VINCI Autoroutes has signed a partnership agreement with the Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur region in the south of France in favour of low-carbon motorways. The aim of this alliance is to accelerate the development of eco-mobility in all its forms, with special emphasis on increasing the coverage of electric vehicle charging station networks and developing multimodal and shared solutions such as public transport on motorways, carpool parking and park-and-ride facilities, as well as digital services that make travelling easier and support low-carbon mobility.

VINCI Airports, the first airport operator to have developed a comprehensive environmental policy on a global scale, has initiated a range of actions across its network. At the Salvador airport in Brazil at the end of 2019, for example, VINCI Airports completed a renovation and extension programme including environmental upgrades across the entire site. It has notably been equipped with a wastewater treatment plant to reuse treated water, a waste sorting building and a solar farm. The airport was awarded Level 2 Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA) certification in early 2020, confirming the reduction of its carbon footprint.

Axians, the VINCI Energies information and communication technology brand, has teamed up with several expert partners in Rotterdam to install a unified digital platform that aggregates the formerly separate systems and lays the foundations for the port of the future. In the control tower, the platform uses artificial intelligence and IoT technology to gather all the real-time data needed for coordinating port operations. In addition to immediate benefits such as smoother and more secure access to information, the system is designed to ensure that all players throughout the logistics chain, including the ports of origin and destination of ships, can ultimately share data.

No longer a demonstrator but now in operation, the Power Road® solar heating technology developed by Eurovia is confirming its energy performance for all its various applications. In 2019, Power Road® was embedded in 650 sq. metres of a cinema car park in Feurs in central France, and will be used in pre-heating the water at a nearby swimming facility. By replacing the main gas heating system, the innovation will avoid the emission of 16 tonnes of CO₂ a year. Inolya, the largest social housing operator in Calvados, Normandy, selected Power Road® to equip 1,420 sq. metres of roads in Fleury sur Orne as part of a programme to refurbish a social housing apartment block. This will cover 75% of the heating and hot water needs of 61 apartments and is expected to reduce CO₂ emissions by 75%.

VINCI Construction has been testing the production and use of low-carbon concretes for several years. The Group’s new head office is now the demonstrator of an innovative concrete in which cement is almost entirely replaced with blast furnace slag, which gives the material the same hardness and strength as a conventional concrete. These properties make it suitable for use in structural works while reducing its carbon footprint by 60%.

As part of the orientation component of the Give Me Five social integration programme launched in France at the end of 2018, VINCI is hosting students in their final year of middle school, all from underprivileged areas, in its business units for their compulsory work experience. Over a five-day period, students are given an overview of Group business activities, listen to employees talk about their career paths and passion for their job, and take part in site visits and workshops on topics such as stakeholder consultation. The programme, which has been recognised by France’s Ministry of Education for its educational value, is stimulating a great deal of interest on the part of students as they discover the broad range of activities. VINCI entities continue to put a great deal of work into the programme, which will be extended to around 10 regions in France in 2020 with the aim of hosting 5,000 students by the end of the year.

In October 2019, after only four years of works, VINCI opened the bypass around Regina, capital of the province of Saskatchewan in Canada. The project, which was executed under a 30-year public-private partnership led by VINCI Concessions – the first infrastructure PPP for the province – represents an investment of C$1.9 billion. It covers 61 km of roads (37 km newly built and 24 upgraded), 12 new interchanges and 33 new bridges and viaducts. The works were performed under a joint venture led by local Eurovia subsidiary Carmacks, together with VINCI Construction Terrassement and VINCI Energies. The newly opened infrastructure makes traffic around the city smoother and safer. It will also help to boost the province’s economic development by opening up fast and reliable access to several major routes.

Leonard, VINCI’s forward-looking innovation platform, is producing tangible results through its Intrapreneurs path. One illustration is Waste Marketplace, a startup created by Jérôme de Tomasi, an employee from VINCI Construction France who now heads this new Group subsidiary. Incubated and accelerated by Leonard, Waste Marketplace is a digital solution that facilitates management of construction waste and improves its recycling and traceability at the best possible cost. In four clicks on the application, a works supervisor on site can order a waste removal lorry. The app’s algorithm chooses the best solution for each type of waste from among a network of partners. The recycling
rate achieved is more than 80%. The system automatically generates a report at each stage and guarantees absolute traceability, simplifying such procedures as environmental labelling. In one year of operation, Waste Marketplace has already rolled out its integrated solution to around 100 construction sites, including some being executed by non-Group companies.