ICIM Group’s Certification Body has verified compliance with all requirements according to UNI/PdR 125, acknowledging sustainability and inclusivity as corporate values.
Today, Cimberio S.p.A. received the voluntary Gender Equality Certification from ICIM SpA, following the UNI/PdR 125:2022 standard. This certification encourages companies to adopt policies promoting inclusivity, valuing diversity, and reducing gender disparities, in alignment with the fifth goal of the UN 2030 Agenda and Mission 5 of Italy’s PNRR (Inclusion and Cohesion).
Cimberio, a company specializing in producing brass valves and components for plumbing, HVAC, gas distribution, and water systems, is the first metalworking group in its area and among the first in Italy to achieve this milestone in a traditionally male-dominated industry.
The certification ceremony took place at the company’s headquarters in San Maurizio d’Opaglio (NO). It recognizes a process that included verifying six key performance indicators (KPIs): culture and strategy, governance, HR processes, opportunities for women’s growth and inclusion, pay equity, and parental support.
Numerous studies show that more inclusive companies attract and retain top talent and generate higher value. Gender equality is not just an ethical issue but also a driver of economic growth.
Implementing an effective corporate gender equality management system improves both company and individual performance by valuing each employee’s personal and professional characteristics. Promoting gender balance also offers intangible benefits such as fostering innovation and enhancing the company’s reputation in the marketplace.
The certification of gender equality fits into the sphere of Corporate Social Responsibility and, for this reason, must involve the top management of the company in the first instance.
The company wanted to walk through and certify what was actually already a given internally, thanks to innovative and open social and recruiting policies that led Cimberio to start the path to certification from a situation of inclusiveness that was already real.
“The first comment that comes to mind when thinking about this certification is: beautiful! In fact, I am really happy to have certified what has always been a reality in this company, an idea shared at all levels.
Gender equality is serious business, and here at Cimberio we have always taken it seriously, in the knowledge that we live in an industry that carries with it a cultural tare that wants it strictly reserved for men.
Instead, I believe, and we are an example of this, that even a company like ours can pursue serious policies that see men and women employed with the goal of grasping their respective characteristics and peculiarities, enhancing and indulging them.
This certification gives us more awareness within the company and sets us up differently to the outside world: whoever comes to work here, man or woman, has the same opportunities and treatment.
I personally thank those who followed the certification process, and those who gave us the opportunity to give a chrism of officialdom to our way of being a company.”
Roberto Cimberio
CEO Cimberio S.p.A.
In order to be accredited by Accredia to issue certification to companies, ICIM SpA, too, had to adopt PdR 125: in fact, for the first time-consistent with the guiding principles of the standard-certifying bodies were also bound to use the same management system for gender equality. A novelty that did not find ICIM SpA unprepared, since the entire ICIM Group had already started a reorganization process putting people at the center of corporate development, valuing their differences and skills in different roles as elements of growth, development and inclusiveness.
Says Federico Pasqui, CEO of ICIM SpA: “We are proud to award the Gender Equality Certificate to a company like Cimberio SpA, which belongs to the world of mechanics, the same world that saw the birth, now more than 30 years ago, of our Certification Body, which has now evolved into a broader Group with cross-cutting competencies in consulting, testing, and training, serving companies facing the digital and ecological transition.
Pasqui continued, “Gender equality certification is the operational tool that incentivizes the adoption of concrete policies and measures toward inclusiveness and valuing diversity, but at the same time it recognizes the importance of behaviors that are already widely applied in companies: it is a point of arrival and a new departure. – and he concludes – This is an issue that affects the whole world of work and is a pillar of social sustainability.”