2022 Universal Registration Document

3.2.2.1 Actions to reduce indirect emissions

Several tools are available to the operational teams in order to better understand the impacts associated with their activities and propose relevant solutions for their customers: these solutions include the E+C– (positive-energy and low-carbon) calculator, making it possible to assess compatibility with this label’s criteria for the activities of VINCI Construction’s Building France Division, the Scope 3 calculator for Building Solutions activities at VINCI Energies and the Group-wide carbon assessment tool e-CO₂NCERNED.

• Reducing upstream impacts

The Group is working to reduce emissions associated with its purchases, by setting up selection criteria and responsible purchasing processes. These actions are presented in detail in paragraph 2.2.1, “Group-wide approach to promote responsible purchasing”, in the “Social performance” section, page 214. Moreover, various steps were taken in 2022 to reduce emissions relating to the materials used for carrying out the Group’s projects and encourage the use of eco-design.

Concrete

In 2020, VINCI Construction, which accounts for around 90% of Group emissions relating to concrete purchases, adopted a target for 90% of the concrete used to comply with a low-carbon standard by 2030, covering all the quantities consumed for which this type of solution is technically and economically viable (see “Overview of the main commitments by business line”, page 220). More than 30% of the total concrete used by the Building France and Civil Engineering France divisions of VINCI Construction in 2022 was low-carbon concrete, and its use continues to develop both in France and abroad:

• On the Lyon Part-Dieu multimodal transport hub for the Place Basse car park, 80% of the concrete used, i.e. about 28,000 cu. metres, was Exegy® low-carbon concrete.
• On the CDG Express, 13,268 cu. metres of very low-carbon concrete was used in 2022, i.e. 60% of the total amount of concrete used on the project. The partnership signed with Société du Grand Paris to use ultra-low-carbon segments on the underground section of Line 18 is a world first, and will drastically reduce emissions by 70% compared to regular concrete.
• Low-carbon concrete is being used on the City Rail Link project in New Zealand and the Bakheng water treatment plant to supply drinking water in Cambodia, both carried out by the Major Projects Division.
• Botte Fondations (VINCI Construction’s Civil Engineering France Division) has stepped up the use of performance-based concrete on several of its projects, for example on the overhead section of Line 18 of the Grand Paris Express and on the works at Nantes university hospital.
• The Universeine project in Saint-Denis uses both low-carbon concrete and wood. For this project, VINCI Construction and VINCI Immobilier were given support from the Innovation and Ecology Fund of the public body responsible for delivering the venues and infrastructure to be used for the sporting events in the summer of 2024 (Solideo) to build all the flooring, i.e. a volume of 17,870 cu. metres, using ultra-low-carbon concrete, thus saving 3,825 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent.
• The first precast staircases in metakaolin and limestone filler were installed on the Lead office building project (E3.1 works package of the Cambacérès development zone in Montpellier) with VINCI Construction’s partner Soriba in December 2022, making them the first structures built in low-carbon concrete without slag.

The use of these solutions is developing as more partnerships are signed with ready-mix concrete producers, providing all worksites with easy access to low-carbon concrete. Also contributing to this is the increasing use of e-béton on projects. This tool for digitalising the concrete process and improving carbon traceability was designed as part of the intrapreneurship programme offered through Leonard, VINCI’s innovation and foresight platform.

Steel

The carbon footprint of steel is becoming another key criterion. For example, recycled steel accounted for 95% of that used by VINCI to build the Noisy-Champs station. The steel used to build the Cœur d’Aéroport building at Marseille Provence Airport (VINCI Construction’s Civil Engineering France Division) was made from 70% recycled steel. Similarly, VINCI Energies is implementing initiatives with suppliers to reduce the environmental footprint of purchased products. TG Concept, a company that designs and produces airport baggage sorting systems, has completed a product environmental profile (PEP) of its conveyor belt in partnership with Evea. This has helped to identify ways of reducing its environmental footprint and led the company to start working with a supplier of recycled steel.

Road construction and maintenance activities

As a project owner, VINCI Autoroutes encourages best practices in its calls for tenders that contribute to decarbonising road maintenance work. VINCI Construction’s Road France Division is at the forefront of the most efficient solutions for reducing the carbon footprint of products containing bitumen. These include cold mix asphalt, in-situ recycling, the use of low-carbon energy sources for asphalt plants and the reduction of freight emissions, which can reduce worksite emissions by 50%. In addition to its Granulat+ programme to reduce the impacts associated with the use of materials (see paragraph 3.3.3, “Developing recycling solutions”, page 244), the Road France Division of VINCI Construction is working to limit the impacts linked to the transportation of these materials through actions in several areas: optimising the distances travelled, ensuring the widespread adoption of covered trucks, setting up two-way freight flows more systematically between production sites, transforming materials and works procedures, etc. An initiative is also under way with transport providers to promote the use of more efficient, less polluting means of transport.