Solutions for limiting the environmental impact of construction activities, and energy and mobility infrastructures

Building and operating infrastructures while producing green energy

Buildings and infrastructures are constructed on soil-sealed land to meet a wide range of needs, such as mobility, housing, communication and energy. But these sites can also be used to satisfy other requirements in addition to serving their main purpose. This is especially the case when mobility infrastructures, such as roads, motorways, airports and railways, enable people to travel while helping produce green energy. 

Power Road®, the positive-energy road 

What if roads were capable of heating buildings? This is the new feature that VINCI Construction is bringing to roads with the Power Road® solution. The system captures the heat from the road surface and either releases it for immediate use or stores it for later, according to requirements. 

The solar potential of motorways, railways and airports

SunMind: unlocking the potential of solar energy

SunMind finances and develops photovoltaic plants, especially on the buildings and land occupied by VINCI Concessions’ airport, motorway and railway infrastructures.

Equipping these infrastructures with solar power plants, particularly to cover their own energy needs, is an important strategy for reaching net zero emissions by 2050 for Scopes 1 and 2 (direct greenhouse gas emissions).

Solarvia: transforming unused motorway-side land into solar power plants 

Through its subsidiary Solarvia, VINCI Autoroutes develops solar farms on its land takes and specifically on areas skirting roads and motorways that once served a purpose, but which have since fallen into neglect.

Using materials from the circular economy for building and renovating 

Aggregates are an essential material for manufacturing concrete, building roads and urban development projects, and constructing buildings and civil engineering structures. They are the most widely used resource in France after water, accounting for 5 tons per capita per year. However, natural aggregates from quarries are not available in endless quantities, and extracting them has an impact on the environment. Solutions using materials from the circular economy are available and entering widespread practice in the construction industry.

Construction aggregates from the circular economy 

VINCI Construction is mainstreaming the use of formulated aggregates, which are produced from excavated earth, materials recovered from local deconstruction projects or industrial co-products, for its road construction and maintenance activities. These aggregates from the circular economy comprise primary resources and secondary resources from its local recycling centres.  

Recycling motorway asphalt

Maintain or resurface motorways by recovering and recycling asphalt on site... such is VINCI Autoroutes’ strategy for reducing its dependency on raw materials and lowering its CO2 emissions. Up to 70% of asphalt aggregates are recycled and reused at a plant located near the worksite to cut down on transport.

Rehabilitating brownfield sites to reduce land take

Land take is one of the culprits behind biodiversity loss and global warming. As buildings and infrastructures continue encroaching upon natural spaces with growing speed, action must be taken. That is why the objective of no net land take by 2050 is enshrined in France’s Climate and Resilience Act. VINCI Immobilier is using a powerful lever to reach this target by 2030, namely rehabilitating brownfield sites. 

Check out our report on soil sealing at:

https://emag.vinci.com/en/our-reports  

Transport and travel at sites and worksites  

Several action levers are available for decarbonising all types of worksite. Reducing the CO₂ emissions from work-related travel and worksite vehicles represents a tremendous opportunity. 

In 2022, VINCI Energies rolled out a solution for improving service rounds and thereby cutting down on the number of kilometres travelled, as well as switching the fleet over to electric vehicles and setting up charging points on company premises and at employees’ homes. At the same time, a scheduling, monitoring and decision support app has been developed for evaluating the carbon footprint of worksite vehicles and tracking their CO₂ emissions. These are just some of the initiatives that are delivering results.. 

Sources : 

L’industrie française des granulats - UNICEM/UNPG - Edition 2022