Mitigation of environmental, health and safety impacts

Accident prevention and environmental protection are areas of management in which the creation of value is linked to the ability to mitigate the most significant impacts caused by the Company’s business activities. Safeguarding the physical integrity of staff and natural capital is an integral part of the definition of Snam’s corporate policies and investment decisions.

On these issues, Snam adopts specific certified management systems, with the aim of overseeing the corporate processes and activities that have the biggest impacts, linked to the fight against climate change, the reduction of energy consumption and the protection of nature and biodiversity.

During the year, Snam obtained certification for its Environmental Management System, in compliance with Standard UNI EN ISO 14001, while Snam Rete Gas continued to implement the ISO 9001 quality certification project. Launched in 2014, the project aims to extend the management system to the entire Company and to obtain the relevant certification by 2016.

In order to maintain the certifications already in place, the Group companies have implemented all necessary activities, including checks by both internal and external parties. Specifically, the Snam Group has 43 qualified auditors, including those from outside the Group.

In 2015, 288 audits were carried out (218 internal audits conducted by specialist staff and 70 by external parties). In order to check the effectiveness of the management systems adopted, 337 health, safety and environment audits were also carried out on contractors working on Snam sites.

The reduction in the number of audits carried out was due mainly to the increase in the number of integrated audits carried out for the various management systems.

Prevention of accidents and protection of health

The Snam Group has a long-term commitment to developing and promoting the protection of health and safety at its workplaces, as part of an ongoing process to improve its HSE performance in accordance with its Health and Safety, Environment and Quality Policy.

When managing health and safety issues, it is essential to implement standardised management systems developed and maintained in accordance with the OHSAS 18001 standard. Specifically, Snam’s Worker Health and Safety Management System aims to carry out strategic guidance, coordination and monitoring for the Group’s operating companies.

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.

This issue is also covered by Project Objective Safety. Launched in 2010, this programme of activities, intended to foster a corporate culture of health and safety through staff involvement and participation, aims to further reduce incidents and accidents at work and to achieve the goal of “zero accidents”.

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.

The Company pays careful attention when selecting and subsequently monitoring suppliers, through the use of a feedback form and the performance of checks during the execution of works.

Periodically throughout the year, workshops are held with suppliers that focus on generating shared value between the Company and its suppliers.

The protection of workers’ health is based on ongoing monitoring of risk elements analysed in corporate processes and the implementation of adequate prevention and protection measures.

Work environment inspections are periodically carried out by the Duty Doctor 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 of 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 Duty 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.

Energy efficiency and climate change

Streamlining and reducing energy consumption has a positive impact on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

To that end, Snam continued carrying out specific activities, including: improving the energy efficiency of its gas turbine fleet; installing photovoltaic plants and connecting them to the electrical network; adopting LED lamps to light the plants; installing more efficient heat generators; installing a system for the equipartition of the flow of gas at gas reduction stations; and improving its buildings’ energy classification.

Furthermore, in July 2015, the Snam Rete Gas compression station at Terranuova Bracciolini joined the three existing plants that generate electricity from renewable sources: the Messina compression station (Snam Rete Gas), the Brugherio compression station (Stogit) and the Panigaglia regasification facility (GNL Italia).

Environmental monitoring and restoration in the development of the gas pipeline network

The development of the gas pipeline network is the business segment that has the biggest impacts on the surrounding area.

The mitigation of these impacts begins in the design phase, where the layout is selected from several alternatives, seeking to avoid or minimise extension into areas of significant natural or cultural interest, archaeological areas, geologically unstable areas and man-made areas, or areas in which the construction of new housing is planned.

In some cases, during the construction phase (subject to technical feasibility), certain procedures and technologies are used to reduce interference with the surrounding environment. These include reducing the length of working shifts, minimising temporary building site infrastructure, and using trenchless execution techniques (tunnels and micro-tunnels) as an alternative to traditional digging. Having completed the works, a careful environmental restoration operation is carried out to return the land to its original condition.

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 and the original conditions.