for the excellent goal achieved.
Many goals have been achieved in these years of market presence. Future goals?
To continue to grow by hiring skilled personnel (our internal academy is focused on researching, selecting, and training highly specialised figures to be included in the workforce) and to consolidate our position in the reference market, expanding the number of municipalities managed and reaching a turnover of about 200 million euro by 2024, exporting as much as possible our virtuous waste management model to protect the territory and the communities living there!
For more info (https://formulambiente.it)
