The proposals of the Italian industry of construction equipment for the sustainability of the urban environment
During the last fifteen years, with the development of the EU rules, the industry of construction equipment have made available machines that have cut more than 95% of particulate emitted. The figure stands out from the position paper “Missione meno emissioni” (Mission fewer emissions), wrote up jointly by the Italian trade associations of importers and manufacturers, Ascomac and Unacea.
According to the paper, the investments and the industry design efforts have not conducted to the expected benefits in terms of air and environment quality. In fact, local authorities have not adopted limitation measures for the more obsolete machines: at present, in Italy there are towns where all the machines can always operate, while other towns consider the machines pollutant whatever the stage of engine equipped, with the result that cannot operate during the days of traffic limitations.
“We are dealing with a paradox” says Ruggero Riva, president of Ascomac. “In this way, there is no incentives for those entrepreneurs who use machines of the most recent generations”.
“It is a non-sense that Italy has to be fined for exceeding the pollution limits” states Paolo Venturi, president of Unacea “and at the same time we do not exploit the possibilities provided by the technological advancement to cut emissions”.
Ascomac and Unacea welcome the memorandum of understanding between the Environment ministry and local authorities to the abatement of the emissions through measures to renew the obsolete circulating fleet. As a way to put into practice these guide lines the associations propose: the inclusion of construction equipment in the municipal ordinance of traffic limitation, keeping in mind the engines emissions level, as well as it has been done with other kind of vehicles; to go beyond the circulation and start to consider limitations also for the utilization in the of obsolete machines in worksites that rest on low emissions zones; to establish a specific and incisive system of rewarding points in the public tenders for public work of construction and maintenance for all those companies that use machines of the last generations; to intensify the mechanisms of market surveillance.
Source: Unacea Press office | Ascomac Press Office
Created in 2010, Unacea - Italian Association of Construction Equipment & Attachments Companies is a trade association open to the contribution of all Italian construction equipment companies. At present, in terms of production, it represents over 75% of the value of all earthmoving and concrete equipment industry in Italy.
Unacea is a member of Cece, the Committee for European Construction Equipment, which includes the national associations of 14 countries, representing about 1,200 companies, with a turnover of 23 billion euro and 130,000 people directly employed.