The Environment

The significance of the environmental impact that all the activities undertaken by the Group and its employees generate at every level has led to a number of concrete initiatives and projects aimed at reducing consumption and waste (e.g. energy, paper and water) as well as encouraging employees to adopt environmentally friendly behaviour.

Raising employee awareness
The Group’s eco-friendly approach is a daily reality at Headquarters, thanks to a series of simple practices that have allowed the Group to significantly cut costs and reduce its environmental impact, as well as help employees acquire more environmentally aware habits in the workplace. Specifically, some of the well-established practices that have been continuously improved over the years are:

using the copiers’ energy-saving features, i.e. the auto shut-off mode;
reducing paper consumption by using copiers as centralized printers and scanners as well as e-mail (sending documents directly via e-mail);
setting multifunction copiers to print front and back by default to reduce paper use;
placing toner cartridge and paper recycling bins on all floors;
encouraging employees to use electronic alternatives to paper-based forms of communication.

Targeted measures

In 2009, a tri-generation system was installed at Headquarters in Milano 3 for the simultaneous production of electricity, heat and cooling through the use of co-generators, heat pumps and absorption chillers. The system is fuelled with natural gas, and provides self-generated electricity for daily consumption (e.g. lighting, PCs, motive power). Covering the needs of four buildings, the system is made up of two separate and independent devices, located on the roof of each building. In 2014, the tri-generation system met the following needs:

it supplied 58.08% of the current energy consumption;
it covered the total heat demand and partially covered the cooling demand.

Moreover, the tri-generation system enabled the company to request “White certificates” (Energy Efficiency Credits) and at the end of the year the National Regulatory Authority for Electricity and Gas (AEEG) accepted its request, finalising the necessary procedure to issue white certificates, which were issued and made available on the energy market. The Archimede and Galilei buildings, as well as the company’s day care centre, are connected to the tri-generation system. Apart from providing self-generated electricity, these connections also enable the continuous coverage of 95% of workstations (UPS and engine-generators).

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