Worksite waste
Recovery of inert waste at VINCI Energies
VINCI Energies has pledged to recover 80% of its inert waste and materials and the Major Projects Division of VINCI Construction has pledged to recover 90% of all its waste, both by 2030. At 31 December 2024, VINCI Energies and VINCI Construction’s Major Projects Division achieved a recovery rate for their waste and inert materials of 75% and 80%, respectively. Some divisions set precise goals, including the Building France and Civil Engineering France divisions of VINCI Construction, which have undertaken to achieve a recycling rate of 80% at all their worksites by 2030. At 31 December 2024, the Building France Division had recovered 93% of its waste (including inert waste and materials), while the Civil Engineering France Division achieved a rate of 89%.
On a more local scale, the Greater Paris New-Build Housing and Greater Paris Renovated Housing delegations (Building France Division, VINCI Construction) have also developed an overall waste reduction policy, promoting actions in the field, such as signs made from stone paper at worksites and a virtual catalogue of housing units. VINCI Construction in British Columbia (Canada) enhanced its waste management strategy in 2024 with the aim to increase its overall recycling rate to 60%. A table was drawn up to identify the waste materials to be recycled, based on the type of project or site (asphalt plant, workshop or material recycling facility).
VINCI Construction’s commitments to improved waste management led to new collaborations producing innovative techniques and technologies in 2024. Thanks to the partnership with the startup Akanthas, waste analyses of three housing construction sites in the Greater Paris area were carried out using artificial intelligence.
Waste Marketplace, one of the business units having emerged from the intrapreneurship programme run by Leonard, offers a digital solution for managing worksite waste used both in-house and by non-Group companies. Not only can this tool be used to coordinate faster and more efficient dumpster collection, Waste Marketplace also supports companies in implementing custom solutions to handle special waste and improve recovery rates. It achieves this through a network of waste treatment specialists and industrial users of secondary raw materials, by adapting containers to waste streams and guaranteeing waste traceability.
In support of VINCI Construction’s commitment to responsible waste management and with respect to extended producer responsibility in the building sector, the Greater Paris Renovated Functional Structures delegation began separating recyclable waste at worksites, with an initial recovery rate of 36%. The residual waste was entrusted to a specialist service provider. Thanks to these combined efforts, 90% of waste generated at worksites was sorted and 95% was recovered.
To help reduce and recover waste, Cobra IS engages the responsibility of its subcontractors by including environmental clauses in its contracts and is also developing partnerships with local businesses. For example, Cobra Comunicaciones Colombia has signed an agreement with Compuabiente, a company that recycles plastic from used cones and hard hats to make new objects.
To encourage the recycling of personal protective equipment (PPE), Sogea Environment (VINCI Construction) has partnered with Ulisse, a non-profit organisation promoting professional integration. With the participation of Gre’sy, Adéquation Entreprises and Les Ateliers Marianne, damaged PPE items are washed and repaired for resale in charity shops or recycled into industrial cleaning cloths. Discarded hard hats are sent to Sodilor (Deconstruction and Road Equipment delegation, Networks France Division, VINCI Construction), where they are taken apart. The ABS plastic shell is shredded and the recovered material is reinjected into the manufacturing process for road equipment at Sodilor’s facility in Moselle. This new PPE recycling activity was created at Sodilor in 2023. Lastly, a contract was signed with the startup Takapas, which collects, sorts and shreds safety shoes for recovery. The metal components join the metal recycling stream and the rest of the shoe is transformed into solid recovered fuel (SRF).
Building concession user awareness of waste management
User awareness is a key starting point to reducing waste at concessions.
For this reason, concession companies run many campaigns to raise user awareness. Nantes Atlantique airport set up a partnership with the non-profit Les Restos du Cœur to avoid having to discard items recovered by security staff at screening checkpoints. The initiative reduces waste production at airports and enables consumer goods to be shared with disadvantaged people. Close to 600 kg of products are donated to the organisation each month. Lisbon airport is rolling out a similar initiative.
In France, the @BienArriver events held in the summer of 2024 at VINCI Autoroutes service areas raised motorists’ awareness of the dangers of littering and the irresponsible disposal of cigarette butts. The VINCI Autoroutes Foundation renewed its anti-littering campaign urging users to stop throwing rubbish out of their car windows and its #StopMégots campaign in partnership with Entente Valabre to get people to stop throwing cigarette butts out of car windows. On average, 100 cigarette butts are discarded in this way every day per kilometre in each direction of traffic.
2.3.2.3 Increasing the supply of recycled materials and processing facilities
Policy for increasing the supply of recycled materials and processing facilities
The business of some Group companies is to produce materials, for example quarry operations. Their main challenges are therefore to develop alternatives for primary materials by deploying recycled materials and developing recycling facilities.
The “Increasing the supply of recycled materials and processing facilities” opportunity identified in the materiality assessment applies only to VINCI Construction’s activities, the only business line to own material production sites (quarries, asphalt plants and material recycling facilities). Recycled materials offer VINCI Construction customers alternatives to the virgin materials used in the construction industry.