"Beat Plastic Pollution". Prysmian celebrates World Environment Day

2018 theme: "Beat Plastic Pollution. If you can't reuse it, refuse it."

Milan, Italy - 05/06/2018 - 02:00 AM

On 5 June, the United Nations General Assembly promotes World Environment Day, which was established in 1972. Each year, it chooses a particularly urgent and important issue for which global commitment is needed. The theme for 2018 is "Beat Plastic Pollution. If you can't reuse it, refuse it."

Every year across the world, we use 500 billion plastic bags and every minute we buy one million plastic bottles. Fifty percent of the plastic we use is for single use, and every year at least 8 million tons of plastic waste ends up in the ocean.

The theme chosen by the United Nations for 2018 therefore aims to encourage citizens, companies and governments to seek alternatives to disposable plastic, and reduce its production and consumption.

Prysmian pays close attention to environmental aspects, both through the responsible management of its offices and production units, and through research and development, particularly in seeking out innovative materials for new cable technologies and systems.

The Health Safety and Environment department — in collaboration with other departments and with the approval of the Board of Directors — has set targets for 2020 in HSE matters, planning actions every year to gradually achieve these goals.

These objectives are part of the Group's effort towards sustainability, which has resulted in the creation of the Prysmian "Sustainability Scorecard". This contains 16 sustainability targets set for 2020, measured by the same number of KPIs, with a commitment to monitor them and regularly report on their progress.

There are so many projects and concrete actions already undertaken and currently underway to contribute to sustainable development and shared value creation. Here are some of the key targets and results achieved and/or planned at Group level:

to optimise the consumption of energy resources and raw materials and prevent pollution, including through the use of recyclable materials. In 2017, the percentage of recyclable production materials purchased that support the circular economy exceeded 80%, which the Group is committed to maintaining for 2020;
to select raw and other materials used in the production cycle, both to identify, assess and minimise risks to the health and safety of employees, and to develop innovative products and systems with a lower environmental impact and high added value for customers. In 2017, we continued to develop a dedicated tool to calculate the Carbon Footprint (CFP) and end-of-life recyclability of cables produced in the Group’s factories;
to manage waste responsibly and increase the percentage of waste sent for recycling. The Group is committed to increasing the proportion of recycled waste over the total waste generated and it is estimated that in 2017, the percentage of waste recycled was approximately 50% of all waste;
to improve its environmental performance, prioritising key aspects at Group level, such as energy and water consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, as well as hazardous and non-hazardous waste management.