Communications

The second edition of the Environmental Report was presented on January 15 during a meeting in the auditorium at Finmeccanica's head office. The report clearly shows that the Group's attention to environmental matters is not stop-and-go; rather, it shows steady progress towards an increase in overall concern about sustainability.

During his brief introductory speech, Giorgio Zappa placed the Environmental Report firmly among Finmeccanica's activities, stressing the level of priority assigned to questions concerning the environment. "It is a priority that is also bound up with investments," said Finmeccanica's general manager. He also announced that the Group's first Sustainability Balance Sheet would be published in 2008.

But investments (6.8 million euros for environmental questions in 2006) presuppose returns. This was pointed out by Luca Manuelli, managing director of Finmeccanica Group Services and chairman of Finmeccanica Group Real Estate - the two groups directly involved in preparing the Environmental Report. Focusing on the question of energy, he highlighted the fact that compatibility between respect for the environment and the need to ensure optimisation of resources is a highly complex subject requiring a coherent approach at the Group level. At the same time, this can lead to significant results as shown by the share performance of companies with effective environmental policies.

This means adopting a shared business model which considers governance, investments, cost reduction, environment, innovation and raising awareness - and all the actions deriving from them - as its rationale.

More key words were: completeness, comparability, accuracy and transparency - the basic features of a report which examined 101 production facilities (together with 43% of green areas) and which called for setting up an appropriate IT system. Worth noting is that the report stresses the role of sustainability as a business lever. This was pointed out by Giovanni Trotto, head of Health, Environment and Security for Finmeccanica Group Real Estate, who described the state of progress with regard to combining environmental factors and corporate objectives.
 
He referred to some of the figures shown in the report, such as the reduction in energy and water consumption and - the other side of the same coin - the upswing in the amount of "environmental" training which reached a total of 87,000 hours in 2006, about 12% of all training activities.

The report was greeted positively by institutional representatives who attended the presentation. Bruno Dettori and Andrea Falzone, respectively under-secretary and deputy head of the cabinet at the Ministry for the Environment and Territorial and Maritime protection, praised the level of awareness achieved by Finmeccanica. Then, Ermete Realacci, president of the Environment, Territory and Public Works Commission for the Chamber of Deputies, spurred the Group on to make even more effort, stressing how sustainability has become a formidable aspect of economic competition.

The competition is a question of numbers - regarding the environmental policies of 29 companies operating in 8 countries on 4 continents - which clearly show Finmeccanica's excellent results, not only for its large size but also for its variety of business areas.
 
On the other hand, said Giorgio Zappa in his conclusions, "going far is one of the distinguishing features of our Group" - while keeping a careful watch on environmental questions and the way they might affect our future.
 
Press Release .pdf (203 KB)
Rapporto Ambientale 2006 .pdf (1876 KB)