MILAN, May 20, 2021 – “For us, innovation and sustainability are inextricably linked to growth. They are our compass for the future. They are the elements that make us competitive in international markets where clients consider them part of the criteria for partnerships and participation in public tenders for large infrastructure projects. In Italy, investment in innovation and sustainability must also be seen as elements that can improve competitiveness. The public administration should install a review process in which companies can compete along common objectives to protect the environment and guarantee safety, inclusion and innovation.”

Speaking at “Innovating for Sustainable Growth: Business Strategies and Public Policy”, a conference organised by the Association of Italian Joint Stock Companies (Assonime), Pietro Salini, Chief Executive of Webuild, added: “At 18 construction sites in Italy, we have involved a supply chain of about 7,000 businesses. And we are convinced that, by strengthening the culture of public tenders via the General Contractor model, we can encourage the use of a set of advanced rules on innovation and sustainability that could also include small businesses along the entire supply chain.”

A commitment to a more sustainable world must become the parametres within which to define a development plan for Italy. “In our country, greenhouse gas emissions are mainly due to energy production and transport. If we do not want that sustainability remains an abstract concept, we must define a concrete plan to reduce the impact of these sectors. In transport, for example, we are seeing a positive progress in investments in rail as an alternative to transport by truck. This shows that the country is going in the right direction, even if we expect an increase in planning for other investments in the sector in an organic and coordinated way,” he said. In recent years, Webuild has based its sustainable growth on a pillar of innovation. Beginning at the phase of the public tender, it has turned every project into a laboratory for advanced research for itself and the supply chain, which has been growing with the Group in Italy and abroad. This is to lead to activities and processes that take environmental sustainability into account. It should also result in a more accurate estimate in the costs and timeframes, safe and quick, with greater efficiency in performance.

Webuild’s performance in terms of sustainability, made possible by investments in innovation at the corporate and project levels, is shown by numbers: 69% of the waste produced at the work sites of its projects are recycled; the intensity of CO2 emissions is down 49% between 2015 and 2020; 91% of supplies and services for its projects come from where the projects are located; 82% of the people hired for the projects come from where the projects are located. The Group aims to further improve these results under the recently launched 2021-2023 ESG Plan, strengthening its commitment to environmental sustainability, safety, inclusion and technological innovation. The plan comes in the wake of Progetto Italia, an initiative on the part of the Group to consolidate the construction sector in Italy, including the acquisition of Astaldi in 2020.

The Group’s rise as a leader in innovation runs in tandem with investments made in the digitalisation of core processes, building techniques and initiatives to improve quality, safety and the environment. At the internal level, the innovation of corporate processes will lead, for example, to the creation of a data cloud that will allow for the development of a “Connected Webuild” in the coming years.

On construction sites across the globe, such as the mega hydroelectric project Snowy 2.0 in Australia, the tunnels under the Isarco River as part of the development of the Brenner Base Tunnel in the Italian Alps, and the Northeast Boundary Tunnel in Washington, D.C., the Group is committed to developing ad hoc solutions, the fruit of creativity and highly specialised know-how. Examples of the operative application of research and development activities at the Group, also through the Open Innovation partnership, are the vertical risers and accompanying jacking equipment developed and patented by Webuild for a project to clean the waters of the Riachuelo River in Argentina. This has led to a reduction in energy use, construction risks, and environmental impact associated with off-shore work. There is also the tunnel-boring machine (TBM) used for the excavation of a 4.6-kilometre hydraulic tunnel under Lake Mead to guarantee water supply to Las Vegas. The unique prototype was designed to resist pressure conditions of 15 bar, double the previous world record.