Growth in revenues from Green Performance products, reduction of specific water withdrawal, increase in waste recovery rate, training days for employees beyond the business plan target, new partnerships with strategic natural rubber suppliers, in support of rubber producers natural rubber and to protect biodiversity. These are the main results of Pirelli's Sustainability strategy, expressed through the various corporate dimensions: economic, environmental and social. Since 2009, the base year for the medium-long term sustainability objectives that Pirelli has set itself, significant progress has been made in the development and creation of Green Performance products, in the ever-growing attention to containing the environmental impacts deriving from the entire cycle life of the tyre, in spreading the culture of safety and in supporting employees and the external communities in which the company operates.
"In 2015, in particular, - said Filippo Bettini, chief of Sustainability and Risk Governance of Pirelli during a meeting today with the media - almost half (48% compared to 46% recorded in 2014) of Pirelli's tire revenues it is derived from Green Performance products, a level almost double compared to 2009, when it was equal to 25%, and higher than the objective of the 2013-2017 sustainability plan which aimed to reach this value only at the end of next year”. Results resulting from the intense Research & Development activity of the Pirelli laboratories, aimed at increasingly advanced tires in terms of technology and performance but at the same time capable of ensuring better environmental performance thanks to the reduction in rolling resistance and noise. Investments in R&D annually exceed 3% of total revenues, reaching 2015 million in 215 against 205,5 million in 2014 and 133,3 million in 2009. 1. “Percentage which rises to 5,4 million for advanced high-end products range” underlined Bettini who also confirmed the strategic presence of Pirelli in Formula 1 and growing attention also for the E segment, that of electric cars which will have more and more space in the near future on the global four-wheeler market.
Among the most significant results of the group's commitment to environmental protection is the reduction of water withdrawals: in 2015 Pirelli recorded an absolute withdrawal of water of just over 11 million cubic metres, with a decrease of the specific withdrawal of 3% compared to 2014 and 42% compared to 2009. In figures, there are no less than 30 million cubic meters saved, a quantity slightly lower than the total water withdrawal of three years of the entire Pirelli group. Furthermore, during the year, the waste recovery rate rose to 91%, with an increase of 18% compared to 2009 and 1% compared to 2014.
Having illustrated the goals achieved, Bettini projected himself on the objectives set for 2020. The incidence of revenues from Green Performance and the per capita training of 37 employees had already been surpassed (8,3 days in 2015 well over the 7 days envisaged in industrial plan for the same year). “We aim in particular – said the Pirelli manager – to reduce the accident frequency index by 90% compared to 2009 thanks to continuous investments in increasingly safer machinery. At the end of 2015, the decline had already reached 73%. At an environmental level, again compared to 2009 values, a 15% reduction in CO2 emissions, a 18% drop in specific energy consumption, a 58% drop in specific water withdrawal and a recovery rate of waste greater than 95%". Is it a program fully shared also by the new partner, ChemChina? “100 percent – replied Bettini, explaining how the chairman of the Chinese group is the first to show very strong attention to these problems in each of his speeches. And since ChemChina is a giant closely linked to the Chinese state, it demonstrates how Beijing has embarked on the path of sustainable development best practices much faster than the United States itself".
