Sustainability Channel

PIRELLI OPENS THREE COMPANY LIBRARIES AND DONATES BOOKS TO SCHOOLS

HEADQUARTERS AND BOLLATE – AFTER  SETTIMO TORINESE – ENRICHED WITH A DONATION OF 7,000 BOOKS AVAILABLE TO ITS EMPLOYEES

THANKS TO HELP FROM THE ITALIAN SCHOOL FUND THE COMPANY, WITH THE INVOLVEMENT OF EMPLOYEES, WILL SUPPORT THE STOCKS OF SCHOOL LIBRARIES

THE INITIATIVES ARE PART OF THE #IOLEGGOPERCHÉ CAMPAIGN

Not one, but three company libraries – one for each of the company’s locations in Italy – from today enter into the world of Pirelli. Forever attentive to the improvement of employees’ quality of life and working environment, the company today inaugurated a library at its headquarters in Milan’s Bicocca area and one at its plant in Bollate, which will flank the one already opened with success inside Pirelli’s industrial hub in Settimo Torinese.

The inauguration of the Pirelli library is part of #ioleggoperché 2016, the campaign promoting reading organized by the Associazione Italiana Editori (AIE) in which Pirelli is the main partner and this year is focusing on the development of activities to promote and create company and school libraries. At the “ribbon cutting”, which took place today at Pirelli’s headquarters, the Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of Pirelli, Marco Tronchetti Provera and the City of Milan’s Councillor for Culture, Filippo del Corno, the Delegated Director and Director of the Fondazione Pirelli, Antonio Calabrò, and Chairman of the AIE Federico Motta. The event saw the special participation of Lella Costa, in her role of Honorary Member of the Fondo Scuola Italia, the non-profit association which, acting as a bridge to companies, has the goal of gathering resources and materials to put at the disposal of Italian schools.

Spreading culture by bringing books into factories and the work place has always seen Pirelli on the front lines. Important places of aggregation, culture and innovation, company libraries are born to encourage employees to read, get informed, gather ideas and compare notes. Factories and work places in general are special places where even culture is produced. Science fiction books, crime novels, best sellers, non-fiction books and children’s books represent the initial stock of around 3,500 volumes at Headquarters in Milan and plant at Bollate: a number which, when complete, will exceed 7,000 units. Many titles and different genres that go beyond the traditional idea of a company library destined to contain only volumes connected with the company’s business.

It was Pirelli’s own employees, through the community of dedicated readers at the Milan headquarters and the active involvement of those of Bollate, that chose the first 1,000 titles considered “must-haves” on the shelves of the new library. To these were added volumes donated by the company RSU, those acquired by the company and books chosen by the Fondazione Pirelli, custodian of the Pirelli archive and that of its entrepreneurial culture.

The libraries at Pirelli’s Headquarters and at Bollate flank the one at the Settimo Torinese Industrial hub, which recently linked with the Piedmonte communal library. This allows employees to count on 110,000 volumes, 220 magazines, 14 dailies, 4,500 films and documentaries in Dvd form, 4,000 music Cds and 400 audio-books. A number which has grown exponentially thanks to the ample stocks of the “Sbam” or the “library system of the Turin metropolitan area” (11 million books, traceable and bookable on the basis of the ErasmoNet catalogue) and of which Pirelli’s library has become a part becoming the first private library to be included in a public library system.

Pirelli and the libraries: a story 90 years long

The opening of the new libraries is part of a tradition, which saw Pirelli open its first company library almost 90 years ago. It was in 1928, in fact, that the first library for employees enrolled in the “Dopolavoro Aziende Pirelli” opened and already counted close to 800 titles. With formal regulations for the loan and return of books, the library was closed for a period during the war, only to reopen in 1945 with around 3,000 volumes chosen by the workers from catalogues provided by the company. In the following year the library continued to grow until it reached 10,000 volumes in 1956, thanks also to the creation of a reading room for newspapers and magazines and for the consultation of books directly from the shelves. Library loans reached at the time 50,000, a tangible sign of the interest of employees in reading. For its researchers and engineers Pirelli had also created a Technical-Scientific library composed of around 16,000 volumes on the rubber and cables technology from the 1800s to modern times. This collection has been available since 2010 to the public, students and researchers at the Fondazione Pirelli.

#ioleggoperché 2016: Pirelli in support of school libraries

The inauguration of the Pirellis company library is just one of the concrete responses to the campaign promoting books and reading #ioleggoperché (www.ioleggoperche.it) which this year has the goal – thanks to the collaboration with ALI (Associazione Librai Italiani–Confcommercio), AIB (Associazione Italiana Biblioteche) and Confindustria Gruppo tecnico Cultura e Sviluppo and under the auspices of CEPELL – to spread the passion for reading, inviting people to become “messengers” for the initiative and to donate books to participating schools.

For this reason Pirelli, in collaboration with the Fondo Scuola Italia and also in this case with the contribution of employees, is committed to contributing to the increase of the stock of school libraries. For each book bought by an employee in one of the participating bookstores and donated to schools associated with #IoLeggoMaPerchè, Pirelli doubles committing to buy as many books as those bought by employees. The volumes will be donated to the schools thanks to the Fondo Scuola Italia, a non-profit association dedicated to reinforcing the link between schools and companies.

The support of this initiative is proof of Pirelli’s constant commitment to invest in the young and education. An activity which each year sees the company distribute scholarships to the most deserving children of employees, finance doctorates in research at the Milano Bicocca University and organize educational activities for all school age children through courses carried out by the Fondazione Pirelli and by the Fondazione Pirelli HangarBicocca.

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PIRELLI AND MILAN BICOCCA UNIVERSITY CONTINUE TO JOIN FORCES IN DEVELOPING TYRES THAT ARE EVEN MORE ECOLOGICAL

RENEWAL OF THE CORIMAV AGREEMENT: A CONSORTIUM BETWEEN PIRELLI AND THE UNIVERSITY FOR RESEARCH INTO ADVANCED MATERIALS

ONE PATENT PER YEAR HAS BEEN REGISTERED SINCE CORIMAV WAS FOUNDED IN 2001

One patent deposited every year, 44 student scholarships and 36 doctoral scholarships: all in the arena of research into advanced innovative materials. This is the end result of the CORIMAV partnership, created in 2001 as a joint venture between Pirelli and Milan Bicocca University, which was recently renewed at an event attended by Pirelli’s CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera, and the rector of the university, Cristina Messa.

The CORIMAV project was born 15 years ago with the objective of developing cutting-edge technologies using new materials, supporting research and development into eventual patent applications, and promoting training and career development opportunities for young researchers. Now, this exciting project opens up its next chapter.

Over the last few years, CORIMAV has evolved considerably, in the same way that the nature of research projects has constantly evolved and Pirelli itself has evolved significantly as a company.

The first phase of the CORIMAV programme provided scholarships aimed at three principal areas: nano-composite materials, energy transfer (superconductivity and distributed generation) and molecular modelling. These academic partnerships between Pirelli and the university anticipated a ground-breaking Italian government initiative three years ago designed to promote the creation of research doctorates in collaboration with industry.

Since 2005, CORIMAV has provided doctoral scholarships to broaden the range of research and put in place continuous and structured programmes. From 2010 onwards, the focus has been specifically angled towards tyres: a sector that is obviously at the heart of Pirelli and its strategy. As a result, the consortium has become a natural think-tank of knowledge and ideas from the university to Pirelli and vice versa.

One of CORIMAV’s greatest strengths is its ability to train highly-specialised engineers with specific skills, which can allow these people to become immediately employed in Pirelli’s research and development division.

So it’s no surprise that since the initiative started, around 20% of the scholarship recipients have gone on to be employed by Pirelli, and that the company has funded a full-time researcher tasked with co-ordinating the work of the CORIMAV scientists: a role that has been held by Barbara Di Credico since 2015. Specifically, the research activities funded by Pirelli target the study of inorganic materials that can be used in the vulcanisation of tyre compounds.

Among the recent success stories are Luciano Tadiello and Antonio Susanna. They are two researchers who have joined Pirelli’s research and development department and contributed to two patent deposits by CORIMAV, to do with new materials for tyres that consume less energy.

Research into new materials to produce increasingly ecological tyres has been the main focus of CORIMAV’s activities in recent years. This includes one of the most innovative projects from CORIMAV, which is also patent-protected: the use of lignin in the production of tyres with a low environmental impact. Lignin is a natural material that has intrinsic antioxidant properties, which when altered by appropriate chemical and physical means, can benefit the mechanical performance of a tyre and become a substitute for fossil-derived products (such as carbon black).

CORIMAV’s green philosophy is not just limited to the production phase and use of a tyre but also to the tyre at the end of its life. Researchers have discovered a process of bio-devulcanisation in which bacteria and other biological agents are used to treat tyres at the end of their life. Thanks to recent research, it has been possible to isolate bacteria with the capacity to remove sulphur-carbon bonds, which can be used to treat tyre constituents at the end of their life with a view to subsequent recycling.

Enrico Albizzati has been the director of CORIMAV since it was created. At the time he was in charge of Pirelli’s materials innovation department, and currently he is the company’s scientific advisor.

CORIMAV is a concrete example of the excellence of the newly created Bicocca District within the university: a centre that unites research, culture, and industry. The consortium currently funds three doctoral scholarships per year in material nanotechnology and research. It also organises courses in management and intellectual property for other science students, as well as courses on specific aspects of science, delivered by Pirelli employees. This is yet another way of fostering increasingly integrated collaboration between the worlds of academia and industry.

The university is very close to Pirelli physically, to the point that there used to be a bridge linking Pirelli’s main building to the one that will now house part of Milan Bicocca University. These days, the bridge is formed of ideas, knowledge and innovation that will form a vital link to the future.

Cristina Messa, the rector of Milan Bicocca University, said: “With the renewal of the CORIMAV consortium, we’re underlining the commitment both from ourselves and Pirelli to invest in research and development of new materials. For 15 years now, CORIMAV’s activities have allowed us to carry out sophisticated industrial research projects and activate advanced levels of professional training, such as the industrial doctorate. This close collaboration, with CORIMAV at its very heart, forms an integral part of a wider strategy to showcase the knowledge and innovation that Milan Bicocca University and Pirelli, together with other partners, are pioneering thanks to the Bicocca District project: a brand new network of academic institutions and companies working together to exchange know-how and opportunities, as well as improving services and enriching professional development.”

Marco Tronchetti Provera, Pirelli’s vice chairman and CEO, commented: “The experience of the partnership between Pirelli and Milan Bicocca University has underlined how companies and academic institutions can together trigger initiatives that promote both professional and economic growth. We are collaborating with a number of different departments within the university that represent excellence at international level, and which help us to turn our most innovative projects into reality, as well as improving our product.”

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PIRELLI TO FURTHER INVEST APPROXIMATELY 200 MILLION EURO IN ROMANIA THROUGH 2021, WILL BRING TOTAL INVESTMENT TO 740 MILLION EURO AND CREATE AROUND 500 NEW JOBS

CELEBRATES 10 YEARS OF INDUSTRIAL PRESENCE IN THE COUNTRY WITH THE VISIT OF THE ROMANIAN PRIME MINISTER DACIAN CIOLOS TO THE SLATINA HUB

Pirelli is celebrating ten years of its industrial presence in Romania and announcing further investment of around 200 million euro through 2021 at the Slatina production hub, underlining its strategic importance to the Group’s activities. By that year, the Italian tyre maker’s investment will have reached a total of around 740 million, creating around 500 new jobs and bringing annual production capacity up to 15 million units, from the present 10 million.

The ten year anniversary was marked by a visit to the Pirelli plant by Romanian Prime Minister Dacian Cioloș. He was accompanied by Finance Minister Anca Dana Dragu and Minister for Labor Dragos Pîslaru. Pirelli was represented by its Executive Vice Chairman and CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera and the CEO of Pirelli Tyres Romania Giuliano Menassi who is also the Group’s head of Research and Development.

The additional investments planned from now to the end of 2021 will allow a further improvement of Pirelli’s industrial competitiveness at the European level. Overall, the factory’s floor space, which since its inception has had the most advanced technologies for the production of car tyres for the Premium segment primarily destined to the markets of Eastern Europe, will be extended to 260,000 square metres from the present 210,000. The enhancement plan also involves the production area in Slatina dedicated to motorsport, which includes a F1 production unit which serves as a back-up for the main Pirelli F1 plant in Turkey.

Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos said: “For me, as the Prime Minister of Romania, this is a very important investment especially because it creates jobs and highly qualified work force. Pirelli also has a few hundred local suppliers, Romanian companies that are further developing together with Pirelli. In the near future, it is important to attract foreign direct investments, but also to anchor them in Romania so that they bring new investment in R&D and innovation in order to create opportunities for local communities and partners”.

Mr. Tronchetti Provera said: “Over this decade, Pirelli has never stopped growing. This is not only because of the strategic location of the Slatina plant, which for Pirelli represents a key logistics and commercial hub for all of Eastern Europe, but also because of the ability to attract and support international investments demonstrated by the country’s institutions which sees Italy as its second commercial partner and one of the most important in terms of investments”.

Pirelli committed to the local community

The Pirelli Group entered Romania in 2004 when it established the company “Pirelli Tyres Romania”. Building of the green field tyre factory began in 2005 and the tyres were manufactured in 2006. As well as its industrial presence in the country, Pirelli is involved in a number of research projects with the Universities of Bucharest and Craiova and committed to many social and cultural activities. These include a project for the dissemination of Italian culture in Slatina and, in collaboration with leading Italian soccer club Inter Milan, the Intercampus project dedicated the children of the city, as well as the partnership between Milan’s Niguarda Hospital and that of Slatina.

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