In over 20 years of presence on the national territory, Progeca – PROgettazione GEstione Cantieri – has confirmed itself as a reality capable of combining engineering skills with the world of industry and logistics, operating successfully in Italy and abroad in the field of urban, building, structural and plant design, works management and site safety. The mission of the Turin-based company is to provide customers with ‘turnkey’ works according to a philosophy that respects the environment, time, costs and quality. These peculiarities have enabled it to work with major industrial players and investment funds, expanding beyond its headquarters in Caluso (TO) to Milan, Rome and Spain. Attention to respect for the environment, time, cost and quality of planned and directed operations are the hallmarks of a Group that has been able to manage operations of over 1,000,000 square metres in the last 5 years. Today Progeca develops projects in a BIM environment following the strictest BREEAM, LEED, WELL protocols. In this long interview, Marco Crotti, CEO of this all-Italian excellence takes stock of the situation in an industry that has been severely affected by the impact of the Covid and the war in Ukraine. But not only…
Today we are always talking about accidents on the building site and lack of safety, what should change?
The first point is a basic concept. We talk about ‘zero’ accidents that should never happen. It is hard to say but this is not the case because every job involves a risk. We must be able to reduce the incidence of accidents year after year in order to always improve. We have legislation that only affects the Employer or the Safety Coordinators, never the workers. In 23 years of work we have never seen a worker sanctioned for not wearing a helmet, safety shoes or gloves. The same worker, on the other hand, is penalised at the first corner if he drives his car without a seatbelt. Paperwork and documentation must be simplified; it seems that safety is governed by rivers of declarations and paper. We need more site inspections for everyone. We need less paper and more practical sense. We need an insurance system that touches the pockets of both workers and companies, increasing insurance premiums in the event of irregularities.
And as for the labour shortage, what is happening?
Unfortunately, the perfect storm is underway. The so-called Superbonus has taken away a lot of resources for ‘hit and run’ jobs that do not have a very long horizon, for two years they have reduced the availability of labour. Situations such as the Superbonus must be planned with the awareness that the construction industry has a very long production cycle, calibrated on horizons of at least five years with certain rules.
Then we have the citizenship income that leads many not to look for work, regardless of the salary that is offered, and leads others to even try to prove that they have no income rather than look for one. Finally, the Italian school system has failed to give proper weight to crafts and professional jobs, thus reducing the number of young graduates in these sectors. More incentives for vocational training would allow qualified and motivated workers to enter the labour market.
How have recent events affected the construction industry?
The pandemic and the war in Ukraine have destabilised the system by creating ‘hiccups’ in supplies, leading to a sharp rise in raw material and energy prices. Consequently, we realised that we have to be more autonomous, especially in energy supply. It is no longer time to wait months or years to get the necessary authorisations to set up a renewable energy plant, we need to be more immediate. Until recently, photovoltaic panels and wind towers were seen as a ‘visual nuisance’, as ‘environmental damage’; today legislation is taking timid steps towards simplification. It is a pity to realise this now at a time of extreme necessity and not to have been able to anticipate it earlier. In this context, Progeca is particularly active in the sector and proposes to all customers the realisation of energy-saving, self-production and energy storage systems. www.progecasrl.it
