Other initiatives to mitigate environmental impacts

The Group implements many initiatives in order to reduce the environmental impact of its activities in the various business sectors.

Waste management services

All of the waste-to-energy plants are equipped with monitoring systems that guarantee continuous measurement of emissions and verification of compliance with the regulations and the Integrated Environmental Authorisations with control of the substances indicated. In order to optimise mercury abatement, a flue gas filtration system was installed at the Turin waste-to-energy plant in 2021.

For the containment of the biogas emissions from landfills, cycles of internal control are carried out for the regulation of the valves at the top of the biogas collector wells with measurement of the capturing efficiency of the plant.

Another initiative regarded the replacement of diesel- powered roll on/roll off compactors with electronic equivalents. In 2021, 11 new equipment were purchased, which make it possible to reduce emissions into the atmosphere and, at the same time, noise emissions.

Integrated water service

The initiatives aimed at reducing the environmental impacts mainly concern:

  • the reduction of energy consumption by adapting wastewater treatment processes and replacing old machinery with the latest generation equipment that consumes less energy;
  • the replacement of submersed electric pumps of the pumping stations with new pumps fitted with inverters;
  • the reduction of water procurement through the reduction of water mains leaks;
  • the improvement of the quality of the water that leaves the treatment plants and the connection of stretches of untreated sewage to final treatment systems;
  • the abatement and containment of odorous emissions from treatment plants by confining them to secure rooms during the process in order to allow the air to be aspirated and treated.

The network of water houses for the free supply to citizens of water resources (chilled and sparkling), coming from the managed aqueducts, allows to strongly reduce the use of plastic bottles (about 19 million 1.5 litre bottles in 2021) and, consequently, the production of waste (674 tons of PET avoided), with an estimated saving of 1,754 tons of CO2eq thanks to the avoided consumption of 1,280 tons of oil equivalent for the production of bottles.

The water houses have avoided the production of 674 tons of plastic waste and 1,754 tons of CO2eq