RadiciGroup highlights lifecycle efforts

MORE than 100 speakers from numerous organizations gave presentations on November 5-6 at this year’s General Assembly of the Green Economy, a conference attended by about 2,000 people, held during ECOMONDO, the 18th International Trade Fair of Material and Energy Recovery and Sustainable Development (Rimini, November 5-8). The speakers represented  institutions, businesses, research organizations and associations.

The conference focused on policies and measures needed to support Italian companies in their green economy development efforts. The companies, including RadiciGroup, were the real main players of the  assembly, which comprised seven thematic sessions: eco-friendly agrifoods, eco-innovation and competitiveness of Italian businesses, natural capital, economic savings of waste recycling, energy and climate, sustainable water resource management and from carbon footprint to environmental footprint.

The RadiciGroup presentation, part of the seventh session on carbon and environmental footprints, illustrated the group’s experience using the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) method, set forth in the 2013 European Commission Recommendations “on the use of common methods to measure and co-mmunicate the lifecycle environmental performance of products and organizations.”

“In our talk we reported our results on emissions reduction using the impact categories of the PEF methodology,” Stefano Alini, corporate quality manager of RadiciGroup, said. “We focused our attention on the practical aspects of this method to assess its application in the field, on the difficulties that must still be overcome in order to make the method more user friendly, and, most important, on the results achieved in improving the effectiveness of our communications on the sustainability policy we have been following for years now.”

In July 2013, Radici Chimica SpA, a RadiciGroup chemical company engaged in production of polyamide 6.6 and related intermediates, signed a voluntary agreement with the Italian Ministry for the Environment to join a collaboration program with the ministry and other businesses to promote emissions reduction and wider adoption of sustainable models for production and consumption. The  agreement aimed to use the PEF method to assess, measure and quantify reduction in  environmental impact of polyamide 6.6 and its intermediates, which was achieved through an emission abatement plant built at the Group’s Novara production site.