Mutualità e sostenibilità: un inedito ruolo del gruppo cooperativo paritetico

This article explores the relationship between ESG sustainability and the mutual purpose of cooperative enterprises under Italian law. It challenges the assumption that cooperatives are inherently aligned with sustainability goals, arguing that the ESG framework developed by EU legislation primarily protects external stakeholders and diffuse collective interests, which do not necessarily coincide with the mutualistic purpose of cooperatives. While cooperatives are structurally oriented toward social value, their legal purpose remains centred on the membercooperative relationship and on the provision of mutual benefit to members. From this perspective, ESG obligations may generate tensions rather than automatic convergence. The article argues, however, that the cooperative system is not alien to sustainability concerns and may instead accommodate them through appropriate legal instruments. In particular, it proposes a novel interpretation of the peer cooperative group («gruppo cooperativo paritetico») under Article 2545-septies of the Italian Civil Code as a contractual device capable of integrating ESGpolicies into the cooperative framework without undermining the primacy of the member. Thanks to its flexibility and coordinative function, this instrument may provide a distinctively cooperative path to sustainability