PIRELLI: DURING ‘SUSTAINABILITY DAY’ SIGNS AGREEMENT WITH ENVIRONMENT MINISTRY TO REDUCE CLIMATE IMPACT FROM THE PRODUCTION AND USE OF ITS TYRES
Road safety, the consumer’s role and attention to the environment as levers for business, the themes of the international conference held at Pirelli’s headquarters
Without safety interventions, the World Health Organization estimates 2 million deaths on the road in 2020. Economic impact of road accidents in some countries between 1% and 3% of GDP. Awareness of the quality and maintenance of tyres is essential for prevention.
To improve the safety of its products, for the benefit of people and the environment, each year Pirelli invests 7% of revenues from the Premium segment in R&D, one of the highest levels in the tyre sector
Pirelli’s plan for the containment of environmental impact entails a commitment to reduce CO2 specific emissions by 15% and water specific withdrawal by over 50% by 2015
Marco Tronchetti Provera: the technologies needed to be “sustainable”, a particular patrimony of European industry, represent a competitive advantage and an opportunity to spread a new model for growth
Jeremy Rifkin: the “prosumer”, the producer-consumer, is the new protagonist of “distributed capitalism”
Ethical Corporation Study: for almost 90% of interviewees, attention to consumer safety is an essential element of social responsibility and an area of opportunity and innovation
During its “Sustainability Day”, Pirelli today signed a voluntary agreement with the Ministry for the Environment and Land and SeaProtection to reduce the climate impact deriving from the activities relative to the production and use of its tyres. The agreement was signed by Minister Corrado Clini and Pirelli Chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera during the “Driving Sustainability: a safe road to the future” international conference. The agreement underscores the commitment of the company which through its own technology develops production systems and products which guarantee the reduction of environmental impact, quality and consumer safety. All elements which allow Pirelli to constantly increase its efficiency, also with significant economic benefits, and avail of an additional competitive lever on international markets, above all in those where these features are called for by law and appreciated by the consumer.
“To speak of sustainability today, said Pirelli’s Chairman, “means first of all to speak of technologies which permit the constant improvement of our quality of life. The “old” Europe cannot compete with emerging countries from the point of view of production costs and internal demand, but something which can ensure our future, without doubt, is being more advanced in our search for sustainable models of industrial growth. In this sense, Italy and Europe have developed points of excellence which they export to the rest of the world”.
The conference addressed the theme of sustainabilityunderstood not as a cost but as an indispensable condition for a company’s future, which thanks to avantgarde technologies is able to develop more sustainable and efficient models of growth.
The debate also encompassed the theme of the consumer’s role within an economic system which in recent decades has seen profound changes in the models of development and market dynamics.
For the economist Jeremy Rifkin, the “prosumer”, the new producer-consumer, is the figure who will become ever more prevalent thanks to “distributed” capitalism, a complex figure who incarnates different and apparently conflicting interests with which companies must more frequently engage. Reconciling these interests will be a stimulus for companies to identify new models of more sustainable growth.
For Pirelli, growth also means responsibility towards the consumer, both through the protection of the environment and the development of ever safer products. Safety was, in fact, one of the conference’s central themes, with contributions from senior institutional, association, academic and corporate officials. As well as Marco Tronchetti Provera and Minister Corrado Clini, the participants included Antonio Tajani, vice president of the European Commission, responsible for Industry and Entrepreneurship, Peter Bakker, president of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Nikhil Chandavarkar, Chief of Communication and Outreach, Division of Sustainable Development, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Carlo Fidanza, member of the Transport and Tourism Committee of the European Parliament, Francesco Gori, COO of Pirelli, Toby Webb, founder and president of the Ethical Corporation and Jeremy Rifkin, president of the Foundation on Economic Trends. The debate was moderated by Oscar Giannino.
Categories: Sustainability