Environmental, Health and Safety Group Report 2011 (PDF - Fedrigoni

Fedrigoni SpA 

Environmental, 

Health and Safety 

Group Report 

2011

Index 

7 

Letter from the Chairman 

and the Managing Director 

The company 


10 

Identity and history 

14 

Company organisation 

and subsidiaries 

16 

The industrial structure 

20 

The distribution structure 

22 

Volumes and turnover 

Corporate 

Social 

Responsibility 

26 

Introduction 

26 

The code of ethics 

27 

Environmental policy 

28 

Workplace health and 

safety policy 

28 

The ‘Organisational Model’ 

as per Italian Legislative 

Decree N° 231 /2001 as an 

additional tool for prevention 

30 

Voluntary management 

system certification 

32 

Voluntary product 

certification and marks 

34 

Environmental product marks 

35 

Commitment to Corporate 

Social Responsibility 

38 

Environment and workplace 

health and safety investments

Products and 

processes 

42 

Products. 

Typologies and volumes 

46 

Papers for printing and 

graphic applications. 

The production process 

48 

Self-adhesive papers. 


50 

Environmental and safety 

aspects of products and 

processes 

Environmental 

performances 

54 

Foreword 

54 

Performances in the 

papermaking sector 

78 


converting sector

Workplace 

health 

and safety 

performances 

86 

Foreword 

87 

Evaluation of causes 

and statistical analysis 

of accidents 

89 

The values of performances 

93 

Training 

Glossaries 

98 

Environmental glossary 

103 

Workplace health 

and safety glossary

10 

14 

16 

20 

22 

The Company 



Company organisation 

and subsidiaries 



Volumes and turnover

The Company 



The Fedrigoni Group comprises a number of 

companies that together employ some 2,000 people 

and operate in the market of special papers for 

commercial and specialised printing, papers for 

office applications, bond and security papers, 

artistic and scholastic drawing papers, self- 

adhesive and non-adhesive papers and materials, 

security stripes, cards with embedded threads and 

holograms and high-end stationery and gift articles. 

Today’s corporate structure is the outcome 

of a long and diversified evolution, whose roots date 

back to the beginning of the eighteenth century and 

whose major milestones can be summarised as 

follows: 

1717 The first documentary evidence that Giuseppe 

Fedrigoni was producing paper in San 

Colombano di Trambilleno, a little village just 

outside the town of Rovereto, near Trento. 

1782 Pietro Miliani founded the Miliani paper mill in 

Fabriano, near Ancona, and soon raised the 

new firm to an unusual degree of efficiency, 

becoming the industry’s benchmark enterprise 

in its day. 

1888 Giuseppe Antonio Fedrigoni built and 

opened the first plant in Verona, which was 

immediately destined to produce special 

papers, already then relying on its own 

network of distributors all over the country. 

1906 Foundation of the Società Anonima Cartiere 

Pietro Miliani joint stock company in Fabriano, 

Ancona. 

1910 Antonio Fedrigoni succeeded his father. 

1928 The majority shareholding in the Società 

Anonima Cartiere Pietro Miliani of Fabriano 

was bought up by the Portals Co. Ltd of 

London. 

1931 The Società Anonima Cartiere Pietro Miliani 

of Fabriano was nationalised, with ownership 

passing to a consortium of public authorities 

led by the Bank of Naples, the National 

Insurance Institute, the State Printing Works 

and Mint and the BNL National Labour Bank. 

1931 Gianfranco Fedrigoni became Managing 

Director of the Fedrigoni paper mill. 

1938 Gianfranco Fedrigoni bought up the Varone 

paper mill near Riva del Garda, in the province 

of Trento, an area where the tradition of 

papermaking goes back to the fifteenth 

century. 

1945 The Verona facility was practically destroyed 

when the Allies bombed the city towards the 

end of the war. 

10 





The Company 


11

1946 The Verona facility was reconstructed and 

ready to restart production by investing the 

family’s capital, with the help of banks and a 

group of workers. Production was immediately 

oriented towards specialised products that 

were absolutely innovative for the Italian 

market of the day, such as natural and barytacoated 

photographic papers and cards, 

machine-coated papers and quality papers 

for offset printing, which brought international 

renown to the company. 

1947 An extraordinary shareholders’ assembly at 

the Società Anonima Cartiere Pietro Miliani 

of Fabriano changed the company’s name to 

Cartiere Miliani Fabriano. 

1948 Gianfranco Fedrigoni established the Adamas 

Paper Mill in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, the 

first mill to produce special papers on the 

entire African continent. 

1958 The Fedrigoni family sold the Adamas Paper 

Mill to the South African company SAPPI. 

1963 The company established a new facility in 

Arco, in the province of Trento, to produce 

card for punch-card operations and the first 

cards for optical card readers (O.C.R.) and 

for applying magnetic and thermal strips. 

1972 The I.N.A. (National Insurance Institute) 

became the majority shareholder of Cartiere 

Miliani Fabriano. 

1979 The three papers mills in Verona, Varone 

and Arco (the latter both in the Province of 

Trento), which until then had each been an 

independent company, were merged into a 

single group, Cartiere Fedrigoni & C. SpA. 

1980 The I.P.Z.S. (State Printing Works and Mint) 

became the majority shareholder of Cartiere 

Miliani Fabriano. 

1987 The Group’s first foreign marketing company, 

Zenith GmbH, was established in Germany. 

1989 A new facility, entrusted to the company 

Arconvert SpA, started producing selfadhesive 

and non-adhesive products and 

casting-release products in Arco, near Trento. 

1989 Coydis Papel and Fedrigoni España were 

established for direct distribution in Spain. 

1992 Fedrigoni France was established for direct 

distribution in France. 

1993 30 years after its construction the Arco facility 

underwent a significant production conversion 

with the construction of a coating machine, 

in line with the existing continuous machine, 

fitted with four application heads for producing 

modern, woodfree coated papers for graphic 

applications and special supports for the selfadhesive 

products sector. Ten years after it 

was first commissioned, the coating machine 

was reconstructed completely to make it more 

efficient and productive. 

12 





The Company 


13 

1993 The Group bought Manter SA, of Girona, in 

Spain, a company established in 1944 and 

operating in the field of producing self- 

adhesive papers. 

1993 Fedrigoni UK was established for direct 

distribution in the United Kingdom. 

2000 The exit of several shareholders led to the 

reorganisation of the company’s corporate 

structure and the establishment of a holding 

company with the name of Cartiere Fedrigoni 

& C. SpA. 

2002 The Fedrigoni Group’s holding company 

Cartiere Fedrigoni & C. SpA acquired 

the Cartiere Miliani Fabriano SpA from 

the Italian State Printing Works and Mint 

at public auction. This acquisition all but 

doubled the Group’s production capacity, 

putting the company among Europe’s top five 

manufacturers of special papers. 

2004 The Group acquired Mantegazza SpA, based 

in Bollate, near Milan, after renting it for a 

period. Specialised in the production of such 

high technology products as holograms, 

security threads and security prints, the new 

acquisition was renamed Fabriano Securities 

Srl when it joined the Group. 

2006 Fedrigoni Asia Limited was established in 

Hong Kong. 

2006 Construction work was completed and 

operations started up in the state-of-the-art 

new Manter SA facility at Sant Gregori, near 

Girona, in Spain, at the same time increasing 

the subsidiary’s production capacity. 

2007 The Group sold its shareholding in the 

company Coydis Papel, in Spain. 

2007 Towards the end of the year, production 

operations got under way in the technical 

papers sector in the new facility at 

Castelraimondo, in the province of Macerata. 

2008 Fedrigoni España opened in Barcelona and 

Madrid. 

2009 Production operations got under way in the 

Arconvert Brasil Ltda facility in São Paulo. 

2010 Opening of ‘Fedrigoni Austria’ in Vienna and 

‘Fedrigoni Benelux’ in Brusselles. 

2011 Cartiere Fedrigoni & C. SpA transferred to 

its subsidiary ‘FEDRIGONI SpA’ the ‘paper’ 

branch of the company. Fedrigoni SpA was 

therefore set up as the merger between the 

incorporating part Fedrigoni Cartiere SpA and 

the incorporated companies Cartiere Miliani 

Fabriano SpA and Fabriano Securities Srl, 

that already belonged to the Group.

Paper & Security 

Converting e Adhesive paper 

Real estate 

Energy 

Cartiere 

Fedrigoni 

& C. SpA 

as at 31-12-2011 

14 




2011 

Fedrigoni S.p.A. 

99.99%

The Company 


Arconvert 

SpA 

100 % 


UK Ltd 

100 % 

Fabriano 

Boutique Srl 

100 % 

15 

Arconvert 

Brasil Ltda 

60 % 


France Sarl 

100 % 

Cartamano 

Deutschland 

GmbH 

100 % 

Manter 

Manipulados 

del Ter SA 

100 % 


Deutschland 

GmbH 

100 % 

Fabriano 

Immobiliare Srl 

100 % 


Austria 

Gmbh 

100 % 

Canale 

G. Camuzzoni 

Scarl 

25 % 


España SI 

100 % 


Benelux 

Sprl 

100 % 


Asia Ltd 

100 %


Production operations took place in several different 

industrial facilities; specific product characteristics 

are associated with each one of these: 

Arco (TN) 

Varone di Riva del Garda (TN) 

Verona 

Fabriano (AN) 

Pioraco (MC) 

Rocchetta (AN) 

Castelraimondo (MC) 

Bollate (MI) 

Italy 

Woodfree coated, special and fine papers, 

mainly for the following uses: 

• commercial and specialised printing 

• publishing 

• bookbinding 

• covers 

• labelling 

• quality primary packaging 

• technical applications for personal and 

commercial uses 

• digital and impact-free printing 

• technical and industrial applications 

• banknote and security 

• photographic reproductions 

• drawing 

• copper-plate engraving 

• security elements such as holograms and threads 

for banknotes 

Arco (TN), Italy 

16 





Self-adhesive papers and films: 

• in rolls, for making labels for automated 

industrial application 

• in flat printing format, for publishing and graphics 

• security papers 

• special technical products custom-designed to 

offer optimum solutions catering for specific 

customer requirements (customisation). 

Casting release for: 

• making exclusive by-cast treatments and artificial 

leather imitations.

The Company 


São Paulo, Brazil 

17 

• self-adhesive papers and films in rolls and sheets 

for all applications 

• self-adhesive anti-counterfeiting security papers 

• casting-release papers for treating leather and 

producing artificial leathers 

Manipulados del Ter SA 

Sant Gregori (Girona), Spain 

Self-adhesive papers: 

• in rolls, for making labels for automated 

industrial application 

• in flat printing format, for publishing and graphics 

• special technical products custom-designed to 

offer optimum solutions catering for specific 

customer requirements 

Sadipal division 

Celrá (Girona), Spain 

• technical paper and stationery products

Geographical locations 

of production facilities 

São Paulo 

Brasil

Girona 

Spain 

Bollate 

MI 

Verona 

Varone 

TN 

Arco 

TN 

Castelraimondo 

MC 

Fabriano 

AN 

Rocchetta 

AN 

Pioraco 

MC


One feature of the company’s organisation that has 

always received high priority and attention is its 

control of a logistic and distribution system capable 

of catering for our customers’ needs as quickly as 

possible, while ensuring that they also benefit from 

a guaranteed and viable pre- and after-sales service. 

Fedrigoni SpA is capable of delivering its 

standard paper products anywhere in Europe 

within 24 hours, while partnering with distributors 

and wholesalers in all other parts of the world who 

guarantee that our papers are available at very 

short notice. 

The company’s Italian distribution network 

operates with locations throughout the country, 

guaranteeing deliveries through these branches: 

20 





UK 

Fedrigoni UK Ltd 

· London 

· Northampton 

Iberian Peninsula 

The Company 


Benelux 

France 

Fedrigoni España SI 

· Barcelona 

· Madrid 

· Valencia 

· Lisbona 

21 

Fedrigoni Benelux Sprl 

· Bruxelles 

Fedrigoni France Sarl 

· Lyon 

· Paris 

Germany 

Fedrigoni Deutschland GmbH 

· Berlin 

· Düsseldorf 

· Hamburg 

· München 

· Stuttgart 

Fabriano Boutique 

· München 

Asia 

Austria 

Italy 

Branches 

· Bari 

· Bologna 

· Firenze 

· Genova 

· Milano 

· Napoli 

· Perugia 

· Roma 

· Torino 

· Trieste 

· Verona 

Fedrigoni Asia Ltd 

· Hong Kong 

Fedrigoni Austria Gmbh 

· Wien 

Agents with warehouse 

· Palermo 

Fabriano Boutique 

· Firenze 

· Milano 

· Roma 

· Venezia 

Logistic centres 

· Fabriano 

· Verona

Fabriano Boutique Srl is a small creative company 

producing and selling high quality stationery and 

gifts made with Group papers and sold through 

its own shops in high-interest locations: 

• Rome – Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport 

c/o Terminal A and C and Via del Babuino, 173 

• Milan – Via Ponte Vetero, 17 

• Florence – Via del Corso, 59 

• Venice – Calle del lovo. San Marco 4816 

• Athens – Argyropoulou, 8 

• Beirut – c/o Librairie Antoine Shopping Mall ABC 

DBaye Beyrouth - Lebanon 

• München – F. J. Strauß International Airport 

c/o Level 4 – Schengen area or through corners in 

very high-quality locations and some of the most 

famous museums, bookshops and stationers in 

Italy, Austria, France, Germany, Japan, the United 

Kingdom, Spain, Turkey and the USA. 

Volumes and turnover 

The economic and financial context in 2011 was 

again hardly encouraging and the negative market 

aspects already evident in the previous three-year 

period made their impact felt. Nevertheless, the 

Group - thanks to the effectiveness of its industrial, 

commercial and management policies and the 

commitment of its almost 2000 employees - ranks 

as the top producer of special papers in Italy and 

among the leaders in Europe and world-wide on the 

basis of the following results 

22 





1 Unit of measure: 

The Company 


23 

Group companies Volumes sold 

(net of intercompany sales) 

330.737 tons 

ex 870.000 Km 1 

Turnover 

(net of intercompany sales) 

468,0 million € 

221.127 m 2 /000* (i. e. 35.395 tons) 83,2 million € 

54.013 m 2 /000* (i. e. 8.712 tons) 24,9 million € 

249.388 m 2 /000* (i. e. 41.286 tons) 116.7 million € 

Other companies 42.698 tons 75.5 million € 

Total 458.828 tons 768.3 million € 

In the converting sector, the 

square metre is the reference 

measurement for sales, while 

the Security sector refers to the 

length of product produced (km)

26 

26 

27 

28 

28 

30 

32 

34 

35 

38 

Corporate social 

responsibility 

Introduction 



Workplace health and safety policy 

The ‘Organisational Model’ as per Italian 

Legislative Decree N° 231/2001 

as an additional tool for prevention 

Voluntary management system certification 

Voluntary product certification and marks 

Environmental product marks 

Commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility 

Environment and workplace health 

and safety investments



Introduction 

The Fedrigoni Group has always adopted a clear 

stance with regard to responsible behaviour: kept in 

due control in such a way as to be able to cater for 

the economic, environmental and safety expectations 

of all stakeholders, not only does it help achieve a 

competitive edge, but even before that it contributes 

to maximising the impact of the company’s image, 

reliability and credibility. 

The increasingly demanding competitive 

dynamics call for more than the ability to deliver 

products and services with high-end qualitative 

and functional properties. For us, a crucial role 

is also played now by a series of non-material 

characteristics, such as the ability to guarantee 

clear traceability throughout the entire production 

and distribution chain, including the choice of raw 

and auxiliary materials that provide unassailable 

environmental guarantees, using processes based 

on principles of sustainability and demonstrating 

that they are managed correctly by subjecting them 

to third-party certification. 

As a result, our ethical commitment in the 

value chain is an essential component of all our 

corporate activities. Operating as we do in the 

global and the local markets, we never take the 

liberty of imagining that we exist in isolation, but 

always consider the social fabric that is very alert 

to our operations these days. 

We are aware of the fact that the way in which 

we run our business is of potential interest to the entire 

general public, which is not satisfied with abstract 

declarations of principles and values, but expects a 

daily, credible commitment of the kind that comes 

from a precise managerial policy and a well-organised 

corporate management system. Just such an approach 

has in fact long been an indissoluble feature of our way 

of doing business in the short and the long term. 


The Group’s ethical management is the cornerstone 

of our way of doing business. For us, operating 

responsibly, transparently and reliably on the 

business scene, in our economic and contractual 

relations and in safeguarding the environment and 

health and safety in the workplace is not a choice: 

it’s an obligation. 

We have compiled these principles into 

a formal Code of Ethics, with which we expect 

everyone who works in or on behalf of our company 

to comply and whose salient points are the following: 

• the clear commitment on the party of the company, 

its employees and its external staff to comply with 

the rules established by law and by their contract 

of employment and/or of retainer as applicable in 

the country where the company’s operations are 

conducted; 

• all business transactions must be conducted in 

a fully transparent and correct manner; 

• all activities conducted must always comply with 

national and international regulations governing 

the principles of fair competition; 

• everyone is obliged to be completely reliable 

and correct in all dealings with customers; 

• maximum commitment, integration, initiative 

and satisfaction for employees, customers 

and stakeholders; 

• the company’s corporate and business know- 

how about markets, products, technologies, 

management systems and information technology 

systems must be safeguarded; 

• the strict compliance with all stipulations in the law 

and regulations applicable in the geographical area 

in question, so as to safeguard the environment and 

to ensure protection and prevention in the field of 

health and safety in the workplace; 

26 







27 

• a firm commitment to suitable management 

systems for safeguarding the environment and 

for prevention and protection in the area of health 

and safety in the workplace and to develop a high 

degree of awareness and knowledge between all 

workers and everyone else who provides a service 

or has relations of any kind and for any purpose 

with the company; 

• a firm commitment to improve environmental and 

health and safety in the workplace performances 

as an essential premise for any activity undertaken. 


The Group is committed to encouraging all those 

activities of improvement in order to provide firm 

safeguards for the environment, going beyond mere 

compliance with the laws and drawing inspiration 

from the following principles: 

• making more efficient and respectful use of natural 

resources, from forestry to water and energy 

resources; 

• working in compliance with the economic principles 

of investment and of management to apply 

the best available techniques (B. A.T., see the 

Environmental glossary) in plant facilities 

and management; 

• prioritising environmental aspects during the 

phases of designing, constructing and conducting 

new activities and/or processes or of building new 

facilities or creating new products and services, 

including all substantial alterations made to 

existing ones; 

• promoting and insisting that our suppliers 

practise responsible, defined and demonstrable 

environmental policies, in particular those who 

supply fibrous raw materials originating from 

forestry; 

• constantly monitoring its environmental 

performance and taking immediate action 

whenever the need arises; 

• manufacturing products that guarantee an optimal 

environmental performance throughout their entire 

life cycle; 

• constantly promoting and encouraging information, 

training, involvement of all our staff for the purpose 

of achieving the objectives set through 

the convinced agreement.

Workplace health and 

safety policy 

In compliance with the contents of our Code 

of Ethics, the company’s workplace health and 

safety policy expresses our commitment to: 

• provide all the resources necessary to pursuing 

the objectives of improving its workers’ health 

and safety; 

• provide all members of staff with suitable 

training and information about topics of 

workplace health and safety; 

• valorise and continuously improve the skills and 

capacities of our internal human resources, 

both because they are the main custodians of 

the organisation’s know-how and because they 

constitute the essential players in the process 

of prevention in the field of workplace health 

and safety; 

• attribute primary importance to the aspects 

related to health and safe whenever new 

activities are defined or when existing activities 

are reappraised; 

• encourage co-operation between the 

company’s various resources, partnership with 

employees’ and employers’ organisations, with 

the authorities charged with control and with 

representatives of third parties who conduct 

activities correlated to workplace health and 

safety; 

• design all machinery, plant installations, 

structures, equipment and workplaces and 

identify operating methods and aspects of 

organisation and management so as to be able 

to safeguard the health and safety not only of 

our own workers, but also of third parties, of 

structures, of the community and of the area 

where the company is located. 

The ‘Organisational Model’ as 

per Italian legislative decree 

N° 231/2001 as an additional 

tool for prevention 

The company and all its subsidiaries have an 

‘Organisational Model’ that complies with the 

stipulations listed in Italian Legislative Decree 

N° 231/01 and subsequent amendments, whose 

purpose is to regulate the administrative 

responsibilities of legal persons, of companies and of 

associations, even those without juridical personality. 

Although this is not imposed by law, the Model 

can constitute an additional tool for monitoring and 

checking compliance with the substantial contents 

of the company’s Code of Ethics, in particular in 

the fields of workplace health and safety and of 

environmental protection. 

The effect of this legislative decree has been 

to introduce the concept of the responsibility of 

authorities or companies into the Italian legal order 

for the first time, in practice involving the property 

and heritage of the authority or company in question 

and so, indirectly, the economic interests of its 

28 





2 IT crimes and unlawful data 

processing 

- Crimes against public administration 

such as bribery and embezzlement 

to the detriment of the State, fraud 

to the detriment of the State and IT 

fraud to the detriment of the State 

- Crimes against public administration 

and public trust such as forgery of 

coins, banknotes and duty stamps 

- Corporate offences such as 

misleading statements or advertising, 

unlawful influence over the AGM 

- Crimes of terrorism and sedition of 

democracy including finance for such 

purposes 

- Crimes against individuals such 

as exploitation of prostitution,



pornography involving minors, 

trafficking persons and reducing/ 

keeping them in a condition of slavery 

- Administrative offences giving rise 

to abuse of preferential information 

and manipulation of the market 

- Crimes such as manslaughter and 

serious or very serious bodily harm 

through negligence and infringement 

of accident prevention regulations 

and hygiene and health at work 

safeguards 

- Crimes such as of receiving, 

laundering and using money, assets 

or utilities of unlawful origin 

– Transnational crimes. 

Environmental crimes were included 

for the first time in 2011. 

29 

shareholders when any illicit behaviour encountered 

in its ‘scope of application’ 2 is found to have been 

perpetrated ‘to the advantage of the organisation’, 

or even only ‘in the interest of the organisation’, 

without there necessarily being any concrete 

advantage as a result. This new level of liability has 

been added to the penal responsibility that, by its 

very nature, is still borne exclusively by the physical 

individual who commits an illegal act. 

• It can demonstrate that it has drawn up an 

‘Organisational Model’ of its own, and followed 

this up by applying disciplinary measures for 

the purpose of preventing the execution of 

the stipulated crimes, by keeping it effective, 

maintaining it and supervising it, and that its 

principal elements include at least: 

– a series of operational procedures and 

protocols for shaping decisions, drawing 

them up and putting them into practice; 

– a Monitoring Organ whose task is to supervise 

the model’s real effectiveness; 

– an internal disciplinary system; 

– a specific training programme; 

– the Code of Ethics. 

As a result, it is obvious that this ‘Model’ cannot 

exist in isolation from all the organisational, 

regulatory and management systems with which 

the company has equipped itself and of which 

it is an integral, constituent part itself. 

• The individuals in question have acted in their 

own exclusive interest or that of third parties, 

while fraudulently avoiding the provisions of 

the company’s Organisational Model. 

One of the underlying and qualifying elements of the 

‘Organisational Model’ is the Monitoring Organ (M.O.) 

responsible for proposing it, monitoring it and 

keeping it up to date. 

In addition to the fact that specific powers 

are vested in this organ, if it is to be effective, it is 

crucially important that it stand out for its autonomy, 

independence, professionalism and continuity of 

action. In fact, its members have been chosen – 

from authoritative figures in the company who have 

no direct operational responsibility – and appointed 

formally by the respective Boards of Directors of 

each of the Group’s corporate branches, so as to 

guarantee their independence and discretionary 

freedom.

Voluntary management 

system certification 

The main aim for all the Group companies is to 

ensure that the quality and performances of the 

goods and services delivered cater at all times for 

the customers’ expectations, regardless of those 

customers’ dimensions. 

These days, those expectations certainly 

include the one that products and processes will 

have no environmental impact, the certainty that 

manufacturing activities are conducted with the 

greatest respect of health and safety, that the 

company’s general governance always takes an 

ethical form and that our papers furnish guarantees 

of environmental friendliness and ensure maximum 

compliance with the principles of sustainability, 

including its economic and social facets. 

This is of course a major commitment for 

the company, as managing to harmonise all of 

these requirements with one another in a complex 

process like that of producing and treating paper is 

not always so very straightforward. Nevertheless, 

complying with the clear rules that we adopted on 

a voluntary basis has made possible to attain the 

targeted objectives. 

These rules cover practically all the aspects 

of our corporate management; in the interests 

of coherent methodology, they are based on the 

standards that are recognised and acknowledged 

most at international level. 

The process that started way back in 1993 has 

been consolidated increasingly over the years, as 

the various different branches of the company have 

achieved numerous forms of system certification at 

different times for the precise purpose of providing 

all our customers and stakeholders with guarantees 

that our operations are always correct. 

The state of play of these acknowledgements, 

updated to 2010, is summarised in Table 01. 

Additional notes about certification 

• Arconvert Brasil LTda have started the 

activity in 2009 and it is ISO 9001: 2008 certificated 

from 02.09.2010 (certificated nr. FS 562456, BSI 

America). 

• The former Cartiere Miliani Fabriano SpA 

and the former Fabriano Securities Srl 

companies are also type-approved with Bank of 

Italy and European Central Bank (ECB) certification 

as a producer and supplier of banknote and 

securities papers, as a guarantee of the imposing, 

reliable security system established by the firm. 

This suitability is also recognised by the central 

banks of several other countries around the world 

which the company serves as a supplier. 

• The former Fedrigoni Cartiere SpA embarked 

on and completed all the activities necessary to 

achieve AEOF (Authorised Economic Operator) 

certification in the course of 2009, receiving a 

favourable opinion to its issue from the Verona 

Customs Agency in February 2010. 

30 





Table 01 

2010 

UNI EN ISO 9001 



31 

Fedrigoni SpA Arconvert SpA Manter SA 

Quality Management System X X X 

1 st certification valid since 1993 1997 1995 

Certificate identification number 

UNI EN ISO 14001 

CQ 539 

valid for Fedrigoni SpA from 19.01.12 CH 97/0116 ER 0277/1995 

Environmental Management System X X X 

1 st certification valid since 1999 2002 2009 

Certificate identification number CQ 7847 CH 02/0955 ES 0056/2009 

BSI – OHSAS 18001 

Health and Safety in the 

Workplace Management System X X 

1 st certification valid since 2006 2008 – 

Certificate identification number CQ 15229 CH 08/1328 – 

This form of certification is regulated by Art. 5b 

of EEC Regulation N° 2913/92 (CDC), as amended 

by EC Regulation N° 648/2005 and by articles 14b 

to 14 section 25 of EEC Regulation N° 2454/93 (DAC), 

as amended by EC Regulation N° 1875/2006. 

This acknowledgement is only accorded after 

the national Customs Authority in question has 

conducted due diligence proving compliance 

with customs obligations, compliance with the 

criteria established for the accounting system, 

(X) 

2010 - in preparation 

financial solvency and compliance with appropriate 

bookkeeping standards and with the regulations 

governing health and safety in the workplace. 

This certification is applied to the entire new 

Fedrigoni SpA company through extension audits 

conducted by the district offices of the Customs 

Agency of Milan and Ancona respectively responsible 

for the units in Lombardy and the Marches.

Voluntary product 

certification and marks 

Markets are known to be increasingly aware of 

products’ environmental, safety and sustainability 

characteristics these days – and paper is no 

exception to that rule. As a result, it is increasingly 

important to be able to guarantee respect for and 

compliance with these requirements, which also 

very often become major elements in determining 

consumer choice, sometimes even coming before 

the price. 

This capacity obviously needs to be 

recognisable and the best way is to achieve one or 

more types of product certification issued by third 

parties, in response to the uncontrolled proliferation 

of environmental, safety, sustainability etc. labels and 

declarations that run the real risk of just confusing 

end users. That is why our company has decided to 

rely on such internationally recognised standards 

as ISO 14024 for ecological labels, ISO 14021 for 

self-issued ecological labels and declarations and 

ISO 14025 for ecological declarations. In this 

framework, the leading product ecology and 

sustainability marks currently issued by third 

parties are shown in Table 02. 

In view of FEDRIGONI SpA’s new corporate 

context following the merger by incorporation 

operation between ‘Fedrigoni Cartiere SpA’, 

‘Cartiere Miliani Fabriano SpA’ and ‘Fabriano 

Securities Srl’ on 01.01.2011 as mentioned above, 

2011 was characterised by a complex and 

complicated extensive verification task involving 

the conformity of management systems (ISO 9001 / 

ISO 14001 / OHSAS 18001 / CoC-FSC® / CW-FSC®) 

until then implemented separately in the three 

individual companies. The aim was to merge the 

minto a single certificate involving audits – which 

were all positive – conducted by the Certification 

Authority that is now the only one for the entire new 

Organisation (Certiquality Srl). 

32 





Table 02 



33 

2011 Fedrigoni SpA Arconvert SpA Manter SA 

FSC® – CHAIN OF CUSTODY 

As per FSC – STD – 40 – 004 / V 2 – 0 EN X X X 

Type of certification 

Mixed sources with credit 

system and tranfer system Transfer System Transfer System 

1 st certification valid since 2005 2010 05.01.2011 

Certificate identification number CQ - COC 000010 ICILA - COC 000382 TT - COC 003616 

Sector certified Entire company Entire company Entire company 

FSC® – CONTROLLED WOOD 

As per FSC – STD – 40 – 005 / V 2 – 1 EN X – – 

Type of certification 

Supplies of pulp deriving from 

controlled wood sources – – 

1 st certification valid since 2009 – – 

Certificate identification number 

CQ -CW 

000010 – – 

Sector certified Entire company – – 

PEFC 

National standards – X X 

Type of certification – Percentage Percentage 

1 st certification valid since – 2010 2010 

Certificate identification number – ICILA-COCPEFC-148 PEFC 14-35-00113 

Sector certified – Entire company Entire company 

ECOLABEL (mark) As per EC Regulation N° 1980/2002 

and Decision N° 2002/741/CE dated 04. 09. 2002 X – – 

Type of certification Ecological Product Quality – – 

Certificate identification number April 2005 extended in 2006 – – 

Certificate identification number IT/011/04 – – 

Sector certified Graphic papers – Freelife series – – 

Operating units with products subject to the Ecolabel 

Facilities in Verona and Varone 

di Riva del Garda (TN) – –


product marks 

Third-party product certification systems are backed 

up by other marks for which the manufacturer is 

directly responsible. These certify other specific 

environmental or safety properties, such as: 

pH Neutral 

The watery extract of the fibrous 

support is pH neutral. 

Acid free 

Use of production processes 

conducted in non-acidic 

environments, in particular 

with regard to the phases 

of paper sizing. 

Long life 

Complies with the requirements in 

the ISO 9706 standard, allowing the 

paper to be described as ‘long life’ 

and guaranteeing its durability, while 

also certifying that it contains no 

more than 5 % of wood pulp or semichemical 

pulp, has a pH between 

7.5 and 10 in the watery extract and 

an alkaline reserve of more than 2 %. 

Elemental Chlorine Free 

The pulp was bleached using 

environmentally-friendly processes 

that guarantee a maximum level of 

derived organic chlorine compound 

contents of less than 0.8 kg/ton. 

Total Chlorine Free 

The pulp was bleached using 

environmentally-friendly 

processes that use no chlorinebased 

products at all and 

guarantee a maximum level of 

derived organic chlorine compound 

contents of less than 0.2 kg/ton. 

Selected Secondary Fibers 

Use of highly selected recycled 

secondary pre-consumer and postconsumer 

fibres. 

Annual Fibers 

Use of fibres from annual low-growth 

plants such as bamboo, hemp, 

kenaf and linen, thus contributing 

to reducing tall tree logging. 

Well managed forest 

Use of pulp deriving from wood 

coming from sustainably managed 

forests. This logo certifies that 

the wood-based raw materials 

comply with the best principles of 

environmental sustainability in the 

case of those of our products that 

are not already covered by CoC-FSC 

certification. 

Heavy Metal Absence 

Specific compliance with European 

Directive N° 94/62/EC, transposed 

into Italian legislation as Legislative 

Decree N° 22 dated 05. 02. 1997 and 

subsequent amendments, which 

defines the maximum thresholds 

of permissible presence of heavy 

metals in packaging and wastes 

derived from packaging. 

Hydro Power 

The use of hydroelectric energy 

generates savings of 14,000,000 m 3 

of natural gas and 26,000 tonnes 

of CO2 emissions. The Company 

complies with the Kyoto Protocol 

(Ministerial authorisation to the 

emission of greenhouse gases 

no. 566). 

34 







35 

Commitment to Corporate 

Social Responsibility 

For us, practising Corporate Social Responsibility, 

also known by the acronym of CSR, means 

spontaneously integrating social and environmental 

concerns into our commercial operations and 

relations with all stakeholders, doing our utmost 

to be transparent, so as to achieve relationships 

that are increasingly favourable to our staff, our 

suppliers, our customers and in general with 

everyone living in the geographical areas affected 

by our activities, by making decisions that respect 

people and the environment and comply with the 

rules that regulate the resulting relationships. 

Among other things, this involves an awareness that 

corporate social responsibility is not a marketing 

tool or a simple statement of the company’s ethical 

values, but a concept that brings innovation to the 

area of relationships. Nobody is pretending that 

this is easy, indeed, the complexity lies in the fact 

that entrepreneurialism, politics, legislation, health, 

safety, culture, human rights and the environment are 

not watertight containers any more, but each of them 

has now become a subject or a dialogue partner 

functional to achieving each other’s objectives. 

The activities undertaken to put these fine 

intentions into practice are several and diverse. 

The main ones are listed here, with a renewed 

focus on the fact that our commitment is no recent 

phenomenon: evidence can already be found of them 

in the relatively distant past, at a time when the 

concept of CSR had only been sketched out and 

had not yet spread as widely as it has today.

Since its 

foundation 

Full members of the Environment 

Committee, the Safety Committee 

and the Energy Committee at 

Assocarta 3 . 

Membership at European level of 

CEPI 4 to safeguard the requirements 

and expectations of the Italian and 

European manufacturing industry. 

1998 

Promoting and taking part in the 

Ecomanagement project co-ordinated 

by the Italian paper industry 

association Assocarta in compliance 

with the international standard 

ISO 14001. 

2002 

Working with Assocarta to 

promote the definition of 

behavioural and documentary 

guidelines for applications 

for Integrated Environmental 

Authorisation, as established by 

Italian Legislative Decree N° 372/1999 

amended by Legislative Decree 

N° 59/2005 as the complete 

transposition of European Directive 

N° 96/61/EC, known as the IPPC 

Directive, as the paper mills in the 

Province of Trento (a total of seven 

facilities belonging to different 

companies operating in the sector) 

were the first industrial sector 

anywhere in Italy to be subjected 

to this new procedure, which was 

completely unprecedented in the 

context of Italian environmental 

regulations. The Region of the 

Marches embarked on a similar 

procedure a few months later. 

This enabled an excellent relationship 

of partnership and frank exchange 

to be established with the 

responsible authorities, in a 

climate of collaboration whose 

purpose was to draw up an 

authorisation that would comply 

with the legal requirements, but 

also with the real organisation, 

of an industry whose task is to 

produce paper. 

2002/03 

Taking part in defining the new 

Environmental Observatory web 

portal run by Assocarta, whose 

aim is to provide all members 

with a useful and updated online 

source of reference for information 

about the law, standards, technical 

specifications in the area of the 

environment. 

2003 

Continuous participation, throughout 

2003, in all the activities conducted 

in relation to the application of 

the principles of Agenda 21 5 by the 

municipal council of Riva del Garda 

(TN), where Fedrigoni’s Varone 

facility is located. The company 

was involved in the topics of local 

mobility, fine dust (PM 10) and the 

quality of the water in the Varone, 

from which water is drawn for the 

facility’s processes, remembering 

that it is purified both upstream 

and downstream of the production 

process. 

2003/04 

Taking part in the Emission Trading 

project organised by Assocarta in 

preparation of the application of 

European Directive N° 2003/87/EC 

concerning the European Union’s 

participation in the Kyoto Protocol on 

the reduction of greenhouse gases. 

36 





3 See website: www.Assocarta.it 

4 See website: www.cepi.org 

5 For details, see the Aalborg 

Charter, adopted on 27.05.1994 by 

the European/EEC Conference on 

Sustainable Cities, which established 

the principles of Agenda 21.



6 See website: 

prevenzione.ulss20.verona.it/spisal.html 

7 See website: www.icfpa.org 

37 

from 2006 to 2009 

Taking part in the Assocarta working 

group established to draw up basic 

guidelines for training Prevention 

and Protection Service Managers 

(PPSMs) in the papermaking industry, 

for the purpose of applying Italian 

Legislative Decree N°195/03. 

Taking part in the ‘Verona Aziende 

Sicure’ (Verona Safe Companies) 

project. The aim of this project 

is to promote corporate social 

responsibility in general and in 

particular the culture and awareness 

of health and safety in workplaces 

in the province of Verona, favouring 

and encouraging the implementation 

of health and safety in the workplace 

management systems functioning in 

workplaces operating the area. The 

following results achieved have been 

available for public consultation 6 : 

• TECHNICAL AND 

OPERATIONAL MANUAL 

For defining health and safety 

policies and establishing a health 

and safety in the workplace 

management system 

(Author: Dr. Paolo Azzolini – 

Quality, Environment and Safety 

Department Manager, 

Fedrigoni SpA) 

• A COMPILATION OF 

OPERATIONAL CHECKLISTS 

Referring to the preceding 

Technical and Operational Manual 

2006 

On 8 June 2006, the company signed 

the international papermaking 

industry’s Sustainability Declaration 

in the course of the C.E.O. meeting 

at the Round Table organised by 

ICFPA 7 , the International Council 

of Forest and Paper Associations 7 , 

which has members in 43 countries. 

This document illustrates the 

main commitments made by the 

papermaking industry to combine 

economic competitiveness 

with environmental and social 

sustainability. 

ICFPA now represents 90 % of world 

paper production and more than 50 % 

of wood production. 

2007 

The company received the ‘Verona 

Safe Companies 2006’ Award from 

the City of Verona, after being 

identified as a case of corporate 

excellence in the field of accident 

prevention and in the workplace 

health and safety, together with 

eleven other businesses operating in 

the province. 

2008 

In the framework of the ‘Safety Target 

Zero’ project, devised and promoted 

to rise awareness in the companies 

and entrepreneurs operating in the 

Italian papermaking industry, but also 

in public opinion, with the patronage 

of the Giuseppe Lazzareschi 

Foundation of Porcari, near Lucca, 

the Varone di Riva del Garda facility 

won an award for having achieved 

the best performance in terms of 

reducing the accident frequency rate. 

As a tangible sign of support and 

safeguards for the environment, the 

company supplied paper (Freelife 

Vellum, a paper with two separate 

certificates – CoC-FSC and Ecolabel) 

for its most significant publications 

to the National Trust for Italy (FAI), 

a well-known national non-profit 

foundation that has been working 

for more than 30 years to promote 

a tangible culture of respecting, 

valorising and maintaining Italy’s 

nature, art, history and traditions, 

safeguarding a heritage that is a 

fundamental part of the country’s 

past, identity and culture. 

from 2008 to 2011 

The Quality, Environment and 

Safety Department Manager at 

Fedrigoni SpA lectured in ‘Basic 

principles and procedures for 

applying quality audits’ in the 1st 

level Masters and postgraduate 

courses in Internal Auditing at 

the University of Verona Faculty 

of Economics. 

2010 

Fedrigoni Cartiere Spa and Cartiere 

Miliani Fabriano Spa are taking part in 

the survey conducted by Greenpeace 

into the origin, procurement, supplier 

evaluation criteria, management and 

use of wood-based raw materials 

in the Italian paper industry and will 

send a Speaker to the Greenpeace 

Business Conference on 25 

November 2010 in Milan.

Environment and workplace 

health and safety 

investments 

The need and the commitment to make economic 

targets compatible with environmental and safety 

targets has become an increasingly characteristic 

trait of today’s new development strategies, 

better known as processes of ‘sustainable 

development’. Unquestionably, this has economic 

consequences on entrepreneurial activities: in times 

of unfavourable economic trends like the present, 

those consequences are influenced even more than 

usual and are certainly not very encouraging for the 

pursuit of these processes. 

Among other things, there is a tendency for 

the benchmark legal regulations and standards to 

become more and more complex and specific all 

the time, on the one hand referring to this trend 

towards sustainable development, while on the other 

in practice neither facilitating nor encouraging to 

practise that same sustainable development. 

That much being said, our policy of investment 

continues to focus on all those actions that are 

designed to increase our production capacity, 

cut production costs, increase the quality of our 

products and services and improve our logistical 

activities, although it also keeps a door open to 

other investments whose sole purpose is to contain 

and reduce environmental impacts and improve 

health and safety in the workplace. All this without 

forgetting that our facilities can be classified as in 

the particular segment of the production of special 

papers that is acknowledged (in the European 

BREF Report, the document that provides the 

guidelines for applying the contents of European 

Directive N° 61/96/EC, also known as the IPPC, to 

the European papermaking industry) to be subject 

to both technical and economic restrictions that 

generate extensive difficulties in implementing best 

available techniques (BAT, see the Environmental 

glossary). 

Showing the company’s investments for the 

environment and for health and safety calculated 

as percentages of its total investments, the trend 

in recent years is shown in Tables 03 and 04. 

38 







2003 

2004 

2005 

2006 

2007 

2008 

2009 

2010 


2003 

2004 

2005 

2006 

2007 

2008 

2009 

2010 


39 

Table 03 Paper sector 

ex-Fedrigoni Cartiere SpA ex-Cartiere Miliani Fabriano SpA 

Environment 

% of total investments 

Health & Safety 


Environment 




13.5 2.3 20.1 1.6 

3.8 8.3 39.4 6.9 

15.9 3.4 2.6 5.6 

39.3 3.6 5.1 4.2 

46.8 1.6 16.6 8.2 

0.1 1.8 0.2 13.8 

3.6 4.8 1.0 3.0 

2.0 2.8 1.4 4.4 

Environment 

1.8 4.3 1.7 3.8 

Table 04 Converting sector 

% of total investment 

Arconvert SpA Manter SA 



Environment 

% of total investment 



13.8 9.9 – – 

7.5 6.0 2.6 1.1 

4.2 2.6 3.7 1.7 

15.3 20.0 4.2 1.4 

10.5 2.7 8.6 6.3 

6.8 6.2 5.4 9.8 

6.7 1.6 0.6 2.5 

2.8 14.6 0.4 2.1 

0.9 8.3 0.9 4.6

42 

46 

48 

50 


processes 

Products. Typologies and volumes 

Papers for printing and graphic applications. 


Self-adhesive papers. The production process 

Environmental and safety aspects 

of products and processes


processes 

Products. 

Typologies and volumes 

The Group is capable of supplying an extensive 

range of products. On the one hand, we have our 

standard pricelist products, which account for just 

over half of our production, while on the other are 

all those papers that are made to precise customer 

specifications to suit their particular requirements. 

Every one of our collections has a practically 

unique, inimitable style that draws its inspiration 

from our technicians’ experience, knowledge and 

ability to innovate continuously. 

The knowledge that has been accumulated 

in the course of our company’s long history and the 

ability to innovate by reinventing ourselves associate 

with a high degree of versatility and ability to control 

our processes to enable us to deliver exclusive, 

highly customised products that cater for every 

aspect of our customers’ expectations, keeping 

associated environmental impacts under strict 

control. 

The Group’s production ranges can be 

classified by functional characteristics into three 

macro segments. 

Graphic, printing and security papers 

Fedrigoni SpA’s production lines in mills in the 

Veneto-Trentino area (former Fedrigoni Cartiere 

SpA) and the Marches region (former Cartiere 

Miliani Fabriano SpA) are able to meet the needs 

of all the segments of the graphic, publishing, 

packaging, technical applications, bookbinding, 

labelling, lining, security and banknote papers, 

school and artistic drawing papers, base 

papers for adhesives, digital printing and other 

sectors, always succeeding in guaranteeing high 

functional, qualitative, aesthetic and environmental 

performances. 

Among other things, the history the former 

Cartiere Miliani Fabriano SpA sets it apart as a case 

of excellence unparalleled in papermaking and there 

is no doubt that the name of Fabriano is a symbol 

of prestige and a byword for paper all over the 

world. By way of keeping this unique heritage alive, 

so not for industrial purposes, Fabriano is the only 

facility in the papermaking world that still maintains 

a department where paper is made by hand. 

42 Environmental, 





processes 

43 

Technical products 

Fabriano Securities merged by absorption in 

Fedrigoni Spa bases its experience and knowledge 

on some eighty years of active presence in the area 

of security products, first as a printer and then, 

since the 1980s, as a leading manufacturer of high- 

security products and supplier of security threads 

and holographic products to central banks and 

papermakers all over the world. 

At the end of the 1980s, the company 

patented the first security thread with a magnetic 

code (SISMA), in the same period becoming the 

sole supplier of security threads for Bank of Italy 

banknotes. In 1993, it was the only company in Europe 

to supply security threads for the banknotes of 

two large countries, Italy and Spain, and in 1998 it 

achieved accreditation at the European Central Bank 

(ECB) as a producer of security threads, holographic 

patches and stripes for the Euro banknotes. 

The company’s activities are now focused 

primarily on three product lines: 

• Security threads 

The traditional line with a full background (magnetic 

threads, metal threads and fluorescent threads), 

micro-printed security threads, SISMA security 

threads with magnetic codes, multipurpose 

security threads (perfectly aligned magnetic 

codes) and holographic threads recently enriched 

with new threads that combine the properties 

developed in the latest research in colour variation, 

demetallisation, holographs and lasers. 

• Holograms 

Holograms made using the demetallisation process 

by perfectly aligned demetallised holographic 

application. 

• Security papers 

Security papers for cheques, telephone 

cards, lottery tickets, vouchers and tickets for 

miscellaneous events. 

With these products associated with the banknote 

paper produced in the mills in the Marches region, 

the Group is thus now capable of supplying the 

various State Printing Works with a complete and 

ready to print product that requires no further 

processing.

Self-adhesive and casting 

release products 

Arconvert SpA, Manter SA and since 2009 also 

Arconvert Brasil Ltda produce a wide range of 

fronts, high-performance adhesives in compliance 

with international standards and protective products 

designed and made exclusively to our customers’ 

specific requirements, guaranteeing that all the 

adhesives are easy to use with machinery, perform 

excellently with punching and are not afflicted 

by bleeding, while the silicone treatments of the 

supports can be adjusted and customised to suit the 

specific application. 

Fig. 01 Gross Production – Paper (tons/year) 

Cartiere Miliani Fabriano SpA Fedrigoni Cartiere SpA 

400.000 

300.000 

200.000 

100.000 

Total 

Special processes then enable protective papers to 

be customised with printing, while the high degree 

of transparency of the glassine papers used as front 

supports guarantees excellent legibility in photocellcontrolled 

distribution systems. 

One rather special product line is the casting 

release sold by Arconvert SpA. This product is used 

in the field of by-cast treatment and Eco-leather to 

impress leatherlike or fabric patterns on the surface 

to be finished. 

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

132.700 142.688 166.924 174.561 190.914 203.078 206.410 200.212 211.293 

174.566 183.417 190.549 202.807 212.783 217.785 212.588 216.878 228.227 

307.266 326.105 357.473 377.368 403.697 420.863 418.998 417.090 439.520 






processes 

45 

This kind of ‘cast’ is produced by applying a non- 

adhesive coating or thermoplastic films on which the 

patterns are then impressed as a negative using the 

embossing process. 

These patterns will be fixed positively on the 

finished surface by applying layers of melted PVC 

or Polyurethane. The roll of paper can be rewound 

and used several times before losing its release 

properties. To describe the wide diversity of special 

products manufactured and technologies used 

and give some concrete meaning to the respective 

Fig. 02 Volume Sales - Self-adhesive and non-adhesive paper (tons/year) 

Manter SA Arconvert SpA 

80.000 

60.000 

40.000 

20.000 

Total 

quantities involved, these products can be usefully 

divided into two macro areas: 

• 1 st macro area – Paper production: former 

Fedrigoni Cartiere SpA and former Cartiere 

Miliani Fabriano SpA, whose gross production has 

progressed as follows in recent years (+34.8 % 2011 

compared to 2003). 

• 1 st macro area – Self-adhesive and non-adhesive 

paper and film production: Arconvert SpA and 

Manter SA, which, in its turn, has achieved the 

following volumes of sales in recent years 

(+120 % 2011 compared to 2003). 

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

16.075 17.498 18.292 19.350 22.060 24.000 34.941 36.440 42.352 

21.279 21.054 22.687 26.362 28.935 31.197 33.284 37.037 39.728 

37.354 38.552 40.979 45.712 50.995 55.197 68.225 73.477 82.080

Papers for printing and 

graphic applications. 


The sheet of paper is manufactured in a very 

complex, articulated plant known as the ‘Continuous 

Machine’, which starts from a combination of suitable 

proportions of a variety of raw materials (cellulose, 

fillers, additives etc.) in a water suspension to obtain 

the sheet that can then be subjected to subsequent 

processes in other plants and machines whose 

purpose is to add further thermal and mechanical 

surface treatments, apply coatings etc., according 

to the functional and qualitative characteristics to 

be achieved. The process can be summarised as 

follows: 





Pulp 

preparation 

WASTE 


processes 

Raw materials 

and additives 

EMISSIONS 

47 

WATER 

ENERGY 

Paper production: 

continuous machine 

Further 

treatments 

· Coating 

· Printing 

· Embossing 

· Calendering 

· Lamination 

Sheeting 

and 

packaging 

Final product

Self-adhesive papers. 


These production involve support transformation 

processes that are conceptually relatively simple, 

but less so in operational and qualitative terms. 

These can be divided substantially into two phases: 

• Silicone coating by applying a film of silicone to 

a paper or film substrate (protective). 

• Adhesivation by applying the adhesive to 

the silicon-coated support then transferring 

the frontal material (label). 

All these phases are performed with a new 

technology using completely solvent-free raw 

materials, such as hexane, xylene and toluene. 





Silicon 

sealing 

WASTE 


processes 

EMISSIONS 

49 

Paper/film 

substrate and 

additives 

WATER 

ENERGY 

Application 

of adhesive 

on siliconed 

support 

Coupling 

Frontal applied on 

silicon-adhesive 

support 

Finishing 

· Rolls 

· Sheets 

Final product

Environmental and safety 

aspects of products and 

processes 

Manufacturing the product types described above 

involves a whole series of environmental impacts and 

of safety effects upstream, during and downstream 

of the production phases. These are more or less 

consistent, according to the technologies applied 

and the final product to be made. 

To keep these impacts and effects under 

control, there is a wide-ranging, diversified set of 

legislative instruments that sets clear limits for each 

environmental component affected by manufacturing 

activities, at the same time as establishing how to 

operate in such a way as to safeguard the health 

and safety of all workers. 

Despite this, the feature that makes our 

operations stand out for their quality is not so 

much their compliance, as that is obligatory and 

unavoidable in any case, as their further capacity 

to control the effects that are induced in the 

eco-system and the geographical surroundings, 

including any upstream elements that call for special 

attention when choosing raw and auxiliary materials, 

machinery, plant and services. For this purpose, the 

Group companies work systematically to conduct 

preventive analyses to verify the environmental and 

safety compatibility of these elements, ensure they 

cater for expectations when they are applied and 

clarify their viability once their functionality has been 

ascertained. The following aspects are always taken 

into consideration in these evaluations: 

• the environmental and safety expectations 

of customers and stakeholders; 

• safety, emergency prevention and hygiene in 

the workplace; 

• raw materials and hazardous substances 

(cancerogenous, mutagenic, teratogenic, 

biologically hazardous etc.); 

• environmental and safety performances 

on the part of suppliers; 

• the consumption of fresh water and the 

quality of waste water; 

• energy and fuel consumption; 

• the soil, subsoil and water tables. 

• the air and atmospheric emissions; 

• dusts and odours; 

• waste production; 

• environmental noise and internal noise. 

These environmental components in their turn play 

different roles according to the processes used, 

so a distinction has to be drawn between the ones 

that are typical of producing graphic papers and 

the ones that are associated with making selfadhesive 

papers. 

Graphic papers 

The principal actions taken to reduce environmental 

and safety effects can be summarised as follows: 

• acquiring fibrous raw materials from suppliers who 

practise sustainable forestry management verified 

by their holding forestry certification issued 

by third parties and obtained from processes 

conducted without the use of any chlorine, in 

particular cellulose classified as ECF and TCF; 

• supporting the maintenance of forests wherever 

the product’s quality specifications allow, by using 

cellulose fibres of non-forestry origin that come 

from annual plants, such as bamboo, hemp, kenaf, 

cotton and linen, or from high-quality secondary 

pre-consumer and post-consumer fibres; 






processes 

51 

• working in pH neutral environments, i. e. acid-free 

conditions, in particular in the paper sizing phases; 

• favouring the increasing use of mineral fillers and 

biodegradable additives, primarily with a natural 

origin; 

• reducing, if not eliminating, the use of raw materials 

whose production already generates significant 

environmental impacts; 

• using recycled rather than fresh water, as long 

as this is compatible with the products’ technical 

specifications; 

• favouring in-house energy generating as much 

as possible, both from hydro-electric sources 

and obtained from fuels and systems with a low 

environmental impact (co-generation with 

natural gas); 

• applying selective waste sorting; 

• complying with all national and European standards, 

but also those of the countries where our papers 

have markets, since, for the purposes of safety 

and environmental friendliness, these standards 

regulate the permissible thresholds of heavy metals 

(antimony, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chrome, lead, 

mercury, scandium etc.), the use of colorants and 

the elimination of such hazardous substances as 

PCB / PCT, PBB, PBDE, penta-BDE and octa-BDE; 

• using nothing but subsidiary and process chemical 

substances and preparations that comply with 

the prescriptions and indications introduced by 

European Regulation N° 1907 dated 18.12.2006 

concerning the registration, evaluation, 

authorisation and restriction of chemical 

substances, better known by the acronym 

REACH (see the Environmental glossary). 

Self-adhesive and casting 

release papers 

Also in this case, in order to attenuate their effects, 

the following steps are taken: 

• applying solventless processes that use no 

solvent-based raw and auxiliary materials, but use 

nothing but pure resins (pure silicone and acrylic 

adhesives). This approach, which has been in use 

for some 15 years, not only enables us to achieve 

evident environmental benefits, but has also 

contributed to improving the protection of 

our workers’ health and safety; 

• reducing or excluding the use in our processes 

of raw materials whose production generates 

significant environmental impacts; 

• improving planning to reduce the washing 

cycles in the circuits; 

• applying selective waste sorting; 

• accurately selecting, at the moment of 

procurement, the papers to be used both as the 

support and as the front. These must comply with 

specific environmental, ecological, safety and 

sustainability requirements; 

• complying increasingly strictly with the standards 

and good practices that regulate the use of 

chemical substances and preparations. 

In addition – and unlike the paper sector – aspects 

potentially associated with atmospheric emissions, 

the consumption of fresh water, the quality of waste 

water, pollution of the soil, the subsoil and the water 

table, the presence of asbestos and of PCB/PCT, 

environmental noise and the generation of dusts 

all play no significant role in this sector.

54 

54 

78 


performances 

Foreword 

Performances in the papermaking sector 

Performances in the converting sector


performances 

Foreword 

As already explained in the previous chapters, 

there are significant differences between the phases 

involved in the processes of papermaking and in 

the converting. This means that the incidence of 

environmental factors is different, at least in terms 

of significance, as some may be significant in one 

sector, but not in the other and vice-versa (see 

Table 05). For this reason, the aspects listed here 

will be tackled distinctly below, as the processes 

influenced by them differ and cannot always be 

grouped together or compared. Attention will be 

focused first on those that affect the industrial 

papermaking sector, then on those relative to the 

converting and adhesive papers sector. 

In any case, as the diagram indicates, the 

environmental aspects related to papermaking 

activities are more extensive than those related 

to the other branches of the Group’s manufacturing 

activities. 


papermaking sector 

Non-fibrous raw and auxiliary 

materials (from non-forestry 

sources) 

Although cellulose is certainly the most important 

ingredient in papermaking, it has to be combined with 

other substances and preparations in order to obtain 

a sheet of paper. According to the type of finished 

product in question, these include mineral fillers, 

colorants, binding agents, additives etc. calculated 

on the basis of precise proportions of weight. 

Once the considerations of economics and 

quality to which we hold our products have been 

taken into account, of course, the company has 

always based its procurement on raw and auxiliary 

materials that guarantee environmental impacts 

reduced to a minimum before, during and after 

their use, deriving from environmentally friendly 

processes that produce no critical environmental 

or safety situations and with the assurance that 

they provide guarantees for the health and safety 

of the people who use and handle them during the 

production processes and also of those who will use 

the finished product. 

Fibrous raw materials 

(from forestry sources) 

To tackle this issue, it is as well to start out by 

dealing with some legends 8 that are unfortunately still 

associated – often negatively – with the papermaking 

industry, which is therefore considered to be a bad 

sort behind the destruction of forests, while the truth 

is that: 

• nearly all the wood used to make pulp comes from 

forestry thinning, an operation that is necessary 

for forests to be kept healthy, and from the off-cuts 

and waste generated by other industrial sectors 

that use wood, such as sawmills; 

• Europe’s papermaking industry uses primarily 

wood coming from sustainably managed forests 

and wood deriving from forestry plantations grown 

specifically for the industry’s production purposes; 

• only 12 % of the wood logged worldwide is used in 

the papermaking industry; 

• nowadays, more than 90 % of the world’s 

papermakers, located in more than 43 countries 

and including our company, have subscribed 

to the sustainability declaration issued by the 

I.C.F.P.A. (the International Council of Forest 

and Paper Association), which illustrates the 

main commitments made by the international 

54 





8 Sources: CEPI, FAO, 

ICFPA, Assocarta.


performances 

55 

Table 05 Environmental impacts by sector 

Environmental aspect Papermaking Converting Technical specialities 

papermaking industry for the purpose of combining 

economic competitiveness with environmental and 

social sustainability, also by means of a code of 

ethics; 

• with its demand for sustainable raw materials, 

the papermaking industry plays a high-profile role 

in achieving forestry objectives, as it stimulates 

the creation of new forests and encourages 

responsible forestry behaviour that improves 

quality and the growth of forests, safeguarding 

the employment of local populations and generating 

added value; 

Ex-Cartiere Miliani Fabriano SpA 

Ex-Fedrigoni Cartiere SpA 

• 60 % of the virgin pulp used in Italy is covered by 

third-party forestry certification; 

Arconvert SpA 

Manter SA 

• contrary to generally held public opinion, 

these days in Europe we have: 

– an annual increase in the area of our forests 

of 6,450 km 2 (the equivalent of 4,363 soccer 

pitches); 

– a total of 38 % of the entire continent covered 

by forest; 

– a replacement rate of 3:1, as three trees are 

planted for every tree that is logged; 

– an exploitation embargo on 20 % of the 

European Union’s primary forests, because 

they are protected by law; 

– paper as our most recycled product; 

– more than half of all paper produced coming 

from recycling; 

Ex- Fabriano Securities Srl 

Non-fibrous raw materials Significant Significant Scarcely significant 

Fibrous raw materials Significant Not applicable Not applicable 

Energy (Electricity and heat) Significant Significant Scarcely significant 

Atmospheric emissions Significant Scarcely significant Scarcely significant 

Water resources, Fresh water Significant Scarcely significant Insignificant 

Water resources, Waste water Significant Scarcely significant Insignificant 

Waste Significant Significant Significant 

Environmental noise Significant Insignificant Insignificant 

Dusts Scarcely significant Scarcely significant Scarcely significant 

Odours Scarcely significant Insignificant Scarcely significant 

Hazardous substances Significant Scarcely significant Scarcely significant 

Soil Significant Significant Scarcely significant

• paper mills already completed the reconversion of 

the entire pulp procurement system several years 

ago, choosing only those produced without using 

any gaseous chlorine in the bleaching process; 

• it is inconceivable that paper can be made, even 

at any time in future, using nothing but recycled 

material. While this and primary pulp are the two 

fundamental raw materials for papermaking and 

are both part of the same virtuous circle, they also 

have to compensate for each other. The reason 

is simple: when paper is recycled, the life of the 

pulp is certainly extended for a number of cycles, 

but they cannot be repeated infinitely. Recycled 

fibre can be re-used on average from six to seven 

times at the most, so the pulp used to produce new 

paper must necessarily and inevitably include a 

certain percentage of virgin pulp, so as to make up 

for the loss of physical and mechanical properties 

that cannot avoid deteriorating with every process 

of recycling. Lastly, there are some types of paper 

– and this includes most of ours – whose various 

applications call for properties that can only be 

obtained using mostly virgin pulp. 

That much being said, however, we make a 

substantial contribution to correct, sustainable 

forestry management by subscribing coherently 

to the principles of the FSC ® system, working 

exclusively with suppliers who guarantee in a certain, 

proven and documented manner that they are 

committed to: 

• conserving and safeguarding forests’ original 

biodiversity in both space and time 

• recognising, valorising and applying the 

environmental knowledge of native peoples and 

traditional communities as a focal part of the 

definition of an environmentally responsible use 

of forests; 

• recognising and respecting the customary rights 

of possession, use, management and conservation 

of the lands and resources of native populations 

and local communities, by planning their forestry 

management correctly and responsibly; 

• concretely complying with all the laws applicable 

in the countries where they operate, applying the 

international treaties and agreements signed by 

those countries; 

• by means of their forestry management activities, 

maintaining and improving the long-term economic 

and social well-being of forestry workers and local 

communities. 

In addition, with regard to all those activities 

that come under our own direct control, we are 

committed: 

• wherever the product allows, to promoting and 

favouring the use of annually renewable fibrous 

raw materials, such as cotton, bamboo, kenaf, 

linen and hemp, on condition that they have not 

been subjected to transgenic processes; 

• to using fibres coming from recovered paper, 

in quantities compatible with ours production 

processes and the specific qualities of the product; 

• to reducing its consumption of fibrous raw 

materials in favour of the use of alternative 

products that are equally natural in origin, such 

as mineral fillers and additives, without detriment 

to the quality performance of our papers. 

As a result of this procurement policy, wood pulp 

acquisitions have developed as follows in the last 

four years (see Tab. 06). 

56 






performances 

Table 06 Cellolose purchases allocation 

57 

Suppliers with forestry standard 

certification 9 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

FSC ® 40 % 42 % 43 % 58 % 66 % 73 % 

PEFC 9 % 9 % 7 % – – – 

CERTFOR 20 % 30 % 30 % – – – 

SFI 7 % 0 % 0 % – – – 

FORESTCARE 3 % 0 % 0 % – – – 

Others 21 % 19 % 20 % – – – 

FSC ® CONTROLLED (see note) – – – 24 % 23 % 18 % 

CONTROLLED (see note) – – – 18 % 11 % 9 % 

NOTE ON INTERPRETATION 

According to FSC-STD-40-005 / 

V 2-1 EN, in force since 01.01.2008, 

controlled wood is construed as 

meaning wood that does not come 

from: 

· illegal logging; 

· logging in areas where civil or 

traditional rights are violated; 

· forests where High Value 

Conservation Forests (HVCFs) 

are threatened by improper 

forestry unit management and 

maintenance activities; 

· areas that have been converted 

from forests or other wood 

ecosystems into annual-type 

plantations or into other nonforestry 

forms of usage; 

· forests where genetically 

modified trees have been planted. 

· 

The same standard also then 

establishes that this status can be 

certified by an accredited third-party 

authority, after which its wood can be 

described as ‘FSC Controlled Wood’. 

9 For the meaning of these 

acronyms, please consult the 

‘forestry certification’ heading 

in the Environmental glossary. 

As an alternative, provision is 

also made for the user himself to 

undertake the evaluation, applying 

the standard’s strict, precise rules, 

in which case, the wood can be 

described as ‘Controlled Wood’. 

Also in this case, however, the 

assessment conducted is subjected 

to the verification and approval of 

an accredited third-party authority. 

By complying with and applying these 

principles of evaluation, Fedrigoni 

Cartiere SpA built on its existing 

FSC ® Chain of Custody certification 

in autumn 2009, when it also added 

FSC Controlled Wood certification 

after the inspection conducted by 

its certifying authority. Same goal 

achieved from Cartiere Miliani SpA 

at the beginning of 2010. 

This certification was then extended 

during 2011 to Fedrigoni SpA as a 

whole. At the same time in 2011, 

as envisaged in the document 

FSC-PRO-20-001 V1-0 EN and items 

1.5 and 1.6.1 of FSC-STD-40-004 V2-1 

EN (FSC® Standard for Chain of 

Custody Certification), Fedrigoni SpA 

published and distributed a 

self-declaration embracing and 

supportino the principles of FSC- 

POL-01-004, as reprinted below: 

‘The signing Organization has 

a relationship with the Forest 

Stewardship Council A.C., Oaxaca – 

Mexico (hereafter FSC®). The signing 

Organization hereby explicitly states 

that it has read and understood 

the ‘Policy for the Association of 

Organizations with FSC®’ as 

published under www.fsc.org. 

This policy stipulates FSC’s position 

with regards to unacceptable 

activities by organizations and 

individuals which already are or 

would like to be associated with 

FSC® as well as the mechanism 

for disassociation. 

In light of the foregoing, our 

Organization explicitly agrees, now 

and in the future and as long as the 

relationship with FSC® exists, not to 

be directly or indirectly involved in 

the following unacceptable activities: 

1 Illegal logging or the trade in illegal 

wood or forest products; 

2 Violation of traditional and human 

rights in forestry operations; 

3 Destruction of high conservation 

values in forestry operations; 

4 Significant conversion of forests 

to plantations or non-forest use; 

5 Introduction of genetically modified 

organisms in forestry operations; 

6 Violation of any of the ILO Core 

Conventions as defined in the 

ILO Declaration on Fundamental 

Principles and Rights at Work. 

Moreover, as a further demonstration 

of our commitment and adherence 

to the principles above, we point 

out that our Organization has both 

Controlled Wood-FSC® and BSI 

OHSAS 18001 for Occupational 

Health and Safety certification.

Lastly, as already explained, because of the nature 

of our production, no use is made of recycled 

waste in the classical sense of the term, i.e. pulp 

made from paper collected in the process of public 

platform selective waste sorting, but only of those 

forms of waste that are classified as medium to high 

according to the benchmarks set by the European 

standard UNI–EN 643/2002 (European list of 

standard grades 

of recovered paper and board). 

Nevertheless, all the technical and internal quality 

waste that is classified together as ‘Mill Broke’ is 

also fed right back into the production processes, 

thus contributing in its turn to avoiding the use of a 

corresponding amount of virgin fibres. 

However, although the only reason why we do 

not use waste from urban selective waste sorting is 

the quality restriction placed on our papers by their 

functional requirements, we also maintain that a 

major contribution to the selective waste sorting of 

used paper is an absolute priority for a responsible 

consumption of paper products, for forestry 

safeguards and to decrease CO2 emissions. 

Energy resources 

Also by way of introducing this important element 

in our processes, it is incumbent on us to start 

by providing information to quash the mistaken, 

though very widespread, belief that the papermaking 

industry is a big consumer of energy. These two 

examples are sufficiently representative 10 : 

• the total amount of energy necessary to produce 

an A4 size sheet of paper is 12.5 W/h, which is the 

same amount necessary to run a single computer 

for about six minutes. 

• the total amount of energy necessary to produce 

200 kg of paper, which is the average per capita use 

per annum in Europe, is 500 kWh, which is the same 

amount of energy necessary to keep a 60 Watt bulb 

on for a year, or to leave all an average family’s 

usual household appliances (television, dishwasher, 

stereo etc.) on standby for a whole year. 

That much being said, as part of our policy of 

reducing costs and also protecting the environment, 

one of our primary commitments is to optimise our 

energy consumption by researching and applying all 

the technical and technological opportunities that 

become available and that can also contribute to 

decrease the air emissions resulting from energy 

production. The method that we have considered 

most suitable for this purpose, as well as one that is 

commonly acknowledged, has been for us to spend 

the last fifteen years investing substantial resources, 

several tens of millions of Euros, in equipping our 

facilities with methane gas-powered turbine for 

combined heat and power plants to generate both 

electric power and thermal energy together in an 

associated manner on site, making them practically 

independent in terms of energy consumption. The 

benefits achieved can be summarised as follows: 

Energy 

• a net saving of up to 40 % of primary energy 

compared to the consumption that would be 

necessary to achieve the same amount of electric 

power and thermal energy, if they were generated 

separately; 

• a reduction in the transmission and distribution 

losses of electric power when it is supplied by large 

external generating stations, which are usually 

located at a great distance from the facilities. 

58 





10 Source: CEPI (www.cepi.org)

450.000 

400.000 

350.000 

300.000 

250.000 


performances 

59 

Environment 

• by using methane instead of other fuels such 

as diesel fuel, heating oil or coal: 

• we benefit from a higher calorific value; 

• no hydrogen sulphide or sulphur dioxide 

is released into the atmosphere; 

• the emission of ashes and particulates, better 

known as fine dusts, is reduced drastically; 

• the amount of carbon dioxide (CO ), one of the 

2 

six greenhouse gases, given off is also reduced. 

Fig. 03 Total specific energy consumption (thermal and electricity) 

Gross production (tons) GJ/gross production ton 

To date, our facilities have combined heat and power 

plants capable of supplying a total nominal power 

of circa 35 MW, with all the benefits listed above. 

In addition to installing these new plant systems, 

the company’s total energy consumption (thermal 

energy + electricity), expressed as a specific 

weighting of gross production, has been reduced 

by 42 % in the last ten years, while production 

has increased by 55 % (see Fig. 03). 

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

13,88 12,00 10,60 9,34 9,04 8,98 9,22 8,59 

326.105 357.454 377.365 403.697 420.253 418.998 421.100 439.520 

16,00 

14,00 

12,00 

10,00

This performance is supported both by the 

optimisation of our production processes and by a 

19 % (see Fig. 04) reduction in the specific weighting 

of the methane gas used in relation to gross 

450.000 

400.000 

350.000 

300.000 

250.000 

Fig. 04 Specific methane gas consumption 

Gross production (tons) Std m 3 metane/gross production ton 

production. Similarly, the specific consumption of 

thermal energy (steam) has also been reduced by 

42 % (see Fig. 05). 

60 





2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

316,8 302,1 296,5 303,2 300,8 298,9 298,5 290,2 

326.105 357.454 377.365 403.697 420.253 418.998 421.100 439.520 

360,0 

340,0 

320,0 

300,0

450.000 

400.000 

350.000 

300.000 

250.000 


performances 

61 

Fig. 05 Specific steam consumption 

Gross production (tons) Steam tons/gross production ton 

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

2,84 2,36 2,37 2,28 2,19 2,18 2,19 2,09 

326.105 357.454 377.365 403.697 420.253 418.998 421.100 439.520 

4,00 

2,50 

3,00 

2,50

Air emissions 

The most significant elements associated with 

energy generating are emissions into atmosphere, in 

particular of CO , certainly the greenhouse gas that 

2 

contributes most to global warming. 

The European Union is one of the very few 

organisms – and the only one of the world’s leading 

industrial powers – to have regulated these air 

emissions, when it transposed the Kyoto Protocol in 

May 2002. Signed on 11.12.1997, the Treaty sets out to 

reduce the emissions of the six greenhouse gases 11 

listed in the document emanating from the world’s 

industrialised countries, in which CO is prevalent, 

2 

by some 5.2 % compared to benchmark values set in 

1990 by the end of the first ‘mandate period’, which 

ends in 2012. 

The European Union is committed to reducing 

its greenhouse gas emissions by 8 %. This target 

has been shared out among the Member States on 

the legal basis of an agreement that sets specific 

reduction targets for each individual member. 

In particular, Italy is committed to reducing its 

emissions by 6.5 % (2012 compared to 1990). 

On 13 October 2003, the European Commission 

published European Directive N° 2003/87/CE 

(EU-ETS) covering the emissions trading market, 

better known as the Emission Trading System 

(EU ETS), which was transposed into Italian law 

by Legislative Decree N° 216 dated 04.04.2006. 

Basically, this stipulates that: 

• as of 1 January 2005, no plant that comes under 

its application (see Table 07) may emit CO , or 2 

may continue to operate if it does not have the 

necessary authorisation; 

• this authorisation is accompanied by the 

assignment by the Competent National Authority 

to each plant in question of specific amounts of CO2 that may be emitted on the basis of the assignment 

decision. Translated, this means the exact amount 

of tons of CO that can be emitted each year 

2 

throughout the period in question; 

• the plant must communicate the amounts of CO2 actually emitted in each year to the Competent 

National Authority, subject to validation by a thirdparty 

verifier accredited by the Authority; 

62 





11 The greenhouse gases included in 

the Kyoto protocol are CO 2 , CH 4 , N 2 O, 

HFC, PFC and SF 6 .


performances 

12 Decision N° 20/2008 dated 

27.11.2008 transposing European 

Directive N° 2003/87/EC with 

executive approval of the CO 2 Shares 

Assignment Decision for the period 

2008-2012, in compliance with the 

European Commission clearance. 

13 The first share allocation plan 

covered the first three-year period 

of application (2005 – 2007). 

63 

Table 07 Assignment of CO 2 emission shores 

Facility Firm 

• after this communication and also once every year, 

the number of CO 2 emission shares equivalent 

to the actual amount of CO 2 released into the 

atmosphere and validated as specified in the 

previous point must be returned to the Competent 

National Authority; 

• the amounts of CO 2 actually released into the 

atmosphere must be monitored in compliance with 

the provisions of the monitoring plan communicated 

by the plant manager to the Competent National 

Authority and formally approved by the latter. 

This approach was repeated again when the 2 nd 

National CO 2 Shares Allocation Plan 13 covering the 

period 2008–2012 was passed, which provides for 

our facilities as shown on Table 07. 

Authorisation 

number 

Tons CO 2 / year 

approved 12 

PAN 2008 - 2012 

Arco (TN) 252 43,894 

Varone di Riva del Garda (TN) 259 17,781 

Verona 1280 50,950 

Fabriano (AN) 560 154,568 

Pioraco (MC) 566 21,201 

Total CO 2 emissions authorised Total Fedrigoni SpA – 288,394 

At present, there are only about 1,300 facilities 

in Italy that are subject to this obligation, as its 

application has not been extended to cover all 

areas of industry, but only the following six: 

• energy industry; 

• ferrous metals industry; 

• minerals industry; 

• glass industry; 

• ceramics industry; 

• paper industry producing >20 tons/day. 

• Civil Aviation (for european air company only). 

It was only during 2010 that a new entrant was 

included in the Emission Trading system as a 

single subject as regards the assignment of 

quotes, as well as registration and 

communication obligations, namely civil aviation 

but only as regards airlines belonging to the 

European Union

In practice, this means that these categories 

of production alone bear the entire weight of 

achieving the national target of a 6.5 % reduction 

in CO emissions, without making any provision 

2 

whatsoever for involving all the other sources that 

often contribute to the production of emissions more 

substantially on their own, as is clearly evident from 

30 % 

25 % 

20 % 

15 % 

10 % 

5 % 

Fig. 06 CO 2 emissions in Europe – Period 1990 – 2007 14 

the data provided by the European Commission itself 

and reproduced in this bar diagram (Fig. 06). 

In the light of this context, we believe it is also 

useful to mention some other data for achieving 

a complete understanding of papermaking and its 

effect on greenhouse gas emissions. 

64 





29 % 23 % 15 % 12 % 5 % 4 % 2 % 2 % 8 % 

Power 

and heat 

production 

Freight 

transport 

Industry 

and building 

Housing use Commercial 

and 

institutional 

Oil refineries Cement 

production 

Steel and 

iron ores 

production 

14 Source: CE- Annual European 

Community green house gas 

inventory 1990-2007 and inventory 

report 2009. 

15 Source: 

www.mycarbonfootprint.eu 

Others


performances 

16 Source: CEPI (www.cepi.org), 

A. Wissner-Gross, Harvard University 

(www.CO2Stats.com) - Swedish Royal 

Institute for Technology. 

17 Fedrigoni Group ET emission 

data validated by third-party 

authority and communicated to 

the Ministry of the Environment. 

18 Source: 

www.universelles-leben.org 

19 Value calculated on the basis of 

the assumption that the average per 

capita monthly consumption of paper 

in Europe is 20 kg (www.fern.org) 

and that 1% of that consumption 

can be avoided. 

65 

For example, by comparing three mass consumption 

goods (see Tab. 08) or in terms of CO 2 emissions 

over a period of one year 15 (see Tab. 09). 

Or again 16 : 

• if you read a hardcopy newspaper every day, 

you generate 20 % less CO 2 than if you spend 

about 30 minutes reading it online (N.B.: that does 

Table 08 

Production of 1 kg of Total amount of CO 2 emitted 

Paper (Fedrigoni Group) 0.42 kg 17 

Beef 6.50 kg 18 

Vegetables 0.15 kg 18 

Action 

not include the decision to print any webpage!); 

• a single search using Google generates an emission 

of 3.5 g of CO 2 , while it takes 3.4 g of CO 2 to 

produce and use an A4 size sheet. 

That much being said, within the constraints of 

available technology, we are totally committed to 

the quest to keep on reducing our atmospheric 

Table 09 Comparison of CO 2 emissions of different activities 

Amount of CO 2 not 

released/annum 

Setting the thermostat to lower the temperature of your heating at night 440 kg 

Reducing the temperature of the heating in an average apartment by 1°C 300 kg 

Switching off the air conditioner for 4 hours per day when you are not at home 300 kg 

Using 5 CR type low energy consumption bulbs for 5 hours per day instead of bulbs of 

the traditional type 

250 kg 

Using a soft jet type shower instead of a conventional one 230 kg 

Keeping your car tyres correctly inflated 140 kg 

Travelling at 90 km/h instead of 110 km/h for at least 10 % of every whole journey 55 kg 

Turning the taps off completely and repairing the ones that leak 20 kg 

Buying a drink in a 1.5 litre bottle instead of a 0.5 litre bottle 9 kg 

Recycling 1 kg of aluminium 9 kg 

Using re-usable bags for your shopping 8 kg 

Not printing an A4 paper document or an e-mail 19 7 kg

emissions, working increasingly to guarantee correct 

monitoring of the combustion process and so also 

of the emissions generated. Online tools have been 

installed in many of our paper mills that enable us to 

verify the quality of our emissions at any moment, 

as well as making an automatic back-up of the data 

recorded. This is done by continuously measuring 

the concentrations of CO and of NO , together 

2 X 

with the combustion report, so also provides us 

with a constant stream of information about the 

450.000 

400.000 

350.000 

300.000 

250.000 

Fig. 07 Specific CO 2 emission 

Gross production (tons) kg CO 2 /gross production ton 

efficiency of our abatement systems. In addition, 

on the basis of provisions included in the Integrated 

Environmental Authorisation, the instruments 

installed in the two facilities located at Arco and 

Varone di Riva del Garda, both in the Autonomous 

Province of Trento, are connected remotely to the 

local Environmental Protection Authority, which is 

thus kept constantly informed about the quality of 

air emissions generated by the two paper mills. 

66 





2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

603,7 487,2 451,3 598 593 589 588 572 

326.105 357.454 377.365 403.697 420.253 418.998 421.100 439.520 

800,0 

700,0 

600,0 

500,0

450.000 

400.000 

350.000 

300.000 

250.000 


performances 

67 

Fig. 08 Specific NO x emission 

The evidence of how successful this management 

system has been is here: while the absolute amount 

of CO 2 released has increased (by 6.2 % in the 

period from 2002 to 2011), this must be taken in the 

context of a simultaneous major increase in gross 

production, which grew by 55 % over the 

Gross production (tons) kg NO x /gross production ton) 

same period, with the result that the specific impact 

of CO 2 emissions per ton of product was actually 

reduced by 27 % (see Fig. 07). 

The same approach applies in the case of 

specific NO x emissions, which were reduced by 

52 % in the last ten years (see Fig. 08). 

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

0,050 0,039 0,038 0,046 0,044 0,043 0,044 0,039 

326.105 357.454 377.365 403.697 420.253 418.998 421.100 439.520 

0,080 

0,060 

0,040 

0,020

Water resources. 

Fresh process water 

Water is another fundamental element in 

papermaking: after the pulp, it has every right to 

be considered the second most important of our 

raw materials. In addition, although it is a renewable 

resource, we all know that water is becoming 

increasingly valuable, so is a resource on which 

everyone – industry included – must focus maximum 

attention to ensure that it is used responsibly and 

sustainably, reducing waste and all inappropriate use. 

Taking for granted that we subscribe without 

restriction to the principles of a conscientious use 

of this indispensable element, our aim in introducing 

this issue is also to make a short statement whose 

purpose is to clarify the situation with regard to the 

real amount of water that is used by the papermaking 

industry, which is still far too often accused of being 

a voracious consumer of water. A simple comparison 

with other industries immediately shows that the per 

unit consumption of water in our sector is actually 

one of the more modest ones. We compared the 

data available in the literature 20 for a series of 

mass consumption goods, the findings are shown 

Table 10 Comparison of water usage for different products 

Product (ref.: Production of 1 kg) Litres of fresh H 2 O/kg produced 

Paper – mean value for italian paper industry 2008 40 

Paper – mean value for Fedrigoni paper mills 2010 25 

Maize 900 

Rice 3,000 

Pork 4,900 

Beef 15,550 

in Table 10. All our facilities have a long record of 

active commitment to increasingly reducing the 

amounts of fresh water used, even though this is 

often far from straightforward for the specialities 

and qualitative characteristics of our products. 

Maintaining a balanced compromise between 

economic, qualitative and functional requirements, 

we pursue a variety of actions: 

• aiming to use substances and preparations that 

call for a reduced consumption of fresh water in 

association as a solvent or suspension; 

• improving our planning, so as to avoid frequent 

production changes, each of which calls for the use 

of considerable amounts of water for the cleaning 

process between cycles; 

• constantly monitoring consumption and intervening 

wherever waste is found; 

• favouring the use of recycled water whenever 

the product allow. 

Considering the special papers we produce and 

their variety, every action that contributes to saving 

fresh water is of even greater value in the light of 

68 





20 Sources: FAO, Assocarta 

and www.liquida.it

400.000 

350.000 

300.000 

250.000 


performances 

69 

the fact that Chapter 6 (special papers sector) of 

the European BREF report for the paper industry, 

drawn up by the European Commission to apply the 

principles of the IPPC at EU level, even in the 

edition updated as of 2010 (Draft 1 21 ) states explicitly 

that the opportunities to reduce the consumption of 

fresh water and replace it with recycled water are 

often really very moderate in the area of special 

papers manufacturing. 

And yet our paper mills have combined the 

activities listed above to achieve reductions of a 

substantial 45 % in the specific consumption of fresh 

water in the last ten years, passing from a mean 

Fig. 09 Specific fresh water consumption 

Gross production (tons) m 3 H 2 O/gross production ton) 

value of 52.4 m 3 H 2 O fresh /ton gross of paper in 2002 to 

28,9 m 3 H 2 O fresh /ton gross of paper in 2011. It should also 

be mentioned that the above-mentioned BREF/IPPC 

Report identifies a specific consumption of fresh 

water for the special papers sector of between 

50 and 100 m 3 H 2 O fresh /ton gross of paper , or again a 

preferential value in the case that the BAT are 

applied, of between 15 and 100 m3 H O /ton 2 fresh gross of 

, according to the type of paper produced. 

paper 

It is therefore fair to say that our 28,9 m3 H O 2 

fresh /ton puts us at a level 

gross of paper 

of considerable excellence. (see Fig. 09) 

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

45,5 39,4 36,6 33,9 32,3 32,0 31,6 28,9 

326.105 357.454 377.365 403.697 420.253 418.998 421.100 439.520 

21 A second provisional version was 

issued in May 2012 (Draft 2) 

55,0 

50,0 

45,0 

40,0 

35,0 

30,0


Treated water 

Once process waters have fulfilled their function, 

with the exception of that share that is pumped back 

into the cycle, they must be subjected to a treatment 

before they can be returned to the water body in 

full compliance with the quality limits set by law 

governing a whole series of chemical, physical and 

biological parameters. 

In order to be effective, these treatments 

must be supported by suitable technologies, 

in which the company has always invested heavily, 

not so much as a way of ensuring compliance with 

the law, but in order to enable its mills to operate 

with a wide margin of compliance and to provide 

suitable guarantees about our operations to the 

control authorities. 

This is the equipment currently operating 

in our facilities. Which means: 

• primary treatment plant: uses a process of 

coagulation and subsequent sedimentation 

(the sediment forms the residual sludge) to 

remove pollutants 

• biological plant: uses the action of microorganisms 

to remove the soluble biological carbon quota 

that the chemical and physical treatment has not 

succeeded in removing (sludge is also formed as 

a result of this process). 

Table 11 Type of water purification plants in our facilities 

Fedrigoni SpA Type/Technique of water purification 

Arco Paper Mill Primary treatment plant + biological plant 

Varone Paper Mill Primary treatment plant 

Verona Paper Mill Primary treatment plant 

Fabriano Paper Mill Primary treatment plant + biological plant 

Pioraco Paper Mill Primary treatment plant 

Biological plants located downstream of the chemical 

and physical plants are only provided in cases in 

which a significant proportion of the biodegradable 

amount of the organic pollutants remains. When this 

is not the case, a primary treatment plant already 

provides excellent guarantees of purification on its 

own. That is the reason why some papers mills have 

a biological plant while others do not. Nevertheless, 

these plants are not enough on their own, so 

the company is constantly committed to work 

preventively to: 

• monitor analytically the quality of the water 

upstream and downstream of the treatment 

process, with daily checks and sometimes several 

times every day, thus enabling us to step in very 

quickly whenever the need arises; 

• select raw and auxiliary materials that contribute 

less and less to the formation of pollutants in the 

process waters; 

• improve the retention of pulp fibres and additives 

on to the paper; 

• close its cycles so as to reduce the volumes 

of water that have to be treated 

70 





450.000 

400.000 

350.000 

300.000 

250.000 


performances 

71 

Fig. 10 Specific COD load 

This approach has enabled us achieve substantial 

improvements year after year. This is demonstrated 

by the constant decrease in COD (see Environmental 

Glossary) of our treated waters expressed as a 

specific weighting of gross production, which has 

been reduced from a value of 5.8 kg COD/ton gross in 

Gross production (tons) kg COD 21 /gross production ton 

2002 to just 2.5 kg COD/ton gross in 2011, a cut of 55.7 %, 

which can be illustrated on a graph (see Fig. 10). 

If we now consider the same parameter 

expressed as a mean annual value, we have passed 

from 93 mg/l in 2002 to 87 mg/l in 2011, a reduction 

of 1 %, which shows this trend on the Figure 11. 

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

5,1 3,4 3,1 2,5 2,5 2,3 2,7 2,5 

326.105 357.454 377.365 403.697 420.253 418.998 421.100 439.520 

6,0 

5,0 

4,0 

3,0

Waste 

The most important waste that is produced in 

papermaking is the residual sludge that is generated 

during the water treatment, both in primary 

treatment plants and in biological plants. In the 

balance sheet of total waste issuing from our paper 

mills, this sludge accounts for about 67 % and 

comprises the physical part of the pollutants that has 

been separated out from the water being filtered. 

Of this sludge, about 50 – 60 % is actually 

water, while its dry share can be attributed primarily 

400.000 

350.000 

300.000 

250.000 

Fig. 11 Absolute average COD 

Gross production (tons) mg COD/l discharged water 

to pulp fibres accompanied by mineral fillers, binding 

agents, chemical additives, etc. 

Unfortunately, even though this waste is 

distinguished by its very nature of being 100 % 

biodegradable, because of its complete absence of 

toxic and harmful substances, because it contains 

practically no heavy metals at all and because it 

is chemically inert, a distinction is drawn between 

it and other kinds of papermaking waste, in that 

it cannot be re-used as recycled fibre in our 

72 





NOTE ON LEGALLY 

APPLICABLE LIMITS 

In the Autonomous Province of 

Trento, the legal limit is set at 100 mg 

COD/litres of discharged water (ref. 

factories in Arco and Varone), while 

in the rest of Italy the limit is 160 mg 

COD/litres of water discharged 

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

95 82 75 81 73 72 87 93 

326.105 357.454 377.365 403.697 420.253 418.998 421.100 439.520 

100 

90 

80

400.000 

350.000 

300.000 

250.000 


performances 

Fig. 12 Specific sludge production 

73 

processes, because of the high quality requirements 

for the products made in our paper mills. As a result, 

it has to be entrusted to authorised third parties and 

qualified as a special, albeit non-hazardous, waste, 

so that it can be destined for recuperation. And this 

is a solution that involves truly substantial costs. 

To be sure, our actions aimed at closing our 

production water cycles, continuously improving 

Gross production (tons) kg sludge as measuered/gross production ton 

the retention of pulp fibres and fillers in the paper 

and optimising our choice of raw materials have 

contributed to reducing the production of waste in 

the course of time: in practice, we have been able 

to record a decrease of 42 % in its specific weighting 

in gross production in the course of the last ten 

years (see Fig. 12). 

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

59,6 52,4 47,8 33,7 35,3 36,0 36,8 35,0 

326.105 357.454 377.365 403.697 420.253 418.998 421.100 439.520 

60,0 

50,0 

40,0

As far as the production of other kinds of waste 

is concerned (miscellaneous kinds of packaging, 

metals, wood, plastic etc.), we focus considerable 

attention on selective waste sorting inside each 

mill, which means that we encourage maximum 

recyclability, while also bringing pressure to bear 

on our suppliers so that they also aim to reduce 

their packaging to the bare essentials. All this has 

450.000 

400.000 

350.000 

300.000 

250.000 

Fig. 13 Specific other waste load 

enabled us to reduce this class of waste, expressed 

as a specific weighting on gross production, by 16 % 

between 2002 and 2011 (see Fig. 13). If we then also 

consider our total waste production as the sum 

of residual sludge plus all other kinds of waste, 

again expressed as a specific weighting on gross 

production, we achieved a total reduction of 35 % in 

the same period. (see Fig.14) 

Gross production (tons) kg other waste as measured/gross production ton 

74 





2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

18,4 14,0 22,4 17,2 12,8 13,3 15,6 17,2 

326.105 357.454 377.365 403.697 420.253 418.998 421.100 439.520 

25 

22 

19 

16 

13 

10

450.000 

400.000 

350.000 

300.000 

250.000 


performances 

Fig. 14 Total specific waste load 

75 

Gross production (tons) Total kg waste/gross production ton 

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

78,1 66,5 70,2 50,9 48,1 44,1 52,4 52,2 

326.105 357.454 377.365 403.697 420.253 418.998 421.100 439.520 

90,0 

80,0 

70,0 

60,0 

50,0 

40,0

Environmental noise 

Noise is a phenomenon that can be divided into 

two distinct categories in industry. The first of 

these is the acoustic impact that can derive 

from manufacturing activities and influence the 

surrounding area. The other is the noise that risks 

impacting on the health of the people working in the 

facility itself. In both cases, if the noise is not kept 

under control and regulated, it may reach significant 

proportions. 

The company is aware of the need to focus 

on complying with the limits established by law, 

but it also sets out to go beyond this compliance, 

so as to safeguard the communities that live in the 

neighbourhood of our paper mills, at the same time 

making substantial monetary investments supporting 

by intervening with: 

• regular instrumental checks entrusted to 

authorised third parties, which often go beyond the 

thresholds established by law. The environmental 

control plans drawn up for each of our facilities 

make provision for checks to be run at night and 

during the daytime, both inside the plants and on 

their outer borders, so as to monitor compliance 

with emission and immission values in the course 

of time, using the limits established in the acoustic 

zoning plans adopted by the host municipalities 

as their benchmarks and, in locations where 

such plans have not yet been passed, the limits 

enshrined in the laws relating to the facility’s 

class of location, such as Italian Law N° 447 dated 

26.10.1995, the Prime Ministerial Decree dated 

14.11.1997, etc. 

• in addition to being shared with the authority, the 

results of these controls trigger the definition of 

action plans, as the need arises, which contains 

actions targeted to clear up any situations that 

have become critical; 

• lastly, the many evaluations to be conducted in the 

course of the preventive environmental and safety 

analysis that is already launched during the project 

conception stage for all investments affecting 

our structures, facilities and machinery include 

using specific mathematical models to quantify the 

potential acoustic impact that may derive from the 

investments in question, so as to identify the best 

solutions for eliminating or minimising the acoustic 

impact while it is still in the design stage. 

The checks run in the course of 2011 have always 

pointed out the company’s compliance with the law, 

often with wide margins. 

Hazardous substances 

Substances of this kind are found in the course of 

papermaking processes only for two fundamental 

reasons: 

• a very limited number of chemical preparations 

must necessarily be used only because no 

alternative products that offer guarantees 

of performing to the same degree while being 

less hazardous are available on the market; 

• some older industrial buildings still contain 

asbestos. 

In the first case, the company combines operational 

issues with management issues. In the phases when 

these substances are involved, the company uses 

closed circuits, so as to ensure that no contact is 

possible for the workers, nor can the substances be 

spread in the environment. These plant systems are 

provided with extensive procedural documentation 

that supplies the staff with an exhaustive series of 

behavioural instructions. Lastly, the use of these 

substances is also monitored. With regard to the 

issue of chemical substances and preparations, we 

do not allow our policy to waver from the indications 

76 






performances 

77 

entered by European Regulation N° 1907/2006 dated 

18.12.2006, governing the registration, evaluation, 

authorisation and control of chemical substances, 

better known by the acronym of REACH (see the 

Environmental glossary). 

This Regulation substantially comprises a 

codification of more than 40 European regulations 

previously in force, the most important ones being 

Directive N° 67/548 (Dangerous Substances + 

Amendments), Directive N° 99/45 (Dangerous 

Preparation), Regulation N° 793/93 (Existing 

Chemicals) and Directive N° 76/769 (Restrictions 

of the Marketing and Use of Certain Dangerous 

Substances and Preparations + Amendments), with 

the aim to generate a single system of Registration 

and Evaluation and, if necessary, Authorisation of the 

approximately 30,000 ‘existing’ chemical substances 

(i.e. the ones already launched on the market before 

September 1981) and ‘new’ ones (i.e. launched on the 

market since September 1981), for the purpose of 

guaranteeing a greater level of protection for human 

health and for the environment. 

In this new legal context, it is worth noting that 

paper is not identified as a chemical substance or 

preparation, which means that it is exempt from the 

obligations of preregistration, registration and all the 

more so of authorisation. 

Nevertheless, this new context does affect us 

as ‘Downstream Users’ of chemical substances and 

producers of ‘articles’. This obliges us to ‘use’ these 

substances in compliance with the ‘uses identified’ by 

our suppliers and within the framework of ‘exposure 

scenarios’ communicated by them, ensuring that 

complete and accurate information about the 

substances and preparations is conveyed all the 

way along the production chain. 

In order to comply with this obligation, in particular 

with Art. N° 38 of the Regulation, we already made 

a major investment of effort in 2008 to convey 

the extensive information necessary to all our 

producers, suppliers and importers of chemical 

substances and preparations for the purpose 

of defining the uses identified and the ‘exposure 

scenarios’ related to the specific nature of our 

manufacturing activities. 

In the case of the remaining presence 

of asbestos, a material that was recognised as 

unreservedly cancerogenous at the beginning of 

the 1990’s, even if only under certain conditions, 

i.e. when it is in a brittle condition and its fibres 

may be spread in the air, the company has 

periodical evaluations. These checks are obviously 

not run in-house, but are entrusted to specialised 

and authorised external experts and are based 

essentially on the use of two of the most reliable 

survey methods. One of these is the tear test, the 

other the M.O.C.F. method (Microscope in Phase 

Contrast), which determines the quantity and 

quality of the fibres dispersed in the air. 

Over the years, these surveys have always 

demonstrated that the situation complies with 

both the environmental and the health standards 

established by law. Nevertheless, regardless of 

the results of these analyses, over the years the 

company has also prepared specific plans, to be 

applied in the course of several years, whose aim is 

gradually to remove all those parts that may become 

harmful in future, so as to make drastic reductions in 

the presence of this substance in our buildings in the 

course of a few years.

The soil 

Although the soil is not an active component in our 

processes, of course, it is an element that could be 

damaged if the ways in which certain materials, both 

liquids and solids, are handled and stored do not 

comply with strict rules and if they are not stored 

in areas equipped specifically to safeguard against 

any spillage on the ground, with all the possible 

consequences that may arise for the subsoil, 

including the aquifers. 

That is why substantial resources are 

dedicated both to preventive and to pro-active 

maintenance and especially to preparing and building 

container tanks to ensure that there is no possibility 

that any materials will come into direct contact with 

the soil or be allowed to spread on the ground. 

In the case of liquid substances in particular, 

the entire area under roof and also part of the 

open-air area destined for production activities 

in each facility are structured as a single large 

container tank, so that any accidental spillage cannot 

flow freely towards the ground, nor towards any 

drains designed to collect rainwater, but everything 

is channelled towards the water plant, so that any 

spillage can be subjected to suitable treatment. 

Any solid substances that may constitute 

a potential risk for the soil are preserved inside 

container structures from which no spillage can 

make it way out. The same approach is adopted 

for that part of these substances that is being 

used directly in the production process. 

By way of a further guarantee, strict operating 

procedures are accompanied by training and 

retraining sessions, including simulations of 

accidental spillage, in which all those members 

of staff who handle or use these substances in 

any way are required to take part. 

It is also worth mentioning that, by promoting 

and improving selective waste sorting and at the 

same time reducing the amount of waste generated, 

we contribute in any case to safeguard the soil 

by removing a substantial amount of waste that 

would otherwise be destined to end up in a landfill; 

this is achieved by sending it for recycling, which 

is certainly an environmentally more sustainable 

approach. 


converting sector 

Raw and auxiliary materials 

The row materials used typically in converting 

production processes are paper and plastic films, 

both as the front and as the support, adhesives in a 

water-based emulsion, silicones with their additives 

(polysiloxanes) and solvents, although these last are 

only used for cycle cleaning operations every time 

that the production is changed. The characteristics 

that distinguish our processes are easily identifiable: 

78 






performances 

79 

• the choice of papers to use is oriented towards 

suppliers who support and comply with the best 

principles of sustainable forestry and favour the 

use of environmentally compatible raw materials 

in their processes; 

• as long ago as the mid-nineties, we started the 

gradual conversion of our facilities, investing 

substantial sums and making exclusive use of 

solvent-free processes that have enabled us to 

replace the traditional system of silicone coating 

with one that makes no use of solvents (i.e. exane, 

ethyl acetate and xylene). 

This latter step has enabled us to go a long way 

towards achieving three notable advantages: 

• we have improved the environmental conditions in 

our workplaces, to the unquestioned benefit of our 

workforce; 

• we are now free of a whole series of environmental 

problems related to releasing the residual part of 

the solvent into the atmosphere, even though that 

may have taken place through a suitable abatement 

system, such as afterburners; 

• we have achieved considerable energy savings, with 

the positive effects that derive from this, also for 

the environment. 

The decision to stop using solvents has had 

no negative impact on our products’ quality 

characteristics: on the contrary, it has proved to be 

effective, even though the change in technology did 

influence the process. In practice, if we consider 

the last ten years, a period in which we have all but 

doubled our production, the increase in our use 

of adhesives in a watery solution has kept pace. 

These days, the only times that solvents are used 

are to wash and clean the cycles when production 

is changed. The residue of each of these cleaning 

operations is collected in special containers so that 

it can be disposed of externally as waste. 

Energy resources 

Electric power and thermal energy play a crucial 

role in this sector, too, although not as much as in 

the area of papermaking. In this case – and at least 

for now – the amounts of energy consumption in 

question preclude the emergence of the requirement 

to make ourselves independent by installing a co- 

generation plant, although that step had become 

practically essential in the papermaking sector. 

From an environmental perspective, then, as 

we buy our electric power from an external supplier, 

feasible improvements can be summarised as an 

increasingly rational and careful use of this resource. 

The thermal energy that is indispensable for 

the product polymerising phases, on the other hand, 

is produced on the spot, using methane-powered 

generators whose low environmental impact, in 

particular low level of CO 2 emissions, has already 

been explained in previous sections. 

In the light of this policy on using energy 

resources, our specific consumption was reduced by 

36 % in the course of the last 7 years, although our 

gross production has increased by 55 % (see Fig. 15).

80.000 

70.000 

60.000 

50.000 

Fig. 15 Total specific energy consumption 

Gross production (tons) GJ/gross production ton 

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

0,53 0,58 0,52 0,52 0,31 0,31 

56.478 62.668 68.578 74.969 76.751 82.669 

Air emissions 

Since 1995, when we started introducing the 

solventless technology, we have reduced our 

atmospheric emissions of volatile organic 

substances, also known by the acronym VOS, 

to a minimum. 

Unlike the papermaking industry, the 

converting sector is not subject to the provisions 

of European Directive N° 2003/87/EC, also known 

as the ‘Emissions Trading Directive’, which acts at 

EU level to regulate the activities, so as to reduce 

emission of greenhouse gases in compliance with 

the stipulations of the Kyoto Protocol. 

Nevertheless, the company makes an enormous 

effort to reduce CO emissions associated 

2 

with generating thermal energy whenever it is 

technologically possible to do so. In the course 

of time, the results achieved from optimising 

combustion ratios, subjecting the facilities to 

constant supervision and practising suitable 

maintenance have been found to be reassuring: 

in seven years, our specific emission of CO has 2 

been reduced by 29 % (see Fig. 16). 

80 

0,80 

0,70 

0,60 

0,50 

0,40 

0,30 

0,20 






performances 

81 

80.000 

70.000 

60.000 

50.000 

Fig. 16 Specific CO emission 

2 

Gross production (tons) kg CO /gross production ton 

2 

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

87,5 89,4 87,9 72,6 71,0 62,1 

56.478 62.668 68.578 74.969 76.751 82.669 


Fresh water and process water 

Water does not play the same essential role in the 

converting sector that it does in papermaking and 

its use is limited to: 

• cycle washing operations; 

• supplying the cooling and conditioning circuits; 

• generating steam. 

Altogether, then, a relatively small amount of water 

is used, although that does not make us pay any less 

attention to the need to optimise its consumption. 

Water can be saved in different ways, ranging 

100 

potentially from planning production in such a way 

as to minimise the number of times that the plant 

machinery needs to be washed for cycle changes, 

to achieving a greater degree of closure of the 

cooling and conditioning water cycles, amending the 

threshold temperatures for discharge and taking 

corrective measures for even the smallest wastages, 

such as hosepipes and taps left on etc. Taken as 

a whole, all this has contributed to keep values on 

range (from a value of 9.5 m3 H O / gross ton in 2005 

2 

90 

80 

70

80.000 

70.000 

60.000 

50.000 

Fig. 17 Specific fresh water consumption 

Gross production (tons) m 3 H 2 0/gross production ton 

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

11,3 10,0 8,8 8,2 9,9 10,1 

56.478 62.668 68.578 74.969 76.751 82.669 

to 10.1 m3 H O /ton ) while production increased by 

2 gross 

55 % in the same period (see Fig. 17). 

The company’s converting facilities are not equipped 

with water treatment plants of their own, as the 

negligible amounts of water that need to be filtered 

would not justify their existence and would tip the 

scales right out of balance, with the cost of running 

them far exceeding the environmental benefits that 

could be achieved. 

In the case of Arconvert SpA, the water that 

has been used for washing is channelled to the 

chemical, physical and biological purifying plant 

in the neighbouring Fedrigoni SpA Arco paper 

mill, as Arconvert shares in its ownership and in 

the responsibility for the liquid waste discharge 

authorisation. 

For its part, Manter SA subjects its wash water to a 

clarifying pre-treatment with ferrous chloride, before 

channelling it to an authorised external disposer as 

waste. 

Waste and the soil 

With sole exception of residual sludge, the 

production and handling of wastes is identical in 

converting and in the papermaking facilities, so 

the actions taken to reduce the amounts of waste 

handled are similar. As the primary objective remains 

to go as far as possible to encourage forms of 

82 

12 

11 

10 

9 

8 

7 






performances 

83 

80.000 

70.000 

60.000 

50.000 

Fig. 18 Specific total waste load 

Gross production (tons) Total kg waste/gross production ton 

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

109,8 110,6 87,4 72,8 75,3 62,7 

56.478 62.668 68.578 74.969 76.751 82.669 

recuperation for miscellaneous kinds of packaging, 

for iron, wood, plastic, paper etc., we therefore 

operate a selective waste sorting system and focus 

a great deal on the necessary increase in staff 

awareness, while also bringing pressure to bear 

on our suppliers so that they also contribute in their 

turn to reducing the amount of packaging used. 

In the case of the few kinds of waste that 

are classified as hazardous (washing solutions that 

contain solvents, used oils, rags soaked in mineral 

or lubricating oils, neon tubes, batteries etc.), both 

the quantities of them that are collected together 

and stored and the periods for which they are 

stored before being delivered to external disposal 

agents always comply with the law and all these 

operations are conducted in special areas equipped 

with suitable protection, so as to avoid any possible 

dispersions in the environment or on the ground. 

In the interests of safeguarding the soil and to 

ensure prevention of all kinds – even only potential 

– of contamination brought about by the accidental 

spillage of liquid compounds or oils, not only has the 

company installed container tanks, but practically 

all the facility’s open-air areas are waterproofed, 

asphalted or concreted over. 

In 2011, these actions led to a further reduction 

of 28 % in just one year in the amount of waste 

generated in terms of specific weighting on gross 

production, while the corresponding reduction over 

the last seven years has been 40 % (see Fig. 18). 

120 

100 

80 

60 

40

86 

87 

89 

93 

Workplace 


performances 

Foreword 

Evaluation of causes and 

statistical analysis of accidents 

The value of performances 

Training

Workplace 


performances 

Foreword 

Given the complexity of juridical references, their 

rapid evolution and the proliferation of related 

regulations on a local area scale, there is no doubt 

that ensuring 'safety' and 'health' in the workplace is 

by now an increasingly complex operation; inasmuch, 

an interdisciplinary approach is essential, where 

each component must not diminish the others to 

avoid reciprocally down-grading their importance. 

A classic problem of this type, when dealing with 

aspects involving safety and health in the workplace, 

is the identification of a correct compromise 

between management and organisational tasks 

covering medical-health, plant, engineering, 

regulatory and other requirements. This may seem 

self-evident or even obvious, but is not always clearly 

defined in reality. And this should be fundamentally 

traced to the fact that safety is still today a 'question 

of culture'. Many people still think that safety is not a 

personal question but involves only those dedicated 

and professional figures active in the field. There is 

no doubt that while such an attitude persists among 

individuals it will be difficult to achieve an advanced 

level of safety for everyone. In order to bridge this 

gap, then, we have always set out to: 

• involve individuals in becoming increasingly aware 

about these issues by conducting information 

and training programmes with the aim of getting 

their active support for the decisions made about 

prevention and protection; 

• define the organisational and management aspects 

of the workplace, drawing inspiration not only from 

applicable legislation, but also from the principles 

of international standard BSI OHSAS 18001:2007, 

as indicated among other things in Art. 30, section 

5 of Italian Legislative Decree N° 81/2008 and 

subsequent amendments, which identifies it 

explicitly as an effective system for the purposes 

of prevention; 

• create the right environmental conditions in the 

workplace for improving not only the safety of the 

workforce, but also its psycho-physical wellbeing; 

• clarify all roles and responsibilities, so as to avoid 

all interferences and overlapping; 

• comply with the technical, regulatory and legal 

standards established for equipment, plant 

systems, workplaces and chemical, physical 

and biological agents; 

• conduct preventive risk evaluation activities at all 

times, then adopt suitable protection measures as 

a consequence; 

• run checks at regular intervals whose purpose is 

to monitor the application and effectiveness of the 

procedures we have adopted. 

As a result, well before Italian Legislative Decree 

N° 626/1994 came into force and was then replaced 

by the new Consolidation Act on Health and Safety 

in the Workplace (Legislative Decree N° 81 dated 

09.04.2008 and subsequent amendments), but also 

before corresponding legislation came into force 

in other countries, our Italian companies are are 

organised to comply with the stipulations in all this 

legislation, as the safety management models that 

we had already adopted for our own sake had been 

found to be suitable for providing the compliance 

necessary. 

In addition to compliance with the 

‘Organisational Model’ whose effect is to exempt 

the Group from its corporate administrative 

liability as per Italian Legislative Decree N° 231 

dated 08.06.2001, whose provisions were already 

described in a former Chapter, our organisation 

provides for certain specific corporate figures to be 

operational, comprising internal organs, hierarchic 

structures, methods for managing resources and 

proxies, appropriate channels of internal and 

external communications, tools for collecting, 

86 





Workplace 


performances 

87 

processing and managing data and documentation, 

monitoring tools and so on, with the precise aim of: 

• reducing the number of accidents in the workplace, 

in terms both of frequency and of gravity; 

• reducing the costs to be sustained for what is 

known as ‘non-safety’, leading to benefits not only 

for us, but also for the institutions responsible for 

paying the costs of the National Health Service, the 

insurance premiums levied by the National Labour 

Accident Insurance Institute (INAIL), disability 

pensions, etc.; 

• improving compliance with legal requirements 

as rapidly and congruously as possible; 

• enhancing the involvement of the various corporate 

functions, deciding and citing their precise 

responsibilities; 

• improving the healthiness in the workplace, so 

as to reduce work-induced pathologies; 

• improving awareness and motivation on the part of 

the staff, at the same time also optimising relations 

with trade union representatives, especially those 

responsible for safety (RLS); 

• increasing employees’ professionalism as a result 

of precise education and training activities, at the 

same time also increasing their motivation; 

• strengthening our external image in terms of 

credibility and reliability among all stakeholders; 

• improving transparency in our relations with the 

Control Authorities and the Monitoring Organs; 

• strengthening our competitive advantages, as 

evaluations of corporate safety management are 

becoming increasingly important, both in legal 

and legislative terms and towards stakeholders, 

as indicators of an organisation’s stability and 

competitiveness, in the same way as what is 

happening in terms of environmental protection 

and corporate social responsibility. 

Evaluation of causes 

and statistical analysis 

of accidents 

Art. 2. 1. 2. of Italian standard UNI 7249 defines 

accident as follows: 

‘[A] harmful event that takes place for a violent 

reason, on the occasion of working, which leads to 

the death or permanent absolute or partial inability 

to work or to a temporary absolute inability to work 

for a period greater than the remaining part of the 

working day or shift during which it took place’. 

Within this framework, the Italian legal order 

also provides the obligation to consider not only 

accidents that may take place during normal working 

activities and in the workplace, but also accidents 

that take itinerant form, which means the ones that 

may take place during the usual journey to and from 

work, plus from any one place of work to another 

place of work, in cases when the worker provides 

employed services to more than one employer. 

The statistical analysis of accidents is 

certainly an important tool for the purposes of 

improving activities of prevention. Yet if they are to 

be sustainable and comparable, these investigations 

must draw inspiration from common and agreed 

principles that guarantee both their objectivity and 

at the same time their comparability. This is why our 

internal analyses are based on the benchmark of the 

indications provided by the Italian standard UNI 7249, 

which identifies the following as numbering among 

the main performance indicators. 

These performance indicators should always 

be interpreted with care and a critical eye, however, 

since, unlike what may be the case in comparable 

statistical compilations for the environment or for 

quality, areas where the company has the ability 

to introduce measures and the value calculated 

accurately represents the results of its performance, 

in the case of safety, the statistics may only provide 

an incomplete and incoherent reflection of the 

company’s actual performance.

Table 12 Accidents performance indicators 

AD – Average Duration Number of days of inability work recognised by INAIL in the period 

represents the total number of 

working days lost for accidents 

in the working period over a 

given time span 

Number of accidents in the period 

FI – Frequency Index Number of accidents in the period × 1,000,000 

evaluates the frequency of the 

collective accident phenomenon 

in every million hours worked, 

as a function of a given time span 

Total number of hours worked (blue-collar + white-collar) in the period 

GI – Gravity Index Number of days of inability to work in the period × 1,000 

identifies the intensity of an 

accident phenomenon and 

represents the total number of 

accidents per 1,000 hours worked 

In practice, on the basis both of the data furnished 

by INAIL and of the stipulations in the Italian standard 

UNI 7249 mentioned above, the algorithms used 

for these calculations must also take itinerant 

accidents 22 into account, as well as relapses that 

may occur some time after the worker has already 

gone back to work. All of these are issues in which 

the company has very little power to introduce 

corrective measures. By way of a simple but 

effective example, consider that a single accident 

that starts out with a ten-day prognosis of inability 

Total number of hours worked (blue-collar + white-collar) in the period 

to work from INAIL and is then extended by a relapse 

to 20 days immediately triggers a mechanism that 

doubles its gravity index, without any actual change 

taking place in the original event. 

Another issue that may change the statistical 

evaluation of accidents – and quite significantly 

so – is the fact that episodes that ought to be 

classified as illness are often classified erroneously 

as accidents, even in the absence of the condition 

established by Italian standard UNI 7249 of a ‘harmful 

event that takes place for a violent reason’. 

88 





NOTES FOR CALCULATIONS 

• A ‘period’ is one month or one year. 

• The calculation is based only on 

those accidents whose diagnosis 

has been recognised by INAIL as 

≥ 3 days. 

• ‘Total hours worked’ is construed 

as those worked by all employees 

(blue-collar and white-collar 

workers) who are subject to 

obligatory insurance. 

• In the specific case of determining 

the gravity index (GI), in addition 

to the two previous notes, the 

calculation must also include the 

days of extension of accidents that 

have taken place in corresponding 

previous periods, as well as days 

of absence for relapses, even if 

only part of them come within the 

period under consideration for 

the calculation. 

22 By way of providing an idea 

of the extent to which these may 

impact, for example, consider that 

in 2009 they accounted for 8% of all 

accidents reported in the Fedrigoni 

Cartiere SpA business area alone.

Workplace 


performances 

89 

In the light of the fluctuating, variable nature of 

the classification and quantification of accidents, 

then, the only truly viable method for understanding 

whether an improvement is actually taking place is 

that of evaluating the trend in performances, not so 

much over such short periods, but over a period of 

several years. Used in this way, statistics can help us 

balance out and compensate for situations like the 

ones just described, distributing the evaluations over 

the longer term in a way that is both more reliable 

and certainly more representative of the real trend 

in accidents. 

Table 13 Total Group performance (Cartiere + Converting + Technical products) 

The values of performances 

Unlike the preceding section dealing with the 

environment, in which the issues are set out 

separately as a function of the different processes 

applied, here we proceed as a whole, listing the 

values attributed to performances as they relate to 

the companies belonging to the Group as a whole. 

This choice is advisable because the specific 

nature of the different technologies used exerts 

no influence in general on the company’s safety 

performances, although we do acknowledge that 

different levels of risk apply to different operating 

contexts (see Tab. 13). 

INDICATOR 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 % VARIATION 

Total accidents 187 189 182 181 193 183 133 166 128 -31,6 

AD – Average Duration 20,7 20,5 19,9 19,9 20,8 19,9 21,1 27,6 27,4 +32 

FI – Frequency Index 74,6 73,0 70,2 64,7 69,4 65,8 48,7 60,3 45,9 -38,4 

GI – Gravity Index 1,55 1,50 1,40 1,29 1,45 1,31 1,02 1,67 1,26 -18,7 


v/s 

2003

If we plot this trend on a graph for the last nine 

years, we have: 

2.800.000 

2.700.000 

2.600.000 

2.500.000 

Fig. 19 Accidents – Average duration 

Total hours worked Number of days unable to work 

90 





2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

20,5 19,9 19,9 20,8 19,9 21,1 27,6 26,4 

2.587.663 2.591.846 2.795.610 2.780.031 2.781.934 2.733.235 2.752.388 2.785.989 

26,0 

24,0 

22,0 

20,0 

18,0

2.800.000 

2.700.000 

2.600.000 

2.500.000 

Workplace 


performances 

91 

Fig. 20 Accidents – Frequency index 

Total hours worked Number of accidents/hours worked 

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

73,0 70,2 64,7 69,4 65,8 48,7 60,3 45,9 

2.587.663 2.591.846 2.795.610 2.780.031 2.781.934 2.733.235 2.752.388 2.785.989 

80 

70 

60 

50

2.800.000 

2.700.000 

2.600.000 

2.500.000 

Fig. 21 Accidents – Seriousness index 

Total hours worked Number of days unable to work/hours worked 

92 





2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

1,50 1,40 1,29 1,45 1,31 1,02 1,67 1,26 

2.587.663 2.591.846 2.795.610 2.780.031 2.781.934 2.733.235 2.752.388 2.785.989 

1,70 

1,60 

1,50 

1,40 

1,30 

1,20 

1,10 

1,00

Workplace 


performances 

93 

Training 

Ample space and time are spent in all the Group’s 

units to training activities focused on prevention and 

safety issues that go well beyond mere compliance 

with the provisions in the law. 

The company has always dedicated substantial 

internal and external resources to these exercises, 

which we believe to be fundamental to instilling 

in every member of the internal and external 

workforce the right culture of safety, without which 

it would truly be very difficult indeed to achieve any 

improvements at all, and has focused even more 

attention on this in recent years. 

Now involving practically the entire workforce, 

the issues tackled in these training courses start 

from the more general principles, then zoom in to 

focus on the details that need to be discussed with 

regard to each particular area of requirements. 

Before actually starting work, each new 

employee goes through an extensive training and 

information course lasting several hours, which is 

held both in the training room and on site. 

In the last year, some of these courses have 

tackled the following topics in terms of both theory 

and practice: 

• training of Managers in accordance with Article 37/ 

Item 7 of Italian Legislative Decree DLGS 81/2008 as 

amended by DLGS 106 dated 03.08.2009; 

• operation of fork-lift trucks; 

• correct manual load handling; 

• correct use of personal protection devices - 

category 3 – Prevention of falls from height; 

• update of emergency procedures; 

• safety signs; 

• work at height (pulper and maintenance 

employees); 

• use of overhead cranes (theoretical/practical) for 

construction, set-up and maintenance; 

• use of fork-lift trucks by new employees 

(theoretical/practical); 

• 'request for machinery and plant safety 

intervention' procedure; 

• Company Emergency Plan (EP); 

• use of Category 3 Personal Protection Devices; 

• sources of radiation for electrical maintenance, 

assistants and laboratory/workshop; 

• Individual coaching; 

• Compulsory training for apprentices; 

• First aid teams in all company mills/factories; 

• Licence for steam generator operators; 

• Safety for new employees and employees 

changing their roles; 

• Periodic updates for company RSPP 

and RLS representatives; 

• Technology and plant; 

• Professional training – training of apprentices 

and new employees; 

• Etc. 

In quantitative terms, training provided 

(expressed as number of hours/employee/year) in 

more recent years can be quantified as per Table 14 

and is presented graphically in Fig. 22.

Table 14 Training hours per employee 

94 





2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

N° hours / employee / annum 5.8 5.6 5.1 6.6 3.6 3.3 6.0 5.4 5.0

2.800.000 

2.700.000 

2.600.000 

2.500.000 

Workplace 


performances 

95 

Fig. 22 Safety – Specific individual training index 

Total hours worked Number of hours training /worker/year 

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

5,6 5,1 6,6 3,6 3,3 6,0 5,4 5,0 

2.587.663 2.591.846 2.795.610 2.780.031 2.781.934 2.733.235 2.752.388 2.785.989 

12 

10 

8 

6 

4 

2

98 

103 

Glossaries 



and safety glossary


A B C 

Auditor 

An individual or working group, either 

internal or external to the company, 

operating on behalf of the company’s 

general management, either individually 

or collectively in possession of the skills 

as stipulated in Appendix II – point C 

of European Council Regulation EEC 

N° 1836/93 and sufficiently independent 

of the activities being controlled to 

express an objective appraisal. 

BAT 

(Best Available Techniques) 

As cited specifically in Art. 2, Section 1, 

Subsection o) of Italian Legislative Decree 

N° 59 dated 18.02.2005, BATs are: 

‘The most efficient and advanced phase 

of development of activities and related 

methods of application indicating the 

practical suitability of certain techniques 

for constructing, at the most, the basis 

of threshold values for emissions, whose 

purpose is to avoid or, where that may 

prove to be impossible, generally to 

reduce emissions and environmental 

impact as a whole. When determining 

best available techniques, the elements 

stipulated in Appendix IV should be born 

in mind in particular.’ In particular, this 

means: 

• BEST the most effective techniques 

for achieving a high degree of 

environmental protection as a whole. 

• AVAILABLE the techniques developed 

on a scale that enables them to be 

applied in economically and technically 

valid conditions in the framework of the 

pertinent industrial sector, considering 

the costs and benefits, regardless of 

whether they are applied or produced in 

Italy, as long as the manager can access 

them at reasonable conditions. 

• TECHNIQUES both the techniques 

used and the methods of designing, 

constructing, maintaining, running and 

decommissioning the facility. 

98 Fedrigoni Group 





Clean technologies 

Methods of reduction at source or 

recycling to eliminate or substantially 

reduce the environmental impacts of 

a production site. 

COD 

(Chemical Oxygen Demand) 

The chemical oxygen demand is defined 

as the equivalent amount of oxygen in 

an oxidising compound consumed by the 

substance under examination in certain 

laboratory conditions. As a result, it acts 

as an index of the amount of oxidisable 

pollutant organic substances contained 

in water. 

Cogeneration 

(CHP = Combined Heat 

and Power) 

A single process for generating both 

electricity and thermal energy, generally 

using a turbine that generates electricity, 

whose residual heat is exploited to 

produce thermal energy. 

Carbonic Dioxide (CO ) 2 

A compound that is generated in the 

course of combustion, but also as a 

consequence of various types of natural 

phenomena, as a result of the reaction 

between carbon and oxygen. It is one 

of the main greenhouse gases (see 

definition below). 

Continuous improvement 

A process for achieving improvements 

in overall environmental performance in 

line with the organisation’s environmental 

policy. (N.B.: the process does not 

necessarily have to be applied at the 

same time across all areas of activity.)

E 

Glossaries 

99 

Ecolabel (mark) 

This is a voluntary European 

environmental quality label for products 

and services. It is also selective in nature, 

because it is only destined for the best 

products within each environmentally 

relevant group. A specific European 

Regulation governs the procedure 

for issuing the label. This procedure 

was initiated in 1992 with the passage 

of European Regulation N° 880/92, 

since updated by the new Regulation 

N° 1980/2000 dated 17.07.2000. The aim 

of this quality mark, whose sign is the 

daisy label, is to promote products and 

services that have a lower environmental 

impact throughout their entire life 

cycles, providing consumers with a 

clear orientation that does not mislead 

them, in the form of scientifically 

accurate information, towards making 

environmentally sustainable buying 

decisions. The European standard that 

provides the specific benchmark for 

copy and graphic papers is European 

Commission decision N° 2002/741/ 

EC dated 04.09.2002, published in 

issue N° L 237 of the Official Gazette 

of the European Union on 05.09.2002. 

Products that have been awarded this 

environmental quality mark are entitled 

to bear this label. 

Environment 

The context in which an organisation 

operates, including air, water, soil, natural 

resources, flora, fauna and human beings 

and how they all relate to each other. 

N.B.: in this case, the environment should 

be understood as stretching from inside 

the organisation to the global system. 

Environmental aspect 

An element of an activity, product or 

service of an organisation that can 

interact with the environment. 

Environmental audit 

A management tool comprising a 

systematic, documented, periodical 

and objective evaluation of the efficiency 

of the organisation, of its management 

system and of the processes destined 

to the protection of the environment, 

for the purpose of: 

• facilitating control of those practices 

that could have an environmental 

impact; 

• evaluating compliance with the 

company’s environmental policies. 

Environmental component 

A natural element (environmental and 

territorial asset or resource) and/or a 

human element with an interest in the 

activity of a site. 

Environmental impact 

Any fact that may modify the 

environment, whether negative or 

beneficial, total or partial, consequent 

on the activities, products or services 

of an organisation. 

Environmental impact factor 

One of the material factors, such as 

products, residues etc., and immaterial 

factors, such as energy, physical agents, 

noise, vibrations etc., whose quantity 

and quality may generate environmental 

effects. 

Environmental indicator 

A quantitative parameter capable of 

constituting an environmental impact 

factor. 

E. M. S. 

(Environmental Management 

System) 

Part of the overall management system 

including the organisational structure, 

the chain of responsibility, practices, 

procedures, processes and resources 

for drawing up an environmental policy 

and putting it into practice. 

Environmental objectives 

The overall environmental aim, derived 

from the environmental policy that an 

organisation decides to pursue and that 

is quantified wherever possible. 

Environmental performance 

The measurable results of the 

environmental management system 

deriving from the organisation’s control 

of its environmental aspects, on the basis 

of its environmental policy, its aims and 

its objectives. 


The aims and principles of environmental 

action adopted by the company, including 

compliance with relevant environmental 

rules and regulations.

F 

Forestry certification 

A procedure whereby an independent 

third part provides written certification 

attesting that the forestry in a given area 

complies with the standards of good and 

sustainable forestry management. 

These are defined in terms of 

conditions of quality and quantity, with 

due consideration to environmental, 

social and economic elements. These 

certification standards include: 

• ATFS 

American Tree Farm System (USA) 

• CERTF 

Certforchile accredited PEFC (Chile) 

• CSA 

Canadian Standard Association 

(Canada) 

• FSC 

Forest Stewardship Council 

(International) 

• PEFC 

Pan-European Forest Certification 

(Europe) 

• SFI 

Sustainable Forestry Initiative 

(North America) 

FSC 

(Forest Stewardship Council) 

The FSC label identifies forestry products 

or their derivatives, including paper 

made mostly from cellulose coming from 

forests managed correctly, sustainably 

and responsibly, in accordance 

with strict standards that pay due 

attention to the environmental, social 

and economic aspects of the area 

where the forest of origin is located. 

This is evaluated independently, in 

compliance with standards that define 

the principles and criteria of good 

forestry management, drawn up and 

approved by the Forest Stewardship 

Council (FSC) with the participation 

and consent of the interested parties. 

The FSC is an independent, non-profit 

making international NGO established in 

1993 by a small group of environmentalist 

associations that, in time, has expanded 

to the point that its membership now 

includes other environmentalist groups, 

social groups, native communities, 

forest owners, industries that process, 

transform and deal in wood, scientists 

and technicians who operate together 

with the shared aim of improving forestry 

management all over the world, creating 

a viable alternative to the destruction 

of forests by applying standards drawn 

from a process of elaboration that 

comprises substantially the consultation 

of numerous representatives of all the 

social, economic and environmental 

sectors interested in their management. 

By applying the FSC standards, it is 

possible demonstrate that consumer 

demand can be satisfied by the supply 

offered by a producer capable of making 

a concrete contribution to a form of 

forestry management that ensures the 

biodiversity of the forest environment 

and guarantees its fundamental 

environmental functions, while at the 

same time generating real benefits for 

local communities. 






FSC Chain of Custody 

A system that enables the activities of 

a correct, responsible form of forestry 

management to be correlated to the final 

products made using components based 

on the wood coming from the forestry 

plantations in question. Established 

basically to certify correct forestry 

management, the FSC system therefore 

also makes provision for certifying the 

entire chain along which the woodbased 

product moves, to the extent 

that it defines a mechanism that can be 

used to identify the forest from which 

any wood or its derivative products 

originally came, whatever phase they 

are used in, especially when they are 

mixed or blended with other lots coming 

from forests that are not FSC certified 

and in the many passages that lead 

up to the completion of the finished 

product destined for the end consumer. 

The possibility to use the FSC symbol, 

supported by FSC Chain of Custody 

certification issued an independent thirdparty 

authority accredited by the FSC, 

demonstrates that an organisation has 

correctly fulfilled its direct commitment 

to an environmentally friendly and socially 

responsible forestry management 

process.

Glossaries 

101 

G I K 

Greenhouse effect 

A natural phenomenon related to 

the screening action performed by 

the carbon dioxide present in the 

atmosphere, which stops the dispersion 

of heat from the Earth out into space. In 

recent decades, this phenomenon has 

been causing an increase in the planet’s 

mean temperature. 

Greenhouse gases (GHG) 

Gaseous substances that may be natural 

or determined by human activities, which 

generate a greenhouse effect in the 

atmosphere. 

IPPC 

(Integrated Pollution Prevention 

and Control) 

The acronym indicates European 

Directive EEC/EAEA/EC N° 61 dated 

24.09.1996, whose purpose is the 

integrated prevention and reduction of 

pollution; it was transposed into Italian 

law by Legislative Decree N° 372/1999, 

which in its turn was repealed and 

replaced by Legislative Decree N° 59 

dated 18.02.2005. Among other 

things, it provides for the issue of a 

single environmental authorisation for 

participating firms, covering emissions 

in water and the air, protection of the 

soil, refuse management and noise 

reduction. This authorisation will indicate 

the threshold values with which firms 

will have to comply, which will be set 

by the issuing authority in relation to 

the vulnerability of the surrounding 

environment. All of this will take place 

within a time frame that is to be set in 

motion by the end of 2007. 

Kyoto Protocol 

Passed by the Conference of the Parties 

in its third plenary session, held in Kyoto 

from 1 to 10 December 1997, the Kyoto 

Protocol is an executive act containing 

the first decisions on the operative 

application of some of the commitments 

entered into under the UN-FCCC 

Convention, more precisely the more 

urgent priorities concerning certain 

sectors of national economies. 

L 

Legal compliance, conformity 

The application by the company of 

the provisions stipulated by pertinent 

laws and regulations governing the 

environment. 

N 

Nitrogen Oxide (NO ) x 

A compound that is generated in the 

course of combustion, but also as a 

consequence of various types of natural 

phenomena, as a result of the reaction 

between oxygen and nitrogen. It causes 

acid rain and eutrophisation.

P 

Pollution prevention 

The use of processes, procedures, 

practices, materials or products to 

avoid, reduce or control pollution, 

including recycling, treatment, process 

changes, control systems, efficient use 

of resources and the substitution of 

materials. 

N.B.: the potential benefits to be enjoyed 

from pollution prevention include the 

reduction of negative environmental 

impacts, increased efficiency and lower 

costs. 

PECF 

PECF is a certification system for 

sustainable forestry management set up 

through an international initiative based 

on a broad-scale agreement between 

parties involved in the implementation 

of the sustainable forestry management 

on a national and regional scale. It 

brings together representatives of 

forestry and poplar plantation owners, 

final consumers, users, freelance 

professionals, the wood industry and 

craftsmanship companies. Its objectives 

especially include the improvement of the 

image of forestry and the forest–wood 

value chain by providing an effective 

market tool allowing the sale of wood 

and forestry products from woods and 

plantations managed in a sustainable 

manner. 

PEFC forestry certification in Europe is 

based on three fundamental principles: 

Respect for the Criteria and Indicators 

defined by Ministerial Conferences for the 

protection of forests in Europe (Helsinki 

1993, Lisbon 1998) that saw the launch of 

the so-called pan-European Process; 

Application on a regional or Group 

scale (individual membership is in any 

case possible); Audits and certification 

entrusted to an independent and 

accredited third party. 

R 

REACH 

Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation 

of Chemicals. 

S 

Site 

The entire area, in a given location, 

where the industrial activities under a 

firm’s control take place, including all 

contiguous or connected stores for raw 

materials, by-products, products, semifinished 

goods, finished products and 

refuse materials, plus all infrastructures 

and all fixed or mobile plant equipment 

used in the course of the activity. 

U 






Sustainable development 

A form of development that generates 

maximum benefits for current 

generations, without detriment to 

the potential to satisfy the needs and 

expectations of future generations. 

Sustainable forest management 

(SFM) 

A long-term management system whose 

aim is to maintain and increase the state 

of health of the forest ecosystem, while at 

the same time procuring environmental, 

economic and social benefits for present 

and future generations. 

UNI-EN ISO 14001 standard 

An international standard issued for the first 

time in 1996 by the International Standard 

Organisation and transposed in Italy by UNI. 

This standard describes the requirements 

that an organisation’s environmental 

management system must fulfil in order 

to achieve certification. This certificate 

can only be issued by a private accredited 

authority. The new edition, which replaces 

the original 1996 text, was passed in 2004.

Glossaries 

103 


and safety glossary 

A C 

Accident / accidental event 

An unplanned event brought about by a 

fortuitous cause that has the potential to 

lead to an injury or to cause damage to 

property. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: an accidental 

event which results in no harm to 

health, no injuries, no damage and no 

other drawbacks is known as a ‘NEAR 

ACCIDENT’. As a result, the term 

‘accidental event’ also includes such 

‘near accidents’. 

Accident in the workplace 

A harmful event that takes place for 

a violent reason, on the occasion of 

working, which leads to the death or 

permanent absolute or partial inability 

to work or to a temporary absolute 

inability to work for a period greater 

than the remaining part of the working 

day or shift during which it took place. 

(Ref.: UNI standard N° 7249) 

Agent 

A chemical, physical or biological 

agent that is present during work and 

potentially harmful for health. 

Aims and objectives 

The purposes that a company sets out 

to achieve. In the specific scope of 

this report, these are to be construed 

in the area of health and safety in the 

workplace. 

Audit 

A systematic and, whenever possible, 

independent examination whose purpose 

is to determine whether a given set of 

activities and their related results comply 

with the measures as planned, whether 

those measures have been executed 

effectively and whether they have proved 

suitable for pursuing the organisation’s 

policies and objectives. 

Continuity of improvement 

A process for achieving improvements 

in the health and safety in the workplace 

management system, so as to improve 

the overall health and safety in the 

workplace performance in line with the 

organisation’s policy. 

N.B.: the process does not necessarily 

have to be applied at the same time 

across all areas of activity. 

Contractor 

The actor who makes a contractual 

commitment to the client to provide 

goods and/or services with his own 

means.

D E G 

Danger 

A source or a situation with a risk 

potential in terms of injury or illness, 

of damage to property and to the 

environment, or of any combination 

of these. 

Danger detection 

The process of recognising that a danger 

exists and the process of defining its 

characteristics. 

Employer 

(Italian: D. d. L.) 

The actor who has the contractual 

relationship of work with the employee or, 

in any case, the actor who, according to 

the type and organisation of the concern, 

is responsible for the concern itself or 

for the production unit, as defined by 

subsection i (Production Unit: facility or 

structure whose purpose is to produce 

goods or services, possessing functional 

technical and financial autonomy), as the 

holder of the powers of decision-making 

and of expenditure. 

Entrepreneur 

An entrepreneur is a person who works 

professionally to conduct an economic 

activity organised for the purpose of 

producing or trading goods or services. 

(Ref.: Italian Civil Code, Book 

V / Chapter II – Heading I / Section 1 

Art. 2082) 

External concern 

A physical or collective actor that 

provides a professional performance 

within the organisation on a continuous 

or discontinuous basis over a given 

period of time. 






General accident 

An unplanned event that leads to death, 

illness, injury, damage or some other 

loss. 

H 


Workplace (Italian: S. S. L.) 

Conditions or factors that influence the 

wellness of employees, of temporary 

workers, of contractors’ staff, of visitors 

and of anyone else in the workplace. 


Workplace Management System 

(Italian S. G. S. S. L.) 

That part of the global management 

system that facilitates the management 

of the risks relative to Health and 

Safety in the Workplace in relation to 

the organisation’s activity. This includes 

the organisational structure, the 

planning activities, the responsibilities, 

the bureaucratic documentation, 

the procedures, the processes and 

the resources for developing the 

organisation’s Health and Safety in 

the Workplace management system, 

putting it into practice, reviewing it and 

maintaining it. The heading of Health and 

Safety in the Workplace (see entry in this 

glossary) is an integral component of the 

management system.

Glossaries 

105 


Workplace management system 

manager (Italian R. S. G. S. S. L.) 

A person appointed by the employer 

and in possession of suitable capacities 

and authority in the organisation, who is 

entrusted with the task, independent of 

other corporate responsibilities, of coordinating 

and checking that the Health 

and Safety in the Workplace Management 

System is practised in compliance with 

legal requirements and with the principles 

of the Management System voluntarily 

adopted by the organisation in respect 

of its Safety Policy. 

I 

Individual protection devices 

(Italian: D. P. I.) 

Any equipment destined to be worn and 

held by the worker for the purpose of 

protecting him/her against one or more 

risks that might threaten his/her health 

and safety during work, together with 

every complement or accessory destined 

for the same purpose. 

The following are not considered 

to be Individual Protection Devices: 

• ordinary articles of working clothing 

and uniforms that are not specifically 

destined for protecting the worker’s 

health and safety; 

• the equipment used by the emergency 

assistance and rescue services; 

• the individual protection equipment of 

the armed forces, of the police forces 

and of the staff working for the law 

and order maintenance service; 

• the individual protection equipment 

with which road transport vehicles 

are provided; 

• sports materials; 

• materials for self-defence and for 

dissuasion; 

• portable devices used for detecting 

and alerting to the presence of risks 

or harmful factors. 

Interested parties (often also 

known as Stakeholders) 

Individuals or groups who are interested 

in or influenced by the organisation’s 

health and safety in the workplace 

performance. 

L 

Legal requirement 

A stipulation in a law or a regulation at 

European Union, national or local level 

and every other commitment taken on, 

even voluntarily, and applicable to the 

organisation. 

List of obligation deadlines 

A framework listing the obligations 

established by laws and regulations for 

the Health and Safety in the Workplace 

Management System, including the 

obligations to which the organisation 

has subscribed voluntarily. 

M 

Manager 

An employee who occupies a position 

distinguished by a high degree of 

professionalism, autonomy and decisionmaking 

power and who executes his 

functions for the purpose of promoting, 

co-ordinating and managing the 

achievement of the company’s 

aims and objectives. 

Manufacturer 

An actor who produces machines, 

equipment, fixed plant, devices (see 

Presidential Decree N° 459/1996), 

substances and preparations on a 

professional or commercial basis 

and introduces them to the market. 

The manufacturer may be both internal 

and external to the organisation.

N 

Non-compliance, 

non-conformity 

Every deviation from working regulations 

or standards, from practice, from 

procedures, from laws, from the 

performances of the management system 

and so on that could lead directly and/or 

indirectly to injury or illness, to damage 

to property, to damage to the workplace 

or to any combination of these. 

O 

Organisation 

A company, operator, firm, concern, 

enterprise, authority or association, or 

any part of any of these, whether legally 

recognised or not, public or private, that 

has functions of its own and its 

own administration. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: In the case of 

organisations with more than one 

operating unit, each individual operating 

unit may be defined as an organisation. 

P 

Performance 

Measurable results of the Health and 

Safety in the Workplace Management 

System in relation to the control of 

health and safety risks undertaken by the 

organisation on the basis of its Health 

and Safety in the Workplace policy and 

objectives. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: performance 

measurements include the measurement 

of the activities and results of the Health 

and Safety in the Workplace management. 

Prevention and protection 

service manager 

(Italian R. S. P. P.) 

A person appointed by the employer and 

in possession of suitable aptitudes and 

capacities. 

Prevention and protection 

service staff (Italian A. S. P. P.) 

One or more people appointed by the 

employer, after consultation with the 

Trade Union Safety Representative(s), 

to expedite the tasks provided for in 

Art. 9 of Legislative Decree N° 626/1994 

and subsequent amendments (tasks of 

the Prevention and Protection Service). 

Production unit 

A facility or a structure whose purpose is 

to produce goods or services, possessing 

functional technical and financial 

autonomy. 

106 

Fedrigoni Group 





Professional illness 

A harmful condition contracted in the 

course of executing processes and 

caused by the harmful action, slow 

and protracted in time, of a job or of 

materials or of negative factors present 

in the environment where the working 

activity is carried out. 

N.B.: Legislative Decree N° 38 dated 

23.02.2000 establishes the obligation on 

every medical practitioner to declare 

illnesses that may have originated as a 

result of a potentially harmful working 

activity to the Local Health Authority 

(ASL), to the National Institute for 

Insurance against Accidents in the 

Workplace (INAIL) and to the Provincial 

Labour Directorate, indicating their 

working history, their risks and the 

substances to which the worker is 

(or has been) exposed. 

Protection 

(Also see ‘Protection and Prevention 

Measures’) 

The sum total of al the measures that 

tend to reduce the probability that 

a negative event will come about. 

Protections can be classified as ‘Active 

Protections’ and ‘Passive Protections’.

Glossaries 

107 

Protection, active 

This has the aim of preventively 

eliminating a negative event and/or 

reducing its effects. 

Protection, passive 

This has the purpose of stopping a 

negative event from propagating. 

Protection and prevention 

measures 

(Also see ‘Protection’) 

The general measures designed to avoid 

accidental events. The general Protection 

and Prevention measures for health and 

safety in the workplace can be listed as 

follows: 

• assessment of health and safety risks; 

• elimination of risks as a function of 

knowledge acquired on the basis of 

technical progress or, in cases when 

this is impossible, reducing them to 

a minimum; 

• reduction of risks at source; 

• planning prevention, aiming at achieving 

an operating context into which the 

company’s operating and organisational 

conditions and the influence exerted by 

factors related to the workplace blend 

coherently; 

• replacing what is dangerous with what is 

not dangerous or is less dangerous; 

• complying with the principles of 

ergonomics in workplace design, in the 

choice of equipment and in the definition 

of working and production methods; 

• prioritising collective over individual 

protection measures; 

• minimising the number of workers who 

are, or may be, exposed to risks; 

• using a limited number of chemical, 

physical and biological agents in the 

workplace; 

• subjecting workers to health check-ups 

in relation to specific risks; 

• moving individual workers away from 

exposure to risks, for health reasons 

related to their specific persons; 

• taking hygienic measures; 

• taking collective and individual 

protection measures; 

• preparing emergency measures to take 

in case of first aid, firefighting, worker 

evacuation and serious and immediate 

dangers; 

• using alert and safety signals; 

• regularly maintaining places, structures, 

equipment, machinery and fixed plant, 

with a special focus on safety devices 

in compliance with the instructions 

provided by their manufacturers; 

• providing workers with information, 

training and advice and involving them, 

or their representatives, in questions 

concerning health and safety in the 

workplace; 

• providing workers with adequate 

instructions. 

R 

Register of laws and regulations 

A framework listing the obligations and 

prohibitions established by the law, 

with responsibilities and deadlines. This 

Register also includes the ‘Archive/ 

Collection of laws and regulations’ and 

the ‘List of obligation deadlines’. 

Risk 

The combination of the probabilities 

and of the consequences that a specific 

dangerous event will happen. The level 

of the risk derives from the combination 

of the probability and of the gravity of 

possible damage to health. According to 

British Standard BS 8800:1996, risks can 

be classified on five levels, according 

to their combinations (see following 

definitions). 

Risk, tolerable 

A risk that is reduced to a level at which 

it can be tolerable for the organisation, in 

consideration of its legal obligations and 

of its Health and Safety in the Workplace 

policy, i.e. a risk for which no corrective 

or safeguarding actions are necessary. 

In any case, solutions with a better 

cost-benefit ratio could be considered, 

as could improvements that call for no 

further economic layout. Monitoring 

is necessary, however, in order to 

guarantee that this type of risk tom, 

is kept under control. 

(Source: British Standard BS 8800:1996)

Risk, slight 

A risk that calls for prevention measures 

to be taken to reduce it, although their 

cost must be commensurate to the level 

of the actual risk. These risk reduction 

measures must be put in place within a 

clearly defined time frame. 

(Source: British Standard BS 8800:1996) 

Risk, moderate 

A risk that calls for preventive measures 

to be taken to reduce it that must be 

put in place within a clearly defined time 

frame and, in particular, one that is as 

short as possible. During the period 

necessary for the risk to be reduced, 

temporary organisational and procedural 

measures for reducing the risk should 

be identified if possible. In cases where 

the level of risk classified as moderate is 

associated with extreme damage, further 

considerations may be necessary to 

establish their probability more precisely, 

to as to be able to determine the need 

for improvement in control measures. 


Risk, real 

A risk that calls for preventive measures 

to be taken to reduce it that must be 

put in place very rapidly, if possible 

immediately, without any delay; in any 

case, the financial resources necessary 

for reducing the level of the risk must 

be made available immediately. In cases 

where the risk involves work in hand, the 

measures out in place must be urgent and 

take priority over everything else. 


Risk, intolerable 

This is a kind of risk in whose presence 

the job cannot even be started if it 

has been detected during the phase of 

preventive assessment; if it is detected 

in a process that is already up and 

running, the process must be suspended 

immediately and no working activities 

may continue. These may continue only 

after the risk has been reduced. In cases 

where there are no solutions of any 

kind for reducing the risk, not even by 

investing substantial resources, the work 

must be prohibited. 


108 






Risk, residual 

This is a risk of a potential kind that 

is not self-evident or obvious in any 

way, i.e. one that remains after all the 

organisational, procedural and technical 

actions for safeguarding workers’ health 

and safety have been put in place. 

Risk assessment 

(Italian: V. D. R.) 

The global procedure for estimating the 

scope of a risk and deciding whether the 

risk is tolerable or not, i.e. the global 

assessment of the probabilities and 

of the gravity of the possible injuries 

and damage to health in a dangerous 

situation, so as to choose the most 

suitable safety measures. 

(Ref. UNI EN Standard N° 292 – 1 : 1992) 

Risk prevention and protection 

service (Italian: S. P. P.) 

Part of the corporate organisation 

comprising people, systems and means 

external or internal to the company, 

whose purpose is the activity of 

prevention of and protection against 

professional risks in the company or, as 

the case may be, in the production unit.

S 

Glossaries 

109 

Safety 

The absence of unacceptable risks and 

damage (see ISO/IEC - Guide N° 2) 

Safety milestone 

This is a detailed performance stipulation, 

quantified whenever possible, that refers 

to a part or the whole of an organisation 

and derives from the health and safety 

in the workplace objectives; milestones 

have to be established and achieved in 

order to reach these objectives. 

Safety objectives 

The ultimate targets of overall safety, 

derived from the health and safety in the 

workplace policy that an organisation 

decides to adopt and pursue and which 

is quantified wherever possible. 

Stakeholder 

See ‘Interested Parties’. 

Subordinate (employed) worker 

A subordinate or employed worker is a 

person who works outside his/her home 

in a position of dependency and under 

the direction of other(s), with or without 

payment, also for the sole purpose of 

learning a craft, an art or a profession. 

Substantial alteration 

Any organisational, managerial, plant or 

structural intervention that alters the 

responsibility, functionality, performance 

and execution of a process, even 

separately. 

Superior 

The superior is the person who, by virtue 

of his or her technical competences, 

has the position and the responsibility to 

supervise and superintend the individual 

phases of the production process. i.e. the 

work done by the other workers. 

Superiors are held to include Site 

Managers, Team Leaders, Heads of 

Department and their Assistants, as 

they are specified in accident prevention 

regulations. 

T 

Top Management 

The proprietor, the entrepreneur, the 

members of the Board of Directors, the 

Managing Director, the General Manager 

and any other persons holding power or 

proxies of power and that influence the 

entire organisation. 

Trade Union Safety 

Representative (Italian: R. L. S.) 

A person or persons elected or 

designated to represent the workers with 

regard to aspects of health and safety in 

the workplace, usually known simply as 

the Safety Representative.

V W 

Visitor 

A physical actor who is present in the 

company/organisation for a limited and 

defined period of time, in a regulated 

manner, with the purpose of acquiring 

or providing knowledge and information 

about the company’s operations and 

who does not interfere directly with its 

activities. 

Weak point 

An inadequacy in the Management System 

detected in the course of a system audit 

or of an operative audit. 

Worker 

A person who works as the employee of 

an employer […], occupying a subordinate 

position that may also be of a special 

nature. The same status is accorded to 

worker members of co-operatives or of 

partnerships and companies, also of the 

unincorporated kind, who work for the 

company or organisation in question […]. 

Working equipment 

All and any machinery, equipment, tools 

or fixed plant destined to be used during 

work. 

Work place or station 

Fixed or variable stations where the 

worker executes his or her tasks. 

Workplace 

All the places destined to contain work 

places and stations, located inside the 

company or of the production unit, 

together with every other place in the 

area of the same company or production 

unit that is in nay case accessible for 

work. 

110

Environmental, Health and Safety Group Report 2011 (PDF - Fedrigoni

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?