Mitigation of environmental and health and safety effects

Accident prevention, the main health and safety objective, is carried out through the adoption of targeted actions aimed at eliminating or reducing risk factors inherent in employees’ work.

In-depth analysis of the causes of accidents aims to identify any measures that can be taken to eliminate, mitigate or correct risk factors, implementing organisational, technical and managerial solutions on equipment, plants and workplaces, as well as operational and behavioural procedures in which suppliers are also heavily involved.

In pursuing a progressive and continuous improvement of its performance, Snam considers the development of a better culture and awareness on the issues of health and safety by all the personnel and third parties involved to be crucial. In this context, the company has reviewed and implemented the Safety Trophy and the Zero Accident Award, which from 2018 will also involve the functions of Staff (executives, managers, employees and workers).

At the same time, the launch of initiatives to involve and raise awareness among suppliers about the need to adopt best practices has helped the Company to bring about improvements in terms of managing health and safety issues in contracted activities.

Work environment inspections are periodically carried out by the Competent Physician and the Prevention and Protection Department in order to evaluate adequate and appropriate working and environmental conditions and to identify possible measures for prevention or improvement.

Snam’s workers are not exposed to a high risk for contracting occupational diseases (no cases have been recorded in the last three years). Staff who are exposed to specific risk factors undergo periodic health monitoring carried out by Competent Doctors based on specific health protocols defined according to the risk, as well as additional specialist visits. Employees whose work requires them to travel to non-European countries receive specific preventive care.

The various initiatives run by Snam to promote workers’ health include: a flu vaccine campaign, an early-diagnosis plan to prevent cancer, agreements with specialist institutions, a ban on smoking in the workplace (which also includes e-cigarettes), and a ban on drinking alcohol in company canteens.

Climate change and energy efficiency

The greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere by Snam operations are carbon dioxide CO₂ and methane (CH₄), a primary component of natural gas. The CO₂ produced is directly related to fuel consumption, while methane emissions arise from the release of natural gas into the atmosphere deriving from the normal operation of the plants, from interventions for connecting new pipelines and maintaining them or from accidental events occurring on the infrastructures.

Snam intends to develop projects to strengthen its operational excellence and thus contribute to the containment of climate-altering emissions. For this reason, the Company has set itself the goal of reducing its natural gas emissions by 2021 by 10% in the transport network compared to the 2016 emissions within the same perimeter and to increase energy efficiency on various plant facilities.

To pursue these objectives there is an investment plan that includes:

• gas recompression interventions in the transport network and compression plants;
• replacement of pneumatic actuators powered by natural gas in transport and storage infrastructures;
• operations to improve the energy efficiency of the gas turbine and reduction cabins;
• installation of more efficient heat generators;
• installation of LED lamps for network lighting systems.

A further contribution to the reduction of our carbon footprint comes from the direct production of photovoltaic energy and the procurement of energy from renewable sources for the compression plants of Terranuova Bracciolini (Snam Rete Gas), Messina (Snam Rete Gas) and Brugherio (Stogit) and to the Panigaglia regasification plant (GNL Italia).

Restoration and reforestation is followed by the implementation of “cultivation treatments”, i.e. the care and maintenance, for a period of at least five years, of the plants which have been planted.

Through monitoring projects, which concern the layouts of pipes that interfere – even if only marginally – with natural areas of ecological and wildlife value, checks are performed on the effectiveness of the process of restoring the areas affected by the works, based on comparisons between the conditions after the restoration (“post-operam”) and the original conditions (“ante-operam”).Monitoring is normally performed for the most significant habitats identified in the design phase.