Situation

The Dacia production plant is located around 120km north-west of Bucharest in the Arges region. Dacia’s industrial platform is located on a hillside plateau, around 1.5km from the river Doamnei which runs along the bottom of the site.  The town of Mioveni (around 40,000 inhabitants with the first homes 200m from the site) is located to the north of the site, forest land from the north to the south-west, the town of Colibasi to the south-west (with a school 300m from the site),  and farmland from west to north. The site has a total area of 141 ha, with buildings covering around 58 ha.

Initial ISO 14001 certification earned in 2005.

The site entered the Renault group's reporting scope in 2002.

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Water consumption

Since its acquisition by Renault and despite a 100% increase in production, the site has steadily reduced its water consumption through a number of initiatives:

• better management of water consumption in industrial processes;
• renovation of washroom facilities;
• mapping of leaks;
• refurbishment of networks and metering equipment; 
• part upgrade of the drinking water system;
• replacement of a cooling tower.

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Water-borne effluents

Action has been taken in several different areas:

• rehabilitation of six physical/chemical treatment plants designed for specific process sectors;
• installation of a filtering plant to treat cutting fluids from production facilities - the process was designed in line with best environmental practices (holding tanks, regenerating media, chlorine-free cutting fluid); 
• refurbishment of four holding tanks for stormwater and industrial water, installation of a de-oiling system;
• investment in automatic sampling systems to determine the characteristics of final discharge.  

N.B.: The reporting scope changed in 2005. Results no longer include effluent from the drinking water treatment plant for the city of Mioveni in 2005.

The following actions were continued in 2006-2007:

• Renovation of industrial pipe networks,

• Construction of a new effluent treatment plant for Paint II,

• Construction of filtering plants for the powertrain activity,

• A new demineralized water plant.
  

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SO2 and greenhouse gas emissions

SO2 emissions fell by 59.7% between 2003 and 2006 and by 53% in 2007 following the reduction in fuel consumption.

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Volatile organic compounds emissions from paint process

With the start of Logan production and the use of a wider range of paint colors requiring more frequent cleaning of application systems, VOC emissions per vehicle produced increased by 10% between 2002 and 2004. Emissions stabilized in 2005.

Following the start-up of the new paint line, VOC emissions fell from 8.78 kg/veh. in June to 5.04 kg/veh. in December 2007.

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Waste

The increase in waste produced between 2002 and 2006 was due to building work in the plant (construction waste, rubble from demolition).

Considerable efforts have been made:

• The "Davidesti" dump has been modernized with the installation of a biological and physical chemical treatment plant that can measure the quantity and quality of the various discharges.

• A baling machine was installed in the central waste sector.  A baling machine has been operating for the powertrain buildings since the second quarter of 2003. 

• Covered areas for intermediate storage of waste (there are 7) have been installed and a central area for all of the site's waste. Two other intermediate storage areas for waste from the technological process were built in 2003 in the Suppliers' Industrial Zone (ZIF).     

All the accumulated waste, including all the PCB capacitors, has been eliminated. In 2006-2007 a holding tank was built for liquid effluents.

 

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Energy

Centralized measuring systems have been put in place in order to optimize energy consumption and metering equipment.

Replacement of the cooling tower in the thermal power plant, aluminium casting and body assembly.

We continued the ECO Energy programme, which helped bring down electrical and heat energy consumption, preserving natural resources and lowering atmospheric emissions.

Since 2005, the year the ECO Energy programme was launched, consumption has been cut by:

• 29% for electricity

• 39% for thermal energy

• 61% for drinking water.

 

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Highlights

 

 Gheorghe Costache, Environmental Manager: 

"2007 was an important year for the environment at Dacia. The new water-based paint lines came on stream and we started using new bumper paint that contributes to reducing atmospheric emissions.

The thermal power plant was upgraded, with the replacement of the existing boilers with low-NOx boilers. That cut gas consumption by 54% and CO2 emissions by 89%.

The upgrade of the aluminium casting furnaces and of the burners in the heat treatment furnace helped lower energy consumption and atmospheric emissions.

We implemented the MT1 gearbox project. In terms of reducing impact, the new projects have achieved energy savings and lowered water consumption and liquid effluents.

We obtained IPPC authorization to produce 60 vehicles an hour and the environmental permit.

We have integrated the environment into the SPT workstation standardization plan: 100% for all the bodywork/assembly BWTs and 80% in the powertrain activity."