Environment
Since 1995 (year of ILVA privatization) up to present days, ILVA Works has been subjected to a challenging modernization plan aiming to improve plant technology and limit the environmental impact of production activities as much as possible, making production route more efficient and safe.
Taranto Works has been the target of 74% of all investments realized for ILVA Group Works, in Italy and abroad. From 1995 to the end of 2008, the investments for Taranto reached 3,843 million euros, out of which 907.5 million euros for environment and ecology (that is 24% of the total amount invested for Taranto).
The investments dedicated to plant technologic modernization have involved all works areas, and the investments dedicated to environmental impact improvement have mainly involved Ironmaking and Steelmaking areas; in particular, Cokemaking Area absorbed 40% of investments for ecology and environment.
All investments on environment since 2004 have been the result of Agreements with the local authorities. The policy of the latest years has been to realize plants conforming to the best available techniques and techniques. The investments have aimed to improve environmental impact through: reduction of emissions into the atmosphere, solid emission reduction (residues, by-products and waste), polluting component reduction into waste water, removal and disposal of all transformers containing PCB, installed at the time of privatization (949 pieces), and removal and disposal of asbestos.
The Works Environmental Management System (EMS) includes people, rules and behaviours aiming to anticipate, identify and manage the interactions between company activities and environment, as well as define and reach the objectives set by the Works Management with regard to Works Environmental Policy.
The EMS is an integrated management system with other company needs. It was created and structured to ensure a correct approach to environmental issues and a constant improvement of the environmental performances. It involves the whole organizational structure and defines responsibilities, procedures, processes and resources needed to implement and keep active the environmental policy, and to manage environmental issues.
The Works, being aware of the environmental impact of its activities, has provided itself with an EMS in conformance with the requirements of UNI EN ISO 14001 Standard. In 2004, the Works obtained the certification of conformance with the above mentioned standard by an accredited external certification body.
UNI EN ISO 14001 STANDARD
It is a voluntary Standard acknowledged at international level, issued in 1996 and reviewed in 2004, which specifies the requirements of a Company Environmental Management System necessary for an Organization to develop and implement an Environmental Policy and its objectives in conformance with law and directions concerning significant environmental aspects. The EMS may be certified by an external body. In this case, it represents an assurance towards workers, users/customers and surrounding territory.
All EMS activities, such as identification and assessment of significant environmental aspects, definition of objectives and improvement programmes, monitoring of environmental parameters and plant operation, personnel’s training, identification, updating and respect of the relevant law prescriptions, emergency management, running of internal audits and EMS constant review by the Management, are described in a series of documents which integrate and complete each other.
ILVA ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION
- Environmental Manual – EMS reference document, giving a general description of the Company and the elements composing the system;
- Management procedures – these include relevant topics at EMS level (system planning, implementation, control, correction, review activities) which require behaviour conformance;
- Operational procedures – these define the modalities for carrying out the activities concerning significant environmental aspects;
- Operational practices – these define the requirements and the modalities needed in order to carry out a particular operation, having the feature of repetitiveness, both from the technical and the management point of view;
- Operational instructions – these are directions not having the feature of repetitiveness, but having a limited time application.
In order to ensure a correct EMS implementation, the Works has established an internal Ecology Dept. which identifies and assesses the environmental aspects, and defines and manages system procedures as well, verifying their observance through internal audits. These audits are carried out on a regular basis and represent a useful tool to assess system efficiency and efficacy.