Over the years it has become necessary to make logistical changes to company site. The need arose to create a new warehouse adjacent to the workshop, an area dedicated to Quality Control operations. The president, Eng. Giulio Properzi, desired and organized the “relocation” of a monumental 50-year-old Lebanon cedar that had been planted when the factory was built. On February 15, 2014, the cedar was relocated adjacent to the office building. The tree itself weighed 25 tons with approximately twice that weight for the roots yielding a total weight of 75 tons. The operation involved a dozen workers and a company specializing in tree removal and relocation.
“Maybe because I like plants, or maybe because I think it is right to try to do everything possible to protect them, I decided to do this, otherwise the alternative would have been to cut everything and it would have been a shame,” said Giulio Properzi at the time (a direct quote from “Il Cittadino di Lodi, 17 February 2014”). The costs for moving the tree were considerable and the work to create the new accommodation for our “green friend” lasted about 5 hours but, after 6 years, we can say that the cedar is in excellent health and we thoroughly enjoy the shade it provides us during the hottest hours of the summer! We have mapped all the native plants present on the Properzi field and this tree is one of the most salient specimens! Keeping the environment in mind, the company has moved the rolling mill assembly department to an ad hoc structure, positioned close to the quality control department, in order to avoid motorized movements within the company thereby yielding lower CO2 emissions equivalent to 40 km less per day on wheels.
The Hidden Part of Continuus-Properzi
The green economy is not a sector but a general model of economy “that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities” (UNEP, Towards a Green Economy, 2009).
The ongoing change in the economy towards a green economy is fundamental to achieve sustainable development which already plays an active role in many companies, urging a more incisive participation, not only involving lifestyle and consumption models but also urging new public, economic, and fiscal policies at all institutional levels.
Always looking to the future, Continuus-Properzi is the world leader in the design and construction of Continuous Casting systems for the production of aluminum and copper wire rod, Microrolling® lines for ferrous and non-ferrous materials, furnaces, and systems for the production of lead strip.
In this technological setting, which has accompanied the engineering company since its inception in 1947, this little-known but ever present and impactful green side is deeply rooted both locally and internationally.
