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Sustainable Investment Week 2025: Responsible Finance and Green Industry at the Core of Italy’s Transition

From October 28 to November 12, Milan and Rome will host the 2025 edition of SRI Week: a focus on businesses, industrial innovation, and ESG strategies for sustainable growth.

28-10-2025
3 mins to read

The Sustainable and Responsible Investment Week 2025 (SRI Week), promoted by the Forum for Sustainable Finance, returned to Milan and Rome from October 28 to November 12. An event that marks the meeting point between financial capital and the real economy, placing the ecological transition of Italian companies at its core.

In addition to ESG issues and ethical finance, the 2025 edition delved into the connections between sustainability, industrial innovation, and new models of circular production, reaffirming Italy’s role as a hub for experimentation in the European landscape.

Sustainable finance and real industry

The novelty of this year lies in the growing attention to the link between ESG investments and the transformation of the production system.

Not only large funds or institutions, but also SMEs and manufacturing companies are actively participating in the transition process, thanks to green financial instruments, incentives for energy efficiency, and tenders dedicated to circular industry.

In Milan, the panels “Smart Cities and Quality of Life” and “CAM Construction: Sustainability as a Competitive Advantage”【pim.mi.it】explored how sustainable finance can accelerate urban regeneration and foster the ecological conversion of supply chains. In Rome, by contrast, the conferences focused on the role of energy communities and public-private partnerships in the green transition.

Technological innovation and green manufacturing

During the 2025 SRI Weeks, the discussion also moved onto an operational level: how to integrate ESG criteria into industrial processes.

Startups and Italian companies presented technologies for productive decarbonization, the use of regenerated materials, and the efficient management of energy in production sites.

Capital goods and industrial machinery, when reused, represent environmental as well as economic value.

Milan and Rome: laboratories of sustainability

Milan hosted the opening of the event with workshops dedicated to climate finance, green bonds, and resilient urban infrastructures.

In Rome, the focus was on the social and environmental impact of local projects, with the Renewable Energy Communities Laboratory promoted by Roma Capitale and GSE.

The two cities thus offered two complementary perspectives:

Milan as the financial and innovative engine of industrial sustainability;
Rome as a laboratory for public policy and collective participation.

Ethical finance, circular economy, and online auctions

As part of the debates during SRI Week, attention was also given to alternative tools to foster a sustainable economy: among these, marketplaces and online auctions were recognized as virtuous tools for the reuse and valorization of industrial assets.

A model that reduces waste and costs, contributing to closing the value cycle of goods, in line with the objectives of the European circular economy.

Towards a sustainable future

According to data from the Forum for Sustainable Finance, in 2025 over 75% of Italian companies have already initiated ESG integration processes within their industrial plans.

The goal for the coming years will be to expand the scope of responsible investment to include smaller production sectors, making sustainability a cross-cutting economic driver, and not just a reputational value.

The 2025 Sustainable Investment Week confirms that green finance is no longer merely a driver for investors, but a tangible bridge toward a more efficient, digital, and circular industry.

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