2030 environmental ambition
VINCI Autoroutes has accelerated the rollout of its environmental ambition by kicking off or continuing a series of actions in three priority areas identified for the Group as a whole and designed to concurrently reduce the direct footprint of its own activities and the footprint of motorway and road travel in general.
● TOWARDS LOW-CARBON MOTORWAYS
Fulfilling its pledge to halve direct CO2 emissions from its activities (Scopes 1 and 2) by 2030, VINCI Autoroutes has accelerated the decarbonisation of its fleet of vehicles – 46% of its light utility vehicles were electric-powered by the end of 2021, compared with 31% at end-2020 – and the installation of LED lighting on its network. These are its two main sources of direct emissions.
Regarding its indirect emissions (Scope 3), VINCI Autoroutes has pledged that by 2030, 40% of the energy consumed at its service stations will be from renewable sources, and emissions generated by its roadworks will be halved compared with 2019 levels. It will involve its commercial and road construction partners in achieving these targets. However, given that motorway travel represents over 25% of transport emissions and 7% of total emissions in France, all sectors taken together, decarbonising motorway use will be the focus of its efforts. To this end, VINCI Autoroutes continued its initiatives in two complementary areas.
- ◗ Rolling out electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Of VINCI Autoroutes’ 180 service stations, 97 were fitted by end-2021, or 55% of the network, and it intends to have all service stations equipped with e-charging stations in 2023. Through its subsidiary Easy Charge, created with VINCI Energies, VINCI Autoroutes helps specialised operators install their charging stations on its network and regional authorities deploy recharging infrastructure on the road network and in urban areas (see VINCI Energies section, page 76).
- ◗ Fostering carpooling and shared travel on motorways. At end-2021, the VINCI Autoroutes network had 40 carpool car parks, three of which were opened over the year, or a total of some 3,300 spaces in service. As part of the motorway investment plan, the VINCI Autoroutes network will double its carpool parking capacity in the next few years. VINCI Autoroutes plans to invest €16 million in creating about 40 more carpool parking facilities, in partnership with the regional authorities. It is also working with them to develop public transport on motorways. Examples include the Longvilliers multimodal car park, south-west of Paris, which opened for service at the end of 2020 and enables A10 commuters to use a reserved-lane express bus service that connects with the capital’s RER networks.
Land rehabilitation at the Saugon service area on the A10, where more than 700 different plant species have been introduced.
More generally, VINCI Autoroutes works closely with regional authorities to develop sustainable mobility solutions in their regions. For example, in 2021 it signed a low-carbon motorway agreement with the regional authorities for the greater Tours area in west-central France. Every day, around 80,000 vehicles use the A10 on the outskirts of Tours, and both partners want to better integrate the motorway into the city’s mobility system, easing the daily commute for residents while also reducing the carbon footprint of their journey. Moreover, a similar agreement signed with the Région Sud has already resulted in significant progress. At the end of 2021, some 15 VINCI Autoroutes network service stations in the region were equipped with nearly 60 electric vehicle charging stations – most of them fast chargers – and almost 300 carpool parking spaces had become available at five sites. A multimodal hub is also being built in Toulon, and the hard shoulders on several of the region’s motorway corridors are either currently being turned into rush-hour bus lanes or at the preliminary study phase to do so.
3,277 parking spaces in 40 carpool car parks on the VINCI Autoroutes network.