VITTORIO VENETO (TREVISO) – To say it in English, the language of environmental sustainability that everyone now abbreviates to “green”, one word is enough. “Plant” is the factory, but it is also the plant, two concepts that come together in the project inaugurated yesterday in the industrial area of San Giacomo di Veglia, a manufacturing district on the outskirts of Vittorio Veneto. For the first time in Italy, a private metalworking company has adopted a degraded public area of 10,000 square metres, commissioning the landscape architect João Nunes to transform it into an urban forest in which 78 trees and 597 shrubs offset 236 tons of carbon dioxide. All this in front of the new production hub, in turn characterized by virtuous 4.0 technologies, which will employ another 80 workers, in addition to the 211 who in 2023 made it possible to record a turnover of 54 million euros, up 34% in the last two years. An operation of “civil entrepreneurship”, as the owners Anna Munari and Giorgio Rigoni call it, wife and husband who are respectively the managing director and president of Tecnosystemi Società Benefit, a thirty-year-old leading company in the design and production of accessories and components for air conditioning, air exchange, ventilation and photovoltaic.
THE SITE
Extending over an area of 30,000 square metres, the new industrial site is located a few hundred meters from the historic headquarters and was also designed to respect the environment, including through photovoltaics. The results of all these interventions are measured by the energy audit, a functional analysis tool designed to reduce the inefficiencies of energy consumption processes and evaluate current and future investments in new high-efficiency systems and sources. It is no coincidence that the Treviso-based company reinvests approximately 5% of its turnover every year in innovation and the continuous streamlining of processes. President Rigoni says: «This second production hub represents an important milestone in the technological growth of Tecnosystemi, which has always been oriented towards innovation and the introduction of the latest generation systems to create an intelligent factory model».
THE RINGS
Adds CEO Munari: «We like to think that this production site is the representation of the new role of the civil entrepreneur, who looks beyond his own borders and takes care of the territory and its community». Thanks to the agreement with the Municipality, which also provides for ten-year maintenance to be paid by the company, star architect Nunes has designed a green lung in which seven suspended rings group together specimens of hornbeam, ash, ginkgo, poplar, black poplar, English oak and linden, to which are added the eugenia, jasmine, heather and rosemary bushes. The calculations of the environmental repercussions are illustrated in the technical report: «The result shows that, with mature plants, we will be able to offset the CO2 emitted by 175 cars every year. The 600 shrubs and meadow surfaces are not included in the calculation, although they still have a positive impact on the capture of carbon dioxide and the reduction of the heat island effect.”
THE VISION
The significant presence of women in management was fundamental, according to plant director Christian De Mar: «In a purely male environment such as that of thermo-hydraulics, women have undoubtedly brought a different, much more attentive vision. The very choice to become a Benefit Company was a turning point, because it opened our eyes to many opportunities. For example, the new production line uses the rubber of end-of-life truck and car tires as raw material: the material is ground and molded to obtain the insulating and anti-vibration mat on which the heat pumps and air conditioning units are placed exterior of houses. In the same way we use regenerated polystyrene, plastic of fossil origin, sugar cane-based polymer. Does producing like this cost more? Yes: economically, technically and culturally. But we are proud of it.”
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Read the full article at
The Gazzettino
