PRYSMIAN GROUP
Prysmian, world leader in energy and telecoms cable systems, is strongly committed to promoting actions and projects in the areas of environmental responsibility of production processes, environmental protection, and the management of relations with the local communities in which it operates, as well as in the areas of occupational safety and the growth of its people.
In terms of sustainability, the company creates technologically advanced products that enable strategic energy and connectivity interconnections to support the process of decarbonisation, energy transition and digitalization.
Prysmian’s commitment to climate change was already formalised in 2021 with the definition of the ‘Climate Change Ambition’, which envisages the achievement of decarbonization of the group’s production activities by 2035 and of the entire value chain by 2050.
Prysmian’s environmental objectives are combined with the Group’s “Social Ambition” launched in 2021, which has led to strengthening inclusion at all levels, from gender equality and diversity to workplace safety and a commitment to employee training and development with targets for 2030.
Regarding the gender representation within the workforce, one of Prysmian’s many goals is to reach hiring parity for desk workers (50/50) in 2030 while another goal specifies the percentage of women in executive positions, which as of EOY 2022 was 15.7%, increasing each year toward their 2030 goal of more than 30% female executives.
In addition to these important and challenging targets, several Multi-Stakeholders Engagement events were held during the year in which internal and external stakeholders were invited to actively participate and discuss specific ESG issues.
The year 2022 also saw the birth of the first Prysmian Sustainability Academy, a training programme to spread the culture of sustainability throughout the company’s workforce.
With the aim of setting a solid and transparent path of sustainability towards its stakeholders, last year Prysmian renewed its sustainability scorecard, defining new and specific three-year objectives for 2023-2025, the progress of which it constantly monitors.
During this year’s Sustainability Week, the new goals for the three-year period 2023-2025 were presented, among which is to enable one hundred and ten million households’ access to green electricity and fifteen million households fast digital access, working to develop technologically advanced products and network components to enable strategic energy and connectivity interconnections.
The company also committed to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 47% and its Scope 3 emissions by 28% by 2030, compared to the 2019 baseline, and to achieve a 90% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2035 and Scope 3 emissions by 2050. All short-term (revised upwards from 2021) and zero-emission targets have been endorsed by the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi). In addition, Prysmian’s carbon footprint reduction target is also consistent with the circular economy roadmap defined by the Company, which includes actions aimed at achieving a 57% share of revenues from sustainable products in the EU and 19% in the rest of the world.
In 2016, the company started the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion journey and today has its own manifesto divided into the following points:
- Inclusion is an asset
- We firmly believe in people
- Growth means collaboration
- Technology as a sustainable enabler
- Going beyond words
As in many organisations, different generations work at Prysmian. This is why the company decided to set up a programme on generational diversity to imPRYSMIAN prove communication and collaboration between people of different ages.
Before the concept is extended globally to the entire population, a tailored pilot project will be launched in one unit, Research and Development, in order to test the content and effectiveness of the plan which has the aim of facilitating knowledge transfer and employee engagement.
Approximately fifty people will be involved in the pilot programme, which is scheduled to start from mid-September in the Group’s Central Eastern Europe Region. Contents include raising awareness of age-related prejudices in the workplace, identifying situations in which prejudices emerge in everyday activities, recognising stereotypes and their impact on relationships and activities, and distinguishing between inclusive and non-inclusive language.
Other remarkable initiatives are ‘Passion in Action’ and ‘STEM in schools’. The former is an initiative developed by the Politecnico di Milano with the aim of introducing students to companies and shaping their education for a future in line with their interests and passions.
The Prysmian Group’s ‘Passion in Action’ seminar consisted of four lectures that took place between March and May at the Politecnico and concluded with a visit to Prysmian’s Research and Development laboratories in Milan, which saw the participation of over forty students with five thesis requests.
The ‘STEM in schools’ programme, instead, takes place in in many of the Group’s Regions including Northern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Russia Turkey, the UK, North America and from 2024 also in OSEA.
In Oman, for example, the new ‘Kids in STEM’ initiative is planned, consisting of more than forty hands-on STEM programmes aimed at children between the ages of four and nine, focusing on the company’s key stakeholders: the children of employees, local retailers and the local community. The programme offers hands-on learning experiences, each an age-appropriate exploration of a single science topic such as electricity, magnetism, optics, air chemistry, weather and robotics. Children can watch engaging demonstrations, perform simple experiments and discover how science helps to understand and build a sustainable world.
There is one word above all that I like about our way of being sustainable: concreteness. Prysmian has always generated tangible impacts in the contexts and countries in which it operates. As a market leader in an industry that is key in the energy and digital transition processes, we feel it is our duty to convey this sustainable culture to all our people and future generations even more effectively and directly.
With our Climate Change and Social Ambition initiatives we want to pursue a strategic vision based not only on the highest standards of environmental responsibility for production processes but also to contribute to the development of specific skills, creating value through positive business models based on the growth and empowerment of our human capital, ensuring a diverse and inclusive work environment open to new perspectives, and to promote the capacity to innovate by training the sustainable leaders of the future.”
Maria Cristina Bifulco
Prysmian Group Chief Sustainability Officer and Group IR VP.