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Main achievements and targets

Overview

Our Environmental Performance Target

We have set clear, company-wide goals and targets to improve our environmental performance. Our environmental goals focus on two main areas: helping clients gain access to sustainable energy and infrastructure and pursuing responsible consumption of resources. In the first case, we have set a 2022 target to increase the amount of our annual revenue coming from low carbon enabling products. In the second case, we have set a 2022 target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption, and to increase the percentage of recycled waste, and are working to meet those goals.

Here are some of the ongoing and planned initiatives to meet our targets:

Energy Efficiency Projects

New pilot projects in the energy field were launched in 2021, in order to quantify the energy savings obtainable by using specific technical solutions, assess their effectiveness, and extend their implementation to other Group plants. Our Health Safety and Environment (HSE) function is focusing on the following main areas: consumption monitoring systems (smart metering); efficiency of systems for the production and distribution of compressed air; efficiency of heating systems; efficiency of motors.

The Group has selected several energy efficiency projects that were launched in 2021. These call for such steps as progressively replacing lighting systems at more than 30 sites in 10 different countries, saving around 2000 tonnes of CO2 annually; replacing obsolete equipment; and valuating alternative energy sources.

For example, in 2021, an Energy Management project in collaboration with Accenture was implemented in the Italian plant at Pignataro Maggiore. This is a Pilot Project for energy consumption optimization through a series of actions to be implemented, monitored and consolidated in the Pignataro plant, with a view to possible further implementation at group level.

The commitment to reduce energy consumption and GHG emissions also involves the manufacturing functions, which are collaborating with HSE in systematically assessing the environmental benefits of any production project, through the quantification of the energy savings and the savings in terms of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions.

Relamping with LED project

We are replacing lighting in our plants around the world to achieve energy savings and reduce GHG emissions.

The project has been extended to a further 30 plants in 10 countries, saving around 2,000 tons of C02 annually. The project was 70% completed overall at the end of 2021, with many sites having finished relamping and others expecting to conclude work in the first half of 2022. The Relamping project will carry on in 2022 for the completion of the work begun in 2021 and the involvement of additional Group business units, working towards the central coordination of the program to achieve further benefits in terms of energy savings and greenhouse gas emissions.

GHG emissions reduction

A central project for reducing the SF6 emissions associated with testing activities was launched at the end of 2020, with the central coordination of the R&D department. As of today, alternative solutions have already been designed and introduced in some sites of the Group, allowing to phase out the SF6 gas in testing activities; R&D will promote the calibration and validation of such solutions, to ensure feasibility of implementation in the other sites where SF6 is used, in the next few years.

Participation in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)

Prysmian Group has an on-going partnership with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) aimed at tackling climate risk and finding low-carbon opportunities. CDP supports Prysmian in collecting and analyzing Scope 1 and Scope 2 emission data, and the setting of new targets to continuously minimize adverse environmental effects. In particular, in 2021 it focused on reporting Scope 3 emissions. The majority of the GHG emissions generated by Prysmian are classified as Scope 3, representing more than 99% of the total ecological footprint of the Group.

In order to contribute even more significantly to the reduction of emissions and analyze in even greater depth the business activities at all levels in the value chain, during 2021 Prysmian decided to extend the monitoring and reporting of Scope 3 emissions by redefining the calculation of all Scope 3 categories. Detailed quantification of the Scope 3 emissions, carried out with reference to the Scope 3 standard of the GHG Protocol, highlighted that these emissions are mainly attributable to the “use of products sold”, representing over 97% of the total ecological footprint of the Group. This definition of Scope 3 targets will enable the Group to increase participation throughout the entire value chain and mitigate risks, as well as to propose innovative solutions and initiate new collaborations, thus responding effectively to the related pressures applied by investors, customers and civil society.

Prysmian is considering broadening the scope of supply chain enquiries in order to be able to evaluate all types of supply chain risks, and in 2022 plans to analyse water issues as well as climate change.

Attained Platinum Level certification from EcoVadis

In 2021, Prysmian was awarded Platinum Level achievement by EcoVadis, with a score of 73.

EcoVadis is an international platform used by many industrial groups to evaluate suppliers such as Prysmian Group and monitor sustainability in their global supply chain. The methodology is based on international Sustainable Development standards and covers 21 criteria across four themes (Environment, Labor and Human Rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement).

Launch of ECO CABLE Label

In May 2021, we launched our ECO CABLE label in Italy, which identifies the environmental impact of our cables: carbon footprint; absence of substances-of-very-high-concern; recyclability/circularity; recycling input rate (usage of recycled as raw materials); environmental benefits (low-carbon products and construction products regulation); and cable transmission efficiency.

Eco Cable criteria have been fully calculated for the complete Energy cables portfolios of following countries: Spain, Germany, France, and The Netherlands; and for the E&I portfolios in Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

Calculating the Carbon Footprint for Individual Cables

Since 2018 the Prysmian Group has included calculation of the carbon footprint of its products (from the extraction of raw materials to shipment of the finished products from the plant) in the management systems used throughout the world for product development activities. We are updating our cable design tool (the Common Analisi software platform) so that it can assess the carbon footprint and potential recyclability of cables in the design phase. This process currently has covered about 85% of the Group’s cables portfolio, and will be further expanded over the coming years. We are also building these environmental parameters into our new Cable Builder design system. This information includes raw material production and energy consumption during cable manufacturing. The system provides a helpful database regarding the environmental information of each cable, as requested by Distribution System Operators (DSO) and Transmission System Operators (TSO) that use it to rate the sustainability of their suppliers.

During 2021 Prysmian continued to collaborate with a number of customers and specialist external companies, and the HSE and R&D functions carried out studies to quantify the environmental aspects and impacts of its products. This work has broadened the vision of the product environmental assessment, enabling us to understand better the environmental aspects and impacts of an ever-broader range of products. Further studies are in fact already underway in response to growing market and customer demand, and in 2022 will lead to the completion of EPD and CFP studies for a large number of products, involving business units in several countries.

Pignataro Plant Energy Management Project

In 2021, we began a pilot project with Accenture at our electrical cables plant at Pignataro Maggiore in Italy. We are working to reduce energy consumption through a series of actions that will be monitored and consolidated in the Pignataro plant, with a view to possible further implementation at group level. The project involves a central control for monitoring the energy consumption; checks at plant level to identify opportunities for optimization; a definition of investments to be made within a specific budget; and evaluation of each investment, using performance indicators, including the Environmental Index [ton CO2/k€].

We calculated the energy savings and reduction of environmental impact, to be achieved through a series of energy efficiency measures and selected on the basis of the improvement envisaged, feasibility and cost.