Responding to the urgent need to tackle climate change, VINCI is taking action to address environmental issues and be a driving force in the ecological transition of buildings, infrastructure and mobility.
The challenge that the Group is rising to, and embarking its 280,000 employees on, is to intertwine its near-term commitments with its long-term trajectory. And it is doing this with an all-new initiative to spur progress: the Environment Awards.
This new event, which kicked off on VINCI's Environment Day in September 2020, will reward the best initiatives submitted by employees in the field around the world. The most pioneering initiatives and the ones that have the greatest impact on the environment will be enhanced and replicated with a view to reducing the environmental footprint from the Group's activities and fast-tracking the development of concrete environmental solutions for its customers.
The Environment Awards campaign blends seamlessly into the Group's environmental ambition and is structured around the same three focus areas:
- acting for the climate,
- optimising resources thanks to the circular economy,
- preserving natural environments.
It is more than an in-house competition: it is the Group's way of giving its employees the keys to play an active role in VINCI's environmental transformation.
countries on board around the world
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correspondents supporting the campaign
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employees involved
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initiatives from employees worldwide
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Promoting grassroots initiatives is essential to foster company-wide buy-in around the top priorities.
Thanks to the Environment Awards, training in environmental issues has reached more people and more diverse audiences. Employees are seeing their innovation potential and their ability to take initiative grow: they are the ones who make a difference on the ground by creating environmental value in the projects and services that they offer stakeholders (users, infrastructure assets, customers, partners, subcontractors, suppliers, etc.).
After the regional phase, during which 190 of the 2,500 submissions from around the world were rewarded, 50 initiatives were short-listed for the final.
Here are the prize-winning initiatives in each of the three priority areas in VINCI’s environmental ambition.
Mainstreaming Exegy® ultra-low-carbon concrete
This solution replaces 100% of the cement in traditional concrete, reducing its carbon content by up to 70%. The Exegy® range of low-carbon concretes is being used on five Grand Paris Express projects – Noisy-Champs station, Morangis depot, e-déf Eole-La Défense and two works packages on the future Line 18 – and will reduce their carbon footprint by some 75,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent over three years.
Business: Construction
Country: France
Region: Île-de-France
Reducing CO2 emissions on business travel
In a sector where 95% of direct CO2 emissions stem from work-related trips, this initiative provides employees with an array of options to reduce their impact. They include optimising routes so vehicles travel shorter distances, removing roof racks (which cause fuel overconsumption), electrifying vehicle fleets and installing charging stations (even in employees’ homes). To date, 50% of the utility vehicles in the region have been replaced with electric ones.
Business: Energy
Country: France
Region: Grand Est
An application to monitor CO2 emissions from construction machinery
A mobile application to schedule and monitor operations, and support decisions. It assesses construction machinery’s carbon footprints in order to optimise costs and guide decisions on recycling machinery and materials.
Business: Energy
Country: Romania
An industrial approach to façade thermal insulation with Rehaskeen
Rehaskeen, an external thermal insulation process, uses prefabricated components to divide work time on site by 8. It is opening the door to faster thermal renovation of residential and commercial buildings (whether they are occupied or not).
Businesses: Energy & Construction
Country: France
Region: Île-de-France
Solar energy self-consumption to power electric vehicle charging stations (Reve)
This initiative involves fitting photovoltaic panels on commercial building rooftops, storing the solar energy in second-hand batteries, and using it to power a network of electric vehicle charging stations.
Business: Energy
Country: France
Region: Hauts-de-France
Reducing carbon emissions during taxiing
A digital dashboard designed to optimise aircraft taxiing and thereby reduce fuel consumption. A 20% decrease in CO2 emissions per aircraft movement has been observed between the first two months of 2020 (before the pandemic) and July and August 2020 (the two busy months during the pandemic).
Business: Concessions
Country: Portugal
City: Lisbon
Eco-tracer: a refillable spray paint can to reduce waste
A reusable spray paint to replace disposable marking paint cans. This “Made in VINCI” breakthrough could avoid more than 60 tonnes of waste a year.
Business: Construction
Country: France
Region: Pays de la Loire
The Perpetual Quarry
A quarry that extracts no more virgin materials: instead, it makes sand and gravel from existing earth and rubble by reproducing the natural cycle of soil erosion.
In 2020, notwithstanding the health crisis, 134,700 tonnes of inert materials were washed and recovered, to avoid extracting 94,550 tonnes of virgin materials, putting recovery rates at 70.2%.
Business: Construction
Country: France
Region: Normandy
Reducing CO2 emissions from motorway maintenance work by 49%
Maximising leftover asphalt reuse and recycling (70% to 100%), with an eco-designed plant near the worksite (to reduce transport requirements), running on bio-sourced fuel.
Business: Construction
Country: France
Region: Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Eliminating plastic waste in motorway rest areas
Eliminating single-use plastic in 10 motorway rest areas with measures across the value chain (from suppliers to waste management service providers), including bulk dispensers, water fountains, sustainable or wooden cutlery, and sensors to detect mugs or all-paper cups.
Business: Concessions
Country: France
Region: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Extending steel life while eliminating zinc-based paint
Building drains and sumps to remove the water that causes rusting on steel pylons, to extend their life by about 15 years and avoid using zinc-based paint, which is extremely toxic to natural aquatic environments.
Business: Energy
Country: New Zealand
Reusing water from air conditioners
Recovering condensed water from the air conditioning system at the Salvador Bahia Airport. The water is collected then stored in tanks used to feed the airport’s cooling towers. In total, 17,200 cu. metres of water are recovered and routed back into the circuit, accounting for more than 10% of the airport’s water consumption.
Business: Concessions
Country: Brazil
City: Salvador de Bahia
Recycling and saving water in an area of water stress
Optimising use of water resources in an area subject to water stress with a panoply of recycling and reuse measures, including water treatment and drinking water production plants, closed-circuit stations to wash machinery, etc., saving an estimated 80,000 cu. metres of water. .
Business: Construction
Country: Morocco
Redeveloping brownfields in urban areas
Pushing back against soil artificialisation with urban development projects aimed at revamping and cleaning up 50 industrial brownfield (closed-down gas-fired plants scattered across France) spanning a total of 36 hectares.
Business: Immobilier
Country: France