Environmental sustainability and the primary challenges - Overview
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According to the surveys conducted each year by the World Economic Forum, including the most recent Global Risk Report 2023142, environmental risks are among the top long-term global threats. The major challenges everyone is facing include the continuous rise in global temperature, as well as other extreme events related to intensifying climate change, land use and declining biodiversity (see the boxes "Climate Change at COP27" and "Biodiversity: Policies and Instruments for Protection").
After the pandemic, which also persisted through some of 2022, the global scenario became characterised by international tensions and conflict, the energy crisis, and rising inflation.
Against this backdrop, Italy is implementing its National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), published in 2021, in line with the European Green Deal and the “Next Generation EU” recovery package. As well as outlining the challenges in the near future, particularly for environmental sustainability, the NRRP supports and promotes Italy's ecological transition by allocating major investments to several strategic sectors, such as the circular economy, renewable energy, energy efficiency, the national electricity grid to support mobility, territorial protection and water conservation.
Operating in a sphere of interdependence between the environment, the territory and the community, Acea takes into account the UN Sustainable Development Goals and is a major player in the ecological transition, implementing development projects aimed at promoting the circular economy and the smart city concept, promoting the use of renewable energy sources to replace fossil fuels, increasing the resilience of electricity and water distribution infrastructure, and increasing the focus on water conservation and technological innovation applied to infrastructure management.
As regards climate change, the Group continues to develop its executive-level scenario analyses and is committed to lowering GHG emissions with energy efficiency and energy saving measures, as well as other initiatives to promote adaptation and mitigation processes.
This is evidenced by the Group's level of compliance with the requirements of the first two climate objectives under Regulation 2020/852 (see the chapter on Information required by the European Taxonomy) and the publication, in 2022, of the Group's first Climate-related Disclosure143, in accordance with the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure, as well as the additional project on the subject carried out during the year (see box).
With regard to managing water, in agreement with the relevant institutions, Acea continued preparatory actions for the construction of the new upper section of the Peschiera-Le Capore Aqueduct to safeguard the water supply in the city and province of Rome. In this regard, the Technical and Economic Feasibility Studies were completed and the authorisation procedures for certain sections are underway.
Acea has played a primary role with regard to the circular economy, for a number of years, with activities aimed at reducing waste of resources, for example by utilising process waste and enabling recovery of energy and secondary raw materials. In this context, the Group has progressively expanded in the field of waste management (Environment Segment). For example, the waste processing and disposal company Deco (included in the reporting boundary as of 2022) operates a Mechanical Biological Treatment plant for municipal solid waste, one of the largest and most technologically advanced facilities in Europe, which transforms biostabilised waste into Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF), used to power dedicated and non-dedicated plants, such as waste-to-energy plants and cement plants, with less than 35% of incoming waste going to landfills.
Once again, in 2022, the Acea Group attended Ecomondo, the top green and circular economy trade fair in the European and Mediterranean area, presenting a series of projects the main business areas developed (see box).
ACEA PROJECTS AT ECOMONDO 2022
The Acea Group took part in Ecomondo, held in Rimini from 8 to 11 November 2022. The event aimed to represent all sectors involved in the ecological transition: integrated waste recovery services and solutions, the integrated water cycle, land reclamation and regeneration, renewable energy, mobility and green infrastructure, circular economy models, and protecting natural resources.
Acea had a 200 m2 Group stand at the event, where it presented its most recent initiatives. These include the Waidy Wow App, which maps over 50,000 geo-located water sources and promotes the responsible use of water to reduce the environmental impact, the DepurArt project, developed during the renovation of the Fregene treatment plant operated by Acea Ato 2, which transformed the site into a cultural attraction, and the Conoscenza Comuni shared knowledge project, an intuitive online platform that enables users to consult detailed information on the water management services provided by Acea Ato 2 for each Municipality. Acea Ambiente, which discussed the topic of plastic recycling, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Metropolitan City of Turin and Turin Polytechnic University for a pilot project on the use of recycled polymers in road surfaces with a view to identifying innovative solutions to transform polymers into high-quality and sustainable asphalt. Acea Innovation illustrated the systemic approach and the holistic and integrated vision that underpins Acea’s commitment to the ecological transition.
Acea Elabori promoted the topic of circular communities as new production and sustainable consumption models. It also presented some of its research:
- “H2020 PROMISCES: cost-effective PFAS analysis in complex matrices”, an analysis to identify how industrial pollution prevents the full development of the circular economy in the EU and strategies that could help to overcome the barriers identified;
- a study developed in collaboration with IRSA-CNR to examine the opportunity to produce high value-added material using recovered organic waste;
- an analysis to demonstrate the effectiveness of an advanced monitoring system to determine odorous impacts;
- a study conducted in collaboration with ISS, ENEA and La Sapienza University of Rome showing the results of the development of an analytical method for measuring plastics in water intended for human consumption;
- a study of Lake Bracciano that analysed the monitoring methods, the results of isotopic analyses and surveys, satellite data and the complete numerical model that could be used to draw up long-term scenarios.
142 From the Global Risk Report 2023, published by the World Economic Forum in January 2023: the findings of the Global Risks Perception Survey again place the failure to mitigate and adapt to climate change at the top of the list of “top ten global risks” as the greatest long-term (ten-year) threats, followed by natural disasters and extreme weather events, and biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse.
143 Available on the Group website: www.gruppo.acea.it