Sustainability

The transition to sustainability for a company is the result of a very powerful compromise, in which preservation is confronted with transformation, tradition with innovation, empowerment with simplification, timely planning with the management of unexpected events, significant results with small concrete actions, the long term with the immediate effect. This necessarily passes through the ideas and work of our people, starting with our management, and it is for this reason that I have decided to add to this letter the voices of some of Carraro managers too. 

At the basis of our sustainability journey stands our product: at Carraro, innovative investments hinge on well-established technologies, energy-conservation-oriented solutions, resulting from decades of experience and being themselves a good base point for the development of evolving systems, serving a market which is moving toward hybrid and electric traction, the future of mobility or, at least, the vision that we currently have of it. 

Our products by their nature must be made using precious materials, iron and cast iron: "with an average life of about 15 years, a distribution in every geographic area, and a consumption of cast iron and steel equal to 120,000 tons/year, Carraro products have an impact on the environment that places an important responsibility on product development choices. The need to respect the material we use leads us to carefully consider structural optimization at the design stage, to reduce the use of cast iron and steel, even by the means of continuous improvement programs, pushing our R&D team to constantly improve our efficiency.

A further step is also taken by studying methodologies that give us the ability to increase the useful life of products, through predictive maintenance systems that allow the diagnosis of product behaviour to potentially reduce its failure and breakage" (Enrico Tracanzan, Group R&D Director). If our products are more durable, their intended market will require fewer resources to endure.

Hybrid and electric technology, reduced use of raw materials, and predictive analytics are major themes of our R&D path, and thanks in part to the support of the European Investment Bank, we are walking this path with conviction: "we direct capital toward long-term sustainable activities and projects, taking into account environmental, social, and corporate governance issues in the investment decision-making process" (Enrico Gomiero, Group CFO).

In order to obtain finished products following a sustainable logic, the complex manufacturing organism that generates them gradually transforms, shaping its processes toward more profitable and respectful ways: we optimize transportation; we have programs to reduce energy consumption, process resources, packaging use, water consumption, and waste generation; we have chosen a fleet of plug-in or hybrid company cars; and we have started planning interventions for self-production of energy from renewable sources.

Relationships with suppliers and customers and with our entire stakeholders’ base change following the same step. The relationship with our supply chain is strengthened, growing together: "suppliers are involved both by making them participate in the Group's results but also by directly involving them in projects with specific sustainability value, as well as stimulating them so that they can prove their own path in this direction" (Simone Bertin, Group Procurement & Supply Chain Director). Citing one example, "in terms of Chemical Compliance, the issue of the management of hazardous substances to be avoided in our products has been the subject of training aimed at our R&D, Purchasing and also our Suppliers functions" (Carlo Bertolini, Group Quality Director).

Relationships with our customers have also been enriched by rating and assurance tools, which in 2022 enabled us to enhance our reliability points and analytically identify our areas for improvement. "The responsibility we assume toward our customers and final consumers requires us to step out of our comfort zone to meet their expectations as well as our goals" (Stefano Image, Group Spare Parts Director).

Appropriately communicating each contribution to describe the transformation of this entire apparatus is a concerted effort, "necessary to give value to the needs that our stakeholders project onto the Carraro Group" (Massimiliano Franz, Group Communication Director), and requires the participation of everyone, those who know how to stimulate innovation and those who are guided by it to acquire new capabilities. 

Our value chain is firmly held together by the people who work at Carraro, which is why "we pay attention to the management of internal resources, finding a new balance between past and present, alternating smartworking and in-presence work to lighten work overload" (Franco Calvo, Group Sales & Marketing Director), and "adopting shifting models  keeping an eye on fragile people, improving people's lives, to leave room for their private and family life" (Massimino Granata, Driveservice Plant Director).

"Following a similar path to the one oriented toward sustainability, the digital transformation process transfers new power to our organization, speeding up, simplifying operations and freeing them from unnecessarily energy-intensive management, through new ways of working that require commitment by every employee." (Maurizio Bortolotto Group IT Director).

"The sustainable transformation of our company is a process that pivots on diversity, equity and inclusion. Cultivating these values by nurturing cultural interactions among Group employees located from China to Argentina, India and Europe has been and will continue to be the evolutionary basis of our system." (Andrea Conchetto, Group CEO). We have organized numerous initiatives, aware of the social role Carraro plays, so that our operational capacity is aligned with our Values, bringing the principles expressed in our Policies and Codes of Conduct closer to the projects carried out in our offices and to the people who work there.

"After 90 years in action, we are always heading into our future." Tomaso Carraro (Group Chief CSR Officer)

See our CSR report for more information.