The Group’s energy consumptions mainly derive from the production plants, lighting, heating and cooling the workplace, from the company vehicles and from the owned logistics vehicles that ensure internal transport between the various Group plants. Most direct energy consumption (78%) is due to production, which uses 58% of Group employees.

Faced with these objectives, wherever possible, the Group acquires its electricity from renewable sources. In addition, taking a five-year approach, it has invested more than 7 million euros in the installation of photovoltaic plants and assuring increased energy efficiency in various sites in Italy, Croatia and Sri Lanka.

In plants where thermal systems are in place using fossil fuels, maintenance is carried out regularly to make sure that they are operating correctly and, in accordance with local regulations or preventive controls, measurements taken on the burner combustion characteristics. In 2018, a campaign began to monitor the existing thermal plants in all production sites, to replace obsolete machines with heat pumps that, when powered by electricity obtained from renewable sources, cancel out the CO2e emissions. 

We have installed photovoltaic panels in various production sites, to produce energy from renewable sources, with the following results:

In 2021, the Group invested 1.3 million euros in increasing the efficiency of the lighting systems, implementing LED technology in warehouses and production plants and thereby reducing energy consumed for lighting by around 50%.

We have been using LED lighting for some time now, with controlled processes and high energy efficiency materials. Growing use of low consumption, high performance LED technology in stores, offices and plants, successfully rationalises the inclusion of light sources, making for concrete energy savings and lesser dispersion of heat into the environment. We expect that by 2023 all the Group’s production plants will be equipped with low energy consumption LED lights. 

The main efficiency drives implemented by the Group were focussed on reducing electricity consumption used for lighting sales outlet areas worldwide, with estimated savings of 6,406 GJ, thanks to the LED installations in 2020. In examining the production plants, the renewal of all lighting plants towards low consumption systems is at an advanced stage; in 2020, the main investments were made in Italy, Croatia, Serbia and Sri Lanka.

In collaboration with the suppliers of logistics services, the Calzedonia Group has started to monitor CO2 emissions deriving from the transport of its products and raw materials. In 2020, it was estimated that these emissions totalled approximately 1.6 million tonnes CO2e. The highest impact transport types are by road (46%), followed by air (44%). For on-line customers, we have activated the collect and return service at our stores. In 2020, this saved around 527,000 deliveries.

In 2021, we started research in a bid to identify the e-commerce order delivery method that would minimise CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, considering not only the distance between our customers and the stores, but also transport habits in the area analysed. It has become evident that there is no method of transport that should always be preferred, but rather the most virtuous choice depends on multiple factors. Our aim, for the future, is not only to reduce our emissions but also to involve the customers so that they can make more informed decisions.