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Prysmian Group – 2015 Sustainability Report
Sustainable Innovation
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Commitment to innovation
Being a leader means knowing how to innovate. The Prysmian Group seeks to generate innovation,
quality and know-how, with a view to developing innovative products with a lower environmental
impact and higher value added for customers, even in those sectors in which products are largely
standardised.
The Group's commitment to innovation and the development of new products with a reduced environmental
impact stems from the conviction that this is the best way to guarantee economic sustainability over the long
term. Such a commitment is essential in order to assure well-being and the quality of life in today's society
and for future generations. In particular, development projects seek to increase the efficiency and reliability
of the finished products offered by Prysmian while, at the same time, lowering energy and power losses, as
well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the consumption of electricity and water during the
production processes.
Sustainability is a constant focus for the Prysmian Group, in step with the times and the markets; it is not
only a prerogative for research, development and innovation in the more developed countries, but also for
that performed in the emerging countries. Investment in sustainability helps, in fact, to lower risk in places
where energy costs are rising and access to energy sources remains unstable.
In addition, the Group's engineers employ advanced tools to validate the performance of our cables and
simulate applications, even before any prototypes are made. This process helps to maximise the use of
laboratory time, for example by avoiding unnecessary repetitions, and therefore reduce the consumption of
materials and energy.
Spending by Prysmian on Research, Development and Innovation during 2015 totalled about 82 million
euro
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, confirming our constant commitment and focus on sustainable growth over the long term.
Work dedicated to the optimisation of costs via the Design-To-Cost (DTC) programme has also continued.
This methodology is used to lower production costs, both when developing a new product and when re-
engineering an existing product. This programme achieved cost savings totalling almost 14 million euro in
2015.
The Group's constant drive to innovate is supported by 17 Centres of Excellence, which have their
headquarters in Milan and employ more than 500 experienced professionals.
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Including 73 million opex and 9 million capex.