The ceramics cycle

The manufacturing stage is the most important aspect of the product's life cycle from the standpoint of environmental impact, but it is also the one in which the Italian tile industry has reached the highest levels of environmental efficiency, through the definition and application of European directives.
These are the most significant aspects connected to the production of ceramic tiles:

emission of dust, gases, and fumes

water consumption and waste water management

energy consumption

processing waste

external noise pollution.

Generally speaking, the Italian ceramic tile industry operates and manufactures products using "best available techniques": the manufacturing methods made available at the industrial level by the latest advances in technology, which ensure the highest level of protection for the environment as a whole (see European Council Directive 96/61/EC).

The Marazzi Group's scrupulous Quality and Environmental policy
The Marazzi Group is committed to developing and implementing quality and environmental management systems that comply with internationally recognized standards and regulations.
These management systems are focused on:

identifying and responding to explicit and implicit customer needs

protecting the environment and people's health and safety, and informing the public of the results of its environmental management activities.

Quality objectives:
A quality-oriented system brings qualitative, quantitative, and organizational benefits. The Marazzi Group's main objective is to identify and respond to its customers' explicit and implicit needs.
This implies:

striving for quality as an operating system, a goal achieved through the contribution of staff members at all levels, by engaging and motivating personnel and providing them with training that fosters the necessary awareness of how to manage their activities as part of a process aimed at achieving set objectives for quality and customer satisfaction;

reaching a level of efficiency and reliability in production processes that will ensure that the technical characteristics always comply with applicable Italian and international product standards;

planning the introduction of new products in response to specific customer needs;

planning sales activities to supply customers with the products they request, at the terms agreed upon, with the information needed to use them correctly, and providing any assistance that customers may require;

establishing company processes that are reliable, repeatable, backed up by clear procedures, that are effective, agreed upon, and constantly upgraded;

engaging suppliers in a role of close partnership, helping create conditions that will satisfy all stakeholders, starting with the end customer. Selecting and evaluating suppliers according to the expected standards;

checking that objectives are met by systematically analyzing shortcomings and the cost of non-quality, with the goal of constant improvement;

re-examining the quality system, procedures, and objectives, in order to emphasize and promote the resulting initiatives and improvement activities;

following the Company code of ethics and governance model drafted in accordance with Italian Legislative Decree 231/2001.

Environmental objectives:
The Marazzi Group believes that the concept of quality necessarily extends to include factors regarding the environment and worker safety. The company believes that these socially significant goals must be pursued along with objectives related to the quality of its products and services, so for this purpose, it undertakes to:

Apply all current Italian and European environmental protection laws and regulations. This goal also extends to the application of any other commitments the company has entered into with stakeholders (local institutions, trade associations, environmental associations, etc.) regarding environmental protection;

Optimize the use of natural resources, by reusing processing waste and sorting recyclables;

Supply all operating personnel with a work environment that protects their health and safety, systematically applying and monitoring the standards set by current laws;

Achieve constant improvements in environmental efficiency through systematic monitoring of environmental performance, identifying areas for improvement, implementing special initiatives to achieve targets and objectives, and allocating adequate funds and resources;

Foster awareness of how all levels of in-house staff and contractors can contribute to environmental protection and improvement, by providing scheduled training activities to keep them informed on the results of environmental performance and improvement initiatives;

Engage suppliers so that they will comply with company environmental procedures, the safety standards set by current legislation, and the ban on use of child labour in manufacturing their products. Selecting suppliers based on the standards described above;

Sensitize customers to the nature of ceramic products and their correct disposal in compliance with current legislative standards, by printing this information in company catalogues;

Monitor and measure the effects of current operations on the environment inside and outside the plants, assessing the environmental impact of new products and processes in advance;

Cooperate with authorities and institutions of oversight;

Maintain (in accordance with company communication guidelines) an open channel of communication with the public, recording and processing external feedback and providing publications and updates about the environmental results of its operations;

Re-examine the significance of environmental factors deriving from its operations, in response to the changes that take place over time in stakeholder attitudes and new legislative and regulatory provisions;

Establish procedures that clearly define responsibility and authority in the processing and analysis of non-conformity, the implementation of risk-calibrated corrective measures in the event of non-compliance with policies, the company's environmental targets and standards, and the implementation of preventive measures to eliminate potential causes of non-conformity.

The gradual extension of certified production areas will soon lead to full corporate certification.