Pininfarina is the first leading automotive company in Piedmont region of Italy to have been awarded the Integrated Environmental Authorisation – for the Paint Shop of its Grugliasco facility – according to Directive 96/91/EC whose purpose is to minimise pollution caused by major industrial sites in the European Union.

“Pininfarina has always considered the environment as a system to be preserved and we adopt measures to mitigate the impact of our plants, production and non-production processes and services on the environment – explains Andrea Pininfarina, Chairman and CEO of the Pininfarina Group. - We focus our attention both on the quality of our staff’s job and on the repercussions that our activities can have on the environment."

Pininfarina submitted its application for the Integrated Environmental Authorisation on 29/10/2005 and this was awarded by the Province of Turin on 21/12/2006. The authorisation must be renewed every 5 years; this period rises to 6 years for plants – such as those at Pininfarina – certified according to ISO 14001. The Authorisation establishes prescriptions regarding adoption of the available best practices, the limits to be complied with and the audits to be carried out periodically. Pininfarina will therefore transmit the results of the audits to the Province and Comune.

The IPPC Directive further covers cleaning or impregnating, with a consumption capacity of more than 150 kg per hour or more than 200 tonnes per year and installations for surface treatment of metals and plastic materials using an electrolytic or chemical process where the volume of the treatment vats exceeds 30m².

In order to maintain and reinforce its market position, Pininfarina invests continuously in research and innovation programmes in all the areas of business in which it operates. In production, innovation is implemented using new materials and technologies intended to enhance production system efficiency and also to reduce problems tied to the environmental impact of installations and of production processes and services. Not surprisingly, Pininfarina was the first company in the world to be awarded, in 2003, ISO/TS 16949 Certification for the entire manufacturing cycle of a vehicle (design, engineering, production). Also, as already mentioned, for the Environment, the Management System of the Grugliasco, San Giorgio Canavese, Bairo and Cambiano sites has been recognised as complying with the requirements of the UNI EN ISO 14001 standard.