Panariagroup achieves all its sustainability goals

Panariagroup was awarded at the 5th edition of “BBS Biblioteca Bilancio Sociale” Award.

Panariagroup, one of the leading international groups in the production of high-end and luxury ceramic surfaces, presented its second Sustainability Report in September this year, confirming the important results it achieved in terms of economic, environmental and social sustainability in 2017. The group led by Emilio Mussini made investments of 34.4 million euros in innovative technology (and a total of 110 million euros in the last three years), allowing it to achieve all its targets.

In terms of environmental responsibility, key results include a reduction in electrical energy consumption (0.135 GJ per sq.m of tiles produced) and in atmospheric emissions (9 tCO₂ per 1,000 sq.m of tiles produced), while the conversion of some production lines to ultra-thin products (thicknesses as small as 3 mm) allowed for savings of around 2,000 tCO₂ per year. Added to this is complete recycling of production waste and 93% of general waste, greater use of eco-friendly packaging materials (42.5% increase in the use of recycled plastic, 190 tonnes more than in 2016) and up to 50% reduction in the use of paper and cardboard thanks to the new packaging processes. The group also achieved outstanding results in terms of water consumption, which dropped to just 17 litres of water per square metre of tiles produced.

Panariagroup’s commitment to environmental sustainability continues to be reflected in terms of product research. One concrete example is the development of the line of Protect antibacterial floor and will tiles in partnership with Microban^®, a product that saw sales of 2.7 million sq.m in 2017 alone.

As for social responsibility, the Panariagroup Sustainability Report reveals a 2.6% increase in numbers of employees to 1,729 at a global level, almost all of whom are on permanent contracts and benefit from wide-ranging continuous education programmes.

Panariagroup has maintained an average growth rate of 9% over the last five years, with 2017 revenues of 384.6 million euros and net income of 11.4 million euros. Due to the slowdown of the market in 2018, the Group registered a 4.6% decrease in revenues in the first 9 months of the year respect to the same period in 2017 (or a decrease of 2.5% at constant Euro-Dollar exchange rate).

Read the interview with Emilion Mussini published in Ceramic World Review 128/2018