Protecting our planet
ENVIRONMENT
The Group’s commitment to safeguarding the environment and conserving natural resources is expressed not only by the intrinsic characteristics of our products, but also by how the production systems are managed. In particular, the prevention and reduction of their environmental impact is achieved, for example, by the efficient use of natural resources, the optimisation of logistics flows and the responsible management of waste.
In terms of energy efficiency, in 2016 the Group has participated once again in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) which seeks to contribute to the pursuit of the objectives agreed in the Kyoto Protocol regarding the global reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
HSE strategy
The Prysmian Group is as committed as ever to protecting the health, safety and well-being of its employees at their places of work. The objective is to promote activities that take increasing account of health, safety and well-being matters, both within and outside the working environment.
Although not necessarily required by local legislation, the Group has established education and training programmes on such topics as safety at work, first aid, the fire prevention regulations, the consequence of alcohol and drug abuse, and environmental matters.
The commitment to health and safety was reinforced once again during 2016, via the coordination of central and local activities under the guidance of the HSE function. At the start of the year, HSE gathered, analysed and shared with top management the results achieved in 2014 and the performance of the Group and each Country/Geographical Area, determined with reference to relevant indicators (total number of events involving the loss of work and related ‘Frequency Indicator’).
Further developments in this area will be made possible by considering the outcome of the energy audits carried out in 2015 and 2016 at a number of European factories, deemed representative, in order to identify actions to improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Work is well advanced on the implementation of tools for assessing and managing the environmental impact of products and, in particular, their carbon footprints.
About 160 inspections for certification purposes were carried out at the various factories during the year, of which about 12% were carried out by experienced Prysmian personnel. The other inspections were performed by auditors from external certification agencies.
Significant events during 2016 included the investment of about 8 million euro in health, safety and environmental activities.
Certifications
During the year, the Prysmian Group continued work to coordinate the Group's HSE management systems by:
- extending OHSAS 18001 certification of the safety management system to an additional 5 locations,and ISO 14001 certification of the environmental management system to one additional location;
- upgrading the ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certifications of Prysmian Power Link (the organization that installs HV terrestrial and submarine cables), by extending their field of application to the design and supervision of production and by combining the ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 audits into one programme;
- adopting an integrated auditing system (two additional factories compared with 2015);
- using the official certification agency at factories previously certified by other agencies. In particular, during 2016, 4 factories changed to the official agency for ISO 14001 certification (regarding environment management systems) and 2 changed in relation to IHSAS 18001 certification.
At the end of 2016 91% of production site were certified by ISO 14001 and 73% by OHSAS 18001
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