Given their extensive international operations, VINCI Concessions business lines must find alternatives to landfills for treating waste. To meet its goal of sending zero waste to landfills, VINCI Airports has built on-site sorting centres for its airports in Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Serbia. VINCI Construction and VINCI Energies are also taking measures to promote the reuse of materials and equipment on worksites, in addition to waste sorting and recycling.
Preserving natural environments is a key concern for VINCI companies. From a project’s earliest design stage, they strive to avoid, reduce and offset the impacts of their activities on species and natural environments. VINCI companies comply with a range of local regulations and requirements of varying complexity. Above and beyond their legal obligations, they undertake risk analyses of their projects and implement measures to manage the identified risks (see the actions described in paragraph 3.4, “Preserving natural environments”, of the “Environmental performance” section, page 246).
A mapping of risks has shown that the Group’s activities can cause pollution of various sorts and deteriorate natural environments. Accordingly, the Group takes steps as needed to reduce these impacts, both during the construction phase and during operations.
Entities use various types of equipment to prevent surface water pollution, choosing the best solution for each context. For example, VINCI Autoroutes creates retention ponds on the sites of its infrastructure to allow the settling of suspended solids in run-off and pumped water, but also to contain any accidental pollution and avoid contaminating neighbouring watercourses or sensitive environments. As another example, 90% of VINCI motorways in service in France are equipped with either natural water protection systems or engineering structures that address potential problems to prevent accidental pollution in the surrounding natural environment. In addition, whenever water is discharged into a natural environment, this is done only after its quality has been verified through sampling. In all its airports, VINCI Airports systematically installs oil-water separators wherever there is a risk of water contamination. Some of VINCI Construction’s quarry sites have implemented innovative systems to filter pumped water and minimise the discharge of any suspended matter. At worksites, temporary retention ponds or settlement tanks are set up as needed to prevent suspended solids from contaminating the natural environment. Worksites are also supplied with spill kits, impermeable areas for refuelling machinery, and other equipment to prevent accidental pollution. To minimise light and noise pollution generated by the operation of infrastructure, acoustic barriers are regularly placed along motorways, and lighting systems may be adapted to direct light only towards areas requiring illumination for the safety of users. During a project’s construction phase, Group entities use acoustic enclosures or ventilation strategies to diminish the noise produced by their machines. Depending on the context, noise levels may be measured, and sometimes vibrations as well.
At sites under construction and sites in operation, air quality monitoring systems may be implemented. Some airports measure the air quality of surrounding areas on a continuous basis. At worksites, operators first make sure that weather conditions are suitable (low wind speeds) before beginning soil stabilisation work.
Efforts are also made to limit the use of phytosanitary products for road maintenance to the strict minimum. Currently, these products are only used for hard-to-access areas or for fighting invasive plant species. From 2018 to 2022, the use of phytosanitary products (in litres) was reduced by just over 77% in the Concessions business as a whole. As part of its commitments under the act4nature international initiative (see paragraph 3.4.1, “Preventing pollution and incidents”, of the “Environmental performance” section, page 246), VINCI has made a pledge to cease all use of phytosanitary products by 2030 (unless prevented by contractual or regulatory provisions).
41 airports used no synthetic phytosanitary products in 2022
The Group mobilises internal and external sources of environmental engineering expertise to offset its residual impacts on species. Specific ecological restoration measures are taken only after all possible reduction strategies have been applied.
Since 2019, the Group has published a practical guide on responsible purchasing. It clarifies that the sourcing of innovative solutions to protect the environment, fight climate change and achieve the energy transition is an integral part of the Group’s responsible purchasing. At the end of October 2021, an introductory course to responsible purchasing was made available to all employees as an e-learning module, to help them absorb the content of the guide. By 31 December 2022, 3,500 employees had completed it. A more advanced course for Group purchasing roles was developed in 2021 and completed by 200 employees by the end of December 2022.
In 2022, VINCI mapped social and environmental risks specific to key purchasing categories for the Group’s five main divisions in France (VINCI Construction’s Road France and Building France divisions, VINCI Energies France, VINCI Autoroutes and VINCI Airports), with the assistance of an external partner. This risk map expands on the environmental risk map established for the Group’s activities in 2019, which assessed the materiality of each purchasing category with respect to social and environmental impacts. First, purchasing categories were grouped by type of risk, and then the risks were scored in a team workshop setting. Using this methodology, some 60 purchasing categories were mapped by degree of risk and criticality. Starting in early 2023, workshops will be held to develop corrective action plans. The strategy adopted for each business area may range from carrying out a new analysis of the inherent risks for this category and its supply chain, to further strengthening the sustainability assessments in order to better measure how suppliers will be able to address the risks identified, as well as establishing structured, in-depth dialogue on these issues with suppliers, in order to gain more insights into the supply chain and improve prevention measures in place.
