CONSOlidaTEd FiNaNCial STaTEmENTS >
DIRECTORS’ REPORT
132
| 2012 aNNual rEpOrT prySmiaN grOup
Prysmian Group’s cable industry leadership, in Italy and the
world, carries a duty for assuring an efficient, technologically
advanced service over time that complies with strict
standards. The responsibility of being leader guides the
Group’s approach to sustainability, including the particularly
important areas of sustainable, technological innovation of its
customer solutions, respect for the environment, attention to
safety at work and people development.
In line with its mission, vision and values, Prysmian Group
is attentive to the needs of its stakeholders: customers,
investors and shareholders, employees, local communities,
research centres and universities, public authorities, suppliers,
banks and lending institutions.
The way the Group is managed aims to implement
management and production processes which help
improve the sustainability of the solutions offered to its
customers, the development of its people, the environmental
responsibility of its production systems and the approach to
managing relations with the local communities in which it
operates.
Several projects started in 2012, representing significant
steps in the Group’s progress towards sustainability, while
important results were achieved thanks to continuing work
over the years.
• Work was started to modify the system that gathers
environmental data, in order to cover all the Group’s
businesses and allow performance to be monitored and
improvement targets to be set globally.
• As a result, from 2013 the Group will be able to participate
in the international voluntary Carbon Disclosure Project for
the transparent reporting of direct and indirect greenhouse
gas emissions in order to identify areas for improvement
and initiate specific projects, thereby contributing to the
achievement of the Kyoto worldwide reduction targets.
• The number of patents increased by more than 6%
(inclusive of pending applications) compared with 2011,
reflecting the quest for excellence that constantly drives the
Group’s research and development activities.
• Drum transport by road decreased by 4% in favour of rail
and maritime transport, with the added benefit of lower
atmospheric emissions.
• Prysmian Group Academy was launched, providing a major
opportunity for the professional development of human
resources in terms of technical and managerial skills. The
success to date means that a target coverage of about 10%
of the Group’s senior managers and office staff has been set
for 2013.
The enormous energy devoted by the Group to sustainability
is also reflected in its Sustainability Report, a transparent,
structured piece of communication to its stakeholders, which
provides an annual report on the policy promoted by Prysmian
and its performance in economic, environmental, social and
product terms.
Prysmian Group adopts international best practices where
reporting is concerned, namely the Global Reporting Initiative’s
“Sustainability Reporting Guidelines” (version G3.1 dated 2011).
The GRI Reporting Framework is a universally accepted model
for sustainability reporting. It includes common practices
for different types of organisations and contains topics
of a general nature as well as industry-specific ones with
the aim of communicating an organisation’s sustainability
performance.
Compared with the previous edition, the 2012 Sustainability
Report has extended the qualitative and quantitative
disclosures with the goal of reaching GRI Application Level
C. The document is also being audited for the first time by a
recognised external company to provide all stakeholders with
assurance as to the reliability of the information contained
therein. Reference should be made to the 2012 Sustainability
Report for a complete account of the Group’s economic,
environmental, and social performance.
PRYSMIAN AND SUSTAINABILITY
Several projects started in 2012, representing an equal number of significant steps
in the Group’s progress towards sustainability, while important results were achieved thanks
to continuing work over the years.
