Prevention and improvement
At our Italian plants, all production activities are carried out through innovative processes and continuous improvement initiatives geared to the protection of the environment. A significant example is the adoption by our European plants of water-based painting cycles, using enamels requiring a lower quantity of solvent. In addition to ensuring full compliance with the limits specified by the regulations, water-based painting cycles reduce the emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), an example of the full-fledged preventive actions that underlie our strategic choices. The prevention process is ensured by the investments we make in our plants, the technological starting point for any further progress in terms of emissions into the atmosphere and, hence, for the development of new products with reduced VOC contents. Among the improvement actions we are undertaking in collaboration with the Fiat Research Centre (CRF), we should mention the identification of critical points in energy consumption and the drafting of a list of procedures to be put in place. Since 2007. the CRF has started specific activities geared to the development of production process energy analysis models, by selecting the main manufacturing processes and classifying them as a function of primary energy consumption. For the energy intensive areas of the various plants assessed, we are defining a number of changes to the materials, the processes, the technologies and the systems. Among other things, these interventions will ensure a reduction in the costs of the manufacturing plants themselves.