Contributor identification Contribution identification Name Renza Berti Session 1 Company CESI SpA Block 2 Address Via Rubattino 54 Question n° 7-2 20134 Milano -Italy Language used on the floor English Phone 0039 2 21255664 Accompanying visuals on file ? Yes e-mail [email protected]

PRODUCT ENVIRONMENTAL PROFILE AND BENEFITS FOR ELECTRICAL UTILITIES

During the last few years a new and alternative culture is beginning to replace the culture based on the model of industrial development: it believes that industrial production should be seen under the optics of the concept of “sustainable development” where the fundamental objectives are the maintenance of natural resources and the minimization of the effects of human activity on the environment. The environmental policy of an electrical utility has the goal to reconcile rational energy use with protection of the natural environment to improve the quality of life of people. The effort to increase environment protection in a credible and transparent manner means new choices in terms of product marketing and image, process and investment and also new risks. In order to minimise these risks companies need to use tools and approaches recognised as valid by stakeholders to establish the widest consensus. “Life Cycle Assessment” methodology is a tool suitable to study a product as a system of unitary processes communicating with the environment through inflows (raw materials depletion, energy and fuels consumption) and outflows (emissions of pollutants in air, water and soil and waste or material production) in each phase of its life cycle. The mass and energy balance lead to the evaluation of the environmental burden, associated to potential environmental effects, giving the environmental profile of the product. Other effects, on a local scale, such as land use, landscape impact, electromagnetic field interaction, noise, heat, radiation can be studied and considered in order to achieve a better profile. It has to be stressed that more detailed the LCA study is , the more reliable the profile will be. This goal can be met only through synergy among all people interested in these efforts: designers, manufacturers, users, collect and waste industry operators, associations, financial partners, public authorities, standards bodies, in a word “society”. An electrical utility is the “actor” of the use phase of an electrical components and from profiles of these products its expectations can be:  A knowledge of the environmental strength and weakness points of a product;  A comparison of products with the same function and the choice of the best one with criteria not only for electrical and economic performance but also environmental. Obviously this leads to a new criteria for selection of the suppliers;  An optimisation of network main components in full compliance of the environment;  Improved integration and reception of the power grid into natural and urban environment;  The observance of the emission reduction targets, according to Kyoto Protocol or of the agreements with environmental associations and authorities;  Waste prevention or reduction and recycling opportunities;  An improvement in public image.

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