Press Releases

ACEA CEO Giuseppe Gola at the States General: the Group continues focusing on the environment, in its 2020/2024 Business Plan 2.1 billion euros of the 4.7 billion investments proposed are devoted to meeting sustainability targets

Once again Acea takes part in Ecomondo 2020, which this year is held entirely online, presenting a development model that aims to a transition towards a sustainable industrial ecosystem and commits to planning and building smart cities in name of technological innovation and green and circular economy.

In his intervention at the International Plenary Session, Acea CEO Giuseppe Gola said: “Acea sees growth and creating value as intricately connected to achieving the sustainability objectives that increasingly define performance indicators. The Business Plan we presented last week shows a significant increase in the importance attributed by the Group to sustainability in its business decisions and operational management. In fact, 2.1 billion euros of the 4.7 billion investments proposed – over 400 million euros more compared to the previous Plan – are destined to achieving specific sustainability targets. The actions the Group will take in the implementation of the Business Plan will have a positive impact estimated at 6 billion euros on Italy’s GDP, directly and indirectly creating jobs for 21,000 people. In the current crisis caused by the health emergency, utility companies can play a key role in economic recovery. For example, we think it is important to intervene on water infrastructures that currently are inefficient or obsolete, especially in some areas of

Southern Italy. Acea, as the leading water provider in Italy, can play an important role in creating and managing these investments and we think that the Recovery Fund can be a useful tool to do so”.

Sustainability targets involve protecting and managing water resources, through securitization projects involving the water supply to the Peschiera and Marcio aqueducts; contributing to the development of electric mobility, thanks to the installation of more than 2,200 charging points; contrasting the effects of climate change, by incrementing the production of electricity from photovoltaic plants. On this point in particular, Acea intends to expand its portfolio with approximately 747 MW of power installed from photovoltaic plants by the end of 2024. The new plants will produce over 1.3 Twh per year, equivalent to avoiding approximately 600 kt of CO2 emissions.

In support of circular economy (for example, for plastic, or for paper), Acea is also focused on strengthening the waste-to-material and waste transition chains. The AceaSmartComp project, organized by Acea in collaboration with Enea and Tuscia University, has the objective of processing organic waste produced by major users (canteens, hospitals, shopping centers, airports, stations), with the aim of reducing the impact on the environment as well as the impact of traffic, and bring down CO2 emissions. Among other objectives, Acea plans to install 150 Smart Comps by 2024 to create a new zero-kilometer waste management system with significant effects on the environment thanks to the reduction of greenhouse gases achieved by eliminating the waste collection and transportation stages.