Sustainability / 3/6/2025

Commitment to the environment, reliability and communication: the 1ˢᵗ International Sustainability Meeting of the Mapei Group

Sustainability professionals from across the Mapei Group converge in Milan to share expertise, showcase achievements, and strengthen the company's global commitment to environmental responsibility.

Mapei's sustainability professionals gathered at the Group's headquarters to discuss best practices, ongoing projects, regulations, and the many areas in which Mapei is advancing its focus on reduced environmental impact.

Sustainability. A very fashionable word today, often used lightly. For Mapei, however, it represents a concrete, long-standing commitment, which led to the recent organization of their first International Sustainability Meeting. From February 11-13, the Milan headquarters hosted colleagues from the Group's countries and subsidiaries whose work is dedicated to analyzing and reducing the environmental impact of the company's products, activities, and structures.

Mapei's commitment since 2015

Mapei established a specific sustainability function in 2015, and has made tremendous progress since then, as demonstrated by the speakers at this important event. The sector's professionals deal with many key issues daily: LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), EPD (Environmental Product Declaration), VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) emissions, LEED, CPR, and carbon credits.

What emerged clearly from the meeting presentations is summarized in the slogan that appeared in 2010 on the cover of issue 104 of Realtà Mapei: "No need for greenwashing." Mapei has no need for and does not engage in greenwashing — it is immune to that virus that leads some companies to apply a superficial "green paint," dedicating themselves to operations that use sustainability as a communication lever rather than genuinely promoting it. Mapei dedicates a substantial portion of its Research & Development investment and a growing share of its human resources to reducing environmental impact by approaching sustainability from multiple angles and in diverse areas: a concrete, effective, and accurate approach, aligned with European regulations such as the Green Claims Directive, proposed in 2023 by the European Commission to protect consumers from greenwashing and enable informed choices through reliable, comparable, and verifiable sustainability parameters.

The ‘Zero’ project

The meeting opened with a speech by Marco Squinzi, CEO of Mapei, who not only reiterated the Group's long-standing commitment to sustainability but also emphasized how those dedicated to this area must possess both adequate field expertise and the ability to communicate effectively, with numbers and sources, the activities and results of the company's significant investment in this domain. A commitment to serious and reliable communication that Mapei holds particularly close to its heart and which is truly important today to maintain its reputation as a serious and reliable supplier in an increasingly demanding market.

Roberto Leoni, the company's first Sustainability Manager, illustrated the initial steps in creating a function specifically dedicated to sustainability in Mapei's organizational chart. Following the construction market's growing interest in LCA and EPD, he dedicated himself to in-depth study of environmental impacts, cooperation with research bodies and trade associations, and launching, in 2015, the first "Zero*" product — Keraflex Maxi S1 Zero — the first product with residual CO₂ emissions completely offset through specific environmental protection projects.

Global results

As Mikaela Decio, the Group's Corporate Environmental Sustainability Manager, explained, this project has only grown over the years to involve many countries across 5 continents, more than 230 products from 5 lines, allowing the Mapei Group to offset 300,000 tonnes of CO₂ globally by 2024. The project implements all necessary measures (primarily the formulation of quality, durable, low environmental impact materials) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions throughout all life phases and to offset unavoidable emissions through the purchase of certified carbon credits supporting forest protection projects.

Similarly, another indicator of Mapei's commitment to sustainability has grown: the number of EPDs, or Environmental Product Declarations, which have increased from the first one in 2016 to more than 330 today. These certifications, drawn up according to international standards, provide transparent, comparable, and reliable information on a product's environmental impact calculated using the LCA method, which considers the entire life cycle (raw material extraction and transport, production process, product transport and application, and end-of-life).

EPD for concrete producers

The company's significant commitment to producing these documents has enabled it to offer a new service to customers: Mapei gives concrete producers the opportunity to obtain EPDs for their mixtures. After receiving assistance from Concrete Admixtures line specialists during mix design and qualification, concrete producers can obtain EPD certificates demonstrating their commitment to sustainability in a clear, objective, and tangible way — a commitment which can sometimes translate into a competitive advantage by increasing the possibility of being selected as a supplier for projects where sustainability is a requirement.

An enlightening presentation on the carbon credit mechanism used for offsetting residual CO₂ emissions in Zero products was given by Carbonsink-Southpole, the world's largest climate solutions group and Mapei's provider of carbon credits for financing climate projects.

Mapei's commitment to reducing environmental impact is also expressed in the energy sector, evidenced by numerous energy-saving projects involving the Group's factories, such as the installation of photovoltaic panels or cogeneration/trigeneration plants from Malaysia to Italy, China to Austria, the United Arab Emirates to Switzerland.

The HSE (Health, Safety and Environment) function ensures the health and safety of those working in the Group's facilities while also working to reduce natural resource use and environmental impacts. Additionally, it promotes sustainability excellence in its facilities by analyzing existing risks, accident data, waste production, and the management of water and energy sources. This data is reported in the Sustainability Report that Mapei has published annually since 2016.

The assessment of environmental impacts

Another area where Mapei's environmental commitment is now established practice is in measuring and certifying its products' impact on air quality. For several decades, the company has dedicated part of its Research & Development activities to formulating materials with low volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions, certified with marks such as Emicode and Blauer Engel.

All these aspects are important factors in obtaining sustainability certifications for buildings, primarily the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification — a voluntary scoring system with different certification levels developed in the United States by the US Green Building Council and used globally.

The importance of sustainability and environmental impact assessment for construction products is confirmed by the introduction of these parameters in the new Construction Product Regulation (CPR) version, which will affect all CE-marked products, as explained by the Corporate Quality function.

EY's presentation outlined the future of the new Sustainability Report, binding from 2026, which will be prepared according to the new CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive).

Good examples in the world

The second and third days of the event were dedicated to the sustainability activities and initiatives of Mapei subsidiaries: from Mapei UK, whose commitment includes launching numerous Zero* products and increasing recycled materials in packaging, to Mapei Canada, which has contributed to numerous prestigious sustainable buildings; from Mapei Australia, which will launch Mapecube and Reconzero evo for concrete sustainability in the coming months, to Mapei Hellas, which has invested in reducing impacts from raw material transport; from Asia Pacific subsidiaries committed to training and launching the Zero range, to Mapei Corporation (USA), which participates in many sector events dedicated to sustainability and contributes to obtaining various building certifications; to Mapei Colombia, which has received many awards for its sustainability commitment from associations and local authorities; from Vinavil, which has always invested in developing new polymers, formulations, and industrial processes with reduced environmental impact, to Rasco, which is committed to effective waste management and supporting social responsibility initiatives. Many other exemplary cases were presented by Mapei AS (Norway), Mapei Spain, Mapei Croatia, Mapei Portugal, Mapei France, Mapei Austria, Sopro, Polyglass, and Vaga.

Global commitment

Mapei's commitment to sustainability is therefore global and needs to be adequately communicated using concrete facts, figures, and appropriate methods to convey the seriousness of their approach and the expertise of those involved, as highlighted by Stefano Ranghieri, Corporate Marketing and Communication Director of the Group. This challenge has been embraced and met, as demonstrated by the many communication projects focused on sustainability carried out worldwide by Mapei subsidiaries.

These three intensive days of training and exchange, discussion and debate, learning and exploration provided many stimuli for participants, who can now return to their work with even greater motivation and new ideas to better contribute to the Mapei Group's sustainability and communicate such a strong commitment.

*CO₂ emissions measured throughout the life cycle of products from the Zero line in 2025 using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, verified and certified with EPDs, have been offset through the acquisition of certified carbon credits in support of forestry protection projects. A commitment to the planet, to people and to biodiversity. For more details on how emissions are calculated and on climate mitigation projects financed through certified carbon credits, click here.

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