ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE

The Group has been operating for years in the framework of virtuous management of its activities by implementing a policy that is sensitive to respect for the environment and attentive to energy saving. The principle of environmental protection, particularly important for the Group’s mission, is pursued through the promotion of activities and processes that are as environmentally friendly as possible, through the use of advanced criteria and technologies in terms of environmental protection, energy efficiency, and sustainable use of resources, through the assessment of the environmental impacts of all company activities and processes, the ongoing collaboration with stakeholders, the pursuit of environmental protection standards, and through the implementation of adequate management and monitoring systems.

The pursuit and achievement of these objectives is evidenced by the certification of an integrated system for quality, environment, and safety, implemented by the major companies of the Group. With this in mind and thanks to the environmentally-friendly soul of the main companies, the management is committed to promoting a corporate culture oriented towards respect for the values linked to the prevention of all forms of environmental pollution, paying particular attention to the responsible consumption of natural and energy resources, as well as the recovery, recycling, and disposal of waste produced, actively collaborating with internal and external stakeholders to optimise the management of environmental issues. The implementation and application of improvement and renewal programmes translate, especially for companies operating in the service sector, into a constant search for innovative technological solutions, aimed at reducing the impacts generated by carrying out the activities.

The management and recovery of municipal and industrial waste represents for the Paoletti Group one of the central business units in the overall strategies of the Holding Company. Municipal waste management takes place through the companies belonging to the Paoletti Ambiente Subholding Company. Overall, the Paoletti Group in Italy manages separate waste collection in 33 municipalities including a regional capital (Perugia), promoting a consolidated model of door-to-door separate collection which in 2021 recorded an overall higher percentage of differentiated waste 71%, a figure that assumes great value if compared to the national one, which is around 70% in the North, 53% in the South, and 59% in Central Italy. In particular, the results attained in Perugia, where the extension of the door-to-door collection to the whole municipal territory was completed, place the Umbrian regional capital in second place among the regional capitals of Italy in terms of percentage of separate waste collection recorded in 2020.

Also emblematic is the recognition of “Free Waste Municipality” that Legambiente assigned to the Municipality of Fonte Nuova (managed in ATI by Paoletti Ecologia) by virtue of the separate waste collection performance recorded in 2018. This recognition, never assigned before to a municipality in the Lazio region with more than 15,000 inhabitants, is the result of a growth path that in the three years has seen the municipal separate collection go from 10% to over 75%, following a trend of growth similar to all the municipalities managed by the Group companies. In the sector of the management of special and industrial waste, the Paoletti Group is active through Gesenu, Paoletti Ecologia, and Soltreco Bonifiche (a company of the Solmar Group). Furthermore, with reference to the Solmar Group, Nuova Solmine SpA, at the Serravalle Scrivia plant, annually produces about 70,000 tonnes of sulphuric acid and oleum, through the treatment of waste containing sulphur and the regeneration of spent acids. The plant, thanks to the use of cutting-edge technologies and the high specialisation of its personnel, guarantees a level of quality and purity of sulphuric acid comparable to that produced directly from sulphur, contributing, at the same time, to the protection and respect for the environment, through the recovery of waste that would otherwise be disposed of. The activity of recovering the sulphur contained in liquid and solid industrial waste, often classified as hazardous, has a very positive impact on the environment not only for the saving of raw materials but above all because it efficiently treats waste that would otherwise produce very negative impacts in environmental terms for the development of sulphur dioxide emissions, in the case of incineration, and for the production of waste and sludge to be placed in landfills, in the case of neutralisation.