Waste reduction
The generation of hazardous and non-hazardous waste from industrial processes may result in pollution of the soil, water or air and may have adverse consequences in terms of altering the ecosystem, such as soil or water contamination due to possible leaching or accidental leaks, or because of entrusting waste to third parties without the required authorisation. To reduce and mitigate such impacts, as part of its Environment and Energy Management System Brembo has prepared a Waste Management procedure in which it defined operating requirements inspired by available best practices to ensure responsible, consistent management of these aspects at all Group plants. For example, specific solutions are adopted for temporary waste storage areas at plants, which must be designed using systems that prevent the effects of atmospheric agents on the waste.
In addition, this procedure imposes requirements also with respect to management of the value chain, providing for audits of suppliers responsible for transporting and disposing of waste to ensure minimum precautions are taken, even in geographical areas where the law permits a looser approach.
Another important focus of the procedure is circular economy criteria, with all plants urged to identify every possible opportunity to apply them. This is an aspect to which Brembo has devoted a great deal of energy. The linear “take-make-dispose” economic model based on having access to only seemingly unlimited resources is increasingly ill-adapted to Brembo’s environment, especially given the need to access high quality raw materials with sustainable costs, whilst being mindful of the environment.
The very nature of some of the production processes, such as cast iron foundries, means that they are suitable as a model for applying the "take-make-reuse" concept on which the circular economy is based. The raw materials procured by a foundry are for the most part of secondary origin, resulting from machining process waste or from the product of the ferrous scrap salvage chain. The progressive extension of circularity to all production processes is an opportunity that Brembo intends to seize in order to ensure a steady business growth that is in balance with the environment.
The above procedure encourages identification of every possible opportunity for exploiting waste materials, which in various cases may be sold to third parties or reused internally as secondary raw materials, or also disposed of as waste. This reduces the need to extract raw materials from the Earth, significantly reducing the overall environmental impact. Brembo is working on the subject with various projects concerning both the production process and the product. With regard to the production process, the areas of intervention aim to reduce the amount of waste generated and to reuse scrap materials in the process. When it comes to products, one virtuous example is the project on which Brembo is working to test its first experimental melting of aluminium alloy with increasing secondary material content from both the market and the scrap internal recovery.
In 2023 as well, various actions were taken to mitigate the environmental impacts generated during waste management and reduction processes. These include the use as a by-product of waste materials from the process of manufacturing carbon ceramic discs, the recovery of spent cast iron foundry sands to make sand for use in the process of creating cores to replace virgin sand in cast iron foundries or the reuse of incoming packaging materials to make fillers for outgoing packaging at the San Cugat (J.Juan) plant in Spain.
