Those who know me well know that I am convinced that communication is fundamental inside and outside the company, but I also believe that, to be truly effective, words must be accompanied by actions. Therefore, it is not enough to talk about sustainability and decarbonization, but it is necessary to develop and carry out concrete business projects that go in this direction. We started with small actions, as is fitting, by adopting LED lighting in all our plants, making the testing processes and the most energy-consuming stages of production more efficient, waiting until we have a larger budget and todo things in a Big Way. And now here I am introducing the MEHITS plant decarbonization project, which will eliminate the old heating systems in favour of more sustainable solutions…coincidentally manufactured by us!
The project has already been successfully implemented in M21 and is now underway in M12. In fact, we are starting the design of the last part, which will be completed by summer 2024; in the same year a similar project will then be started in M22 as well.
The total investment for the Alpago site alone is 1.5 million euros, which is not exactly peanuts!
And we already have further steps in mind, which include the installation of a remote-control system, designed in collaboration with our colleagues in Bassano, to optimize consumption and a photovoltaic field to cover 20 percent of our overall electricity consumption.
Returning for a moment to the present day, I would like to update you on what we are doing in Pieve d’Alpago. In fact, in M12 we have recently installed our own Chillers and AHUs replacing the obsolete methane radiant tubes and we have recently started the last step that will allow us to eliminate boilers as well. In this way the use of methane will be reduced to practically zero.
Said in this way, it doesn’t seem to have much added value, but I assure you that heating and air conditioning a factory built in 1992, with walls, doors and windows of the time, is a challenge that few take up and above all win, especially in the Belluno area where winters are still quite harsh.
And the same happened in M21 in Pavia, where we replaced an old chiller and a natural gas boiler with our own innovative products.
By doing so, we are also able on the one hand to access public incentives, and on the other hand to contribute to Melco’s SBT (Science Based Target) certification documenting how our projects contribute to preventing global temperature rise. An excellent achievement on all fronts!