Italy’s Radici Group (Bergamo; www.radicigroup.com) has joined a government programme to improve its environmental footprint in the production of PA 6.6. The company has signed an agreement with the Italian Ministry for the Environment to apply a new approach to its production chain, on an experimental basis, to determine its product environmental footprint (PEF) and the organisation environmental footprint (OEF). The agreement defines the work plan to be implemented on site to measure and analyse the greenhouse gas emissions associated with its PA 6.6 production. The plan conforms to ISO series 14040 standards, and the European Union PEF and OEF methods.

Pio Gazzini, site manager of Radici, said: “This collaboration with the Ministry for the Environment is perfectly aligned with the sustainability objectives of our 2011-2014 improvement plan. Included among these objectives are the almost total reduction, by 2014, of nitrogen protoxide and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from our adipic acid and nitric acid production process.”

According to Corrado Clini, general director of the Department of Sustainable Development, Climate and Energy of the Ministry for the Environment, more than 200 Italian companies have joined its environmental footprint determination programme.