Land Industry Sustainability Report
It seems like a century has passed since the European Commission set out to lead the global transition towards sustainability, with the so-called Green New Deal. Yet, it was only December 2019.
Since then, we have had to deal first with the Covid-19 pandemic, which we are still dealing with, then with the energy and raw materials crisis and, as if that weren't enough, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has blown up all the balances and paradigms to which we have been accustomed for several decades.
Despite the economic difficulties and widespread doubts about how the European institutions are working to achieve the objectives of the Green Deal, the issue of sustainability is still very much present and the productive sectors are certainly not standing idly by, being well aware of how investments in sustainability represent, even in the current difficult context, a policy on the future.
This is even more true for the foundry sector, which for many years has been allocating a much higher share of its investments to sustainability, and in particular to the environment, than that of industry as a whole. This is precisely one of the most significant data that emerges from the new Sustainability Report of the Italian foundry industry produced by Assofond.
The environmental sustainability report of foundries
The data emerging from the study once again confirms a fact well known to all insiders, but probably still too little known outside. The foundry sector is at the forefront in terms of sustainability from all points of view:
- It is from an environmental point of view, because it represents an advanced circular economy system, thanks to the increasingly significant use of scrap as a raw material and the ability to minimize the production of waste materials and to reuse most of them internally or allocating them to other industrial sectors. Furthermore, the products made by foundries are essential precisely to achieve the emission reduction objectives envisaged for the coming years, given that without them there would be no hydroelectric plants, wind turbines, lighter means of transport and so on.
- It is from an economic point of view because, despite the upheavals that have characterized the world economy in the last fifteen years, the sector remains an irreplaceable player in the manufacturing system. This is confirmed by its ability to react to the shocks of the international financial crises (2008), to speculations linked to geopolitical disruptions - supply crises following the Russian invasion of Ukraine - and to the so-called black swans, such as the Covid-19 pandemic .
- Finally, it is from a social point of view. The more than a thousand Italian foundries continue to offer important job and professional growth opportunities, as well as positive effects on the communities where the companies are located, thanks to their being in most cases stable, consolidated realities, capable of generating and distributing value.
From the Sustainability Report of the sector, therefore, a picture of certain interest emerges, which however must be brought to the attention of all the main stakeholders of the sector: the volume is in fact the identity card of Italian foundries, and as such it deserves to be on the tables of all subjects who have relations with companies in the sector. Talking about the sector as a whole also means talking about individual companies and highlighting the contribution they are able to make in the context of the transition towards a more sustainable world, from all points of view.
Source: In Fonderia – ll magazine dell’industria fusoria italiana