Page 48 - Sustainability Report 2019

RATTI FOR RESPONSIBILITY
CHAPTER 4 | Ratti’s environmental commitment
The energy efficiency actions are directly linked with improving
the systems
that control
and measure consumption.
With the objective of reducing future water consumption, in 2019 Ratti made a number of investments in factory service equipment.
Monitoring energy consumption
The investments made in 2019 have led to the optimisation of the Ratti Group’s production processes, concentrating on improving the system for monitoring consumption at the Guanzate premises, which account for most of the Ratti Group’s energy consumption.
During 2019 Ratti SpA concluded activities for certifying the Energy Management System according to the standard ISO50001:2018, carrying out energy analysis on the basis of 2018 consumption.
The energy efficiency actions are directly linked with improving the systems that control and measure consumption. For a number of years Ratti SpA has regularly verified electricity consumption by using a monitoring system based on a number of meters that the company has increased over time.
In 2019, this measurement, which included the
main sources of consumption relating to production (transformers, control panels in the electricity cabinets, control panels in the departments, the principal machinery), was further widened to include the monitoring of individual users, with data gathered on a daily basis.
In this way, at the Guanzate site, Ratti ensures compliance with the applicable authorisations, laws and regulations, and that the environmental performance of specific KPI parameters is monitored by surveillance plans that are defined and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedure. With the goal of developing a consumption monitoring system that is increasingly extensive and integrated, Ratti SpA has set itself the objective over the next few years of increasingly measuring individual users.
Since 2014, the major investments made in the
Guanzate plant by replacing old machinery and installing a machine that recovers heat from
vapour, have facilitated a significant decrease in the consumption of electricity and methane, making the departments more efficient. The replacement of the old washing lines and the installation of a system recovering heat from wastewater has also led to a reduction in both water and energy consumption. This is thanks to reusing energy to heat the in-flowing water that replenishes the tanks that form part of the washing line.
The main actions carried out in 2019 to optimise energy consumption include:
• the replacement of machinery in the Finishing department with new equipment that includes a heat pump;
• the installation of an LED lighting system for the offices (on a surface area of around 4000m2) and the warehouse for semi-finished products;
• the replacement of some older-generation batteries and battery chargers with new, high-efficiency batteries, guaranteeing a 30% saving in energy used to recharge batteries;
• the replacement of the room housing the data processing centre’s machines with air-conditioned cupboards, guaranteeing improved efficiency.
The Ratti Group has also paid particular attention to optimising the consumption of methane, investing in
the replacement of machines that consume this gas indirectly. In 2019, all methane gas meters were replaced by the latest generation of systems that allow (from 2020) remote reading, so that consumption data can be recorded more frequently.
With regard to the air-conditioning and heating systems, the Guanzate plant follows a specific procedure for managing air-conditioning systems and for managing emissions into the atmosphere, that ensures compliance with the Autorizzazione Unica Ambientale (single environmental authorisation).
In particular, in order to reduce polluting emissions into the atmosphere, in 2019 a burner in the power plant was replaced by a latest-generation burner, guaranteeing lower emissions of nitric oxide..
Energy production from renewable sources by photovoltaic systems at the Guanzate site made it possible, during 2019, to produce 873,976 kWh of
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