Translations

BOUYGUES CONSTRUCTION : competitive buildings with low resources

4. Environment

Construction

Sector Construction / Estate Agency

Year 2014

Country France

Transmitter

Context

Bouygues Construction, part of the Bouygues Group, is a French global construction company founded in 1955, which has 4 broad business areas (Building, Civil Works, Energies & Services and Concessions) and 8 subsidiaries. It has operations in 80 countries with 46% of its business generated outside France and counts 52,500 employees.
The challenge that the Company is currently facing is the reduction of CO2 emissions and reduction of waste that result from the construction business (40% of the world’s wastes)

Objectives

Re-use of materials such as concrete which reduces cost for the Company
Maintain a corporate culture based on the respect of eco-system
Reduce the carbon footprint on the environment with managing better the wastes

APPROACH

Since 2007, all kind of resources are available as the respect of the environment is part of the corporate culture and is one of the pillars of the strategy. This way all types of resources are concerned.

Thanks to a strong corporate identity and trainings, all the employees are committed to this objective and seek to reduce wastes and allocate the resources in the most accurate way.
Sufficient budget are allocated to finance the research, develop new project and continuously propose the construction of state-of-the-art buildings, infrastructures… Shares his experiences and is a member of several associations such as OREE.

6 different approaches can be observed:

Re-use and valorization of the wastes: the « empty box » dam in the Tanger harbor and the reuse of excavated material directly on site for the Tyme Tunnel, Newcastle
Favor the use of easy to recycle materials: Program “Recybeton” which was developed with administrations, Engineering Schools and suppliers such as Lafarge
Develop new concepts to use recyclable materials: ISOLPAC developed by NORPAC (Bouygues Construction’s subsidiary in Northern France) for isolation made of textile surface.
Use of easy to transform and alternative materials: partnership with Techniwood for wood which is easy to recycle
Use of software to optimize construction: Building information Modeling (BIM ) to digitalize construction documents and make it easier to share this information with others, work more efficiently and thereby reduce additional waste.
ABC (Autonomous Building for Citizens) to build sustainable neighborhoods (i.e. Grenoble EcoCité)

Best Practice spotted in 2014 by the World Forum for a Responsible Economy.

CONTRIBUTION TO COMPANY PERFORMANCE

More competitiveness thanks to construction and transportation costs reduction
The reuse of excavated material directly on site (30% in the Time Tunnel, Newcastle) reduces the material purchasing and waste management costs.
Innovations such as the low carbon concrete, partners like Techniwood etc. arise the attractiveness, develop competitive advantages, open new markets and new revenue sources
Improvement of the building efficiency results from the BIM

Benefits

Reduction of Carbon Emissions and wastes which need to be destroyed
Lower cost for construction for the governments/administration (i.e. Tanger harbor and Newcastle Tunnel)
Use of the expertise of local companies (i.e. NORPAC) which creates dynamism in several regions
Low carbon concrete for social housing project in Paris. 60% of the concrete used was low carbon concrete. They were able to reduce the carbon footprint by 10%.
With the new Time Tunnel (Newcastle) the company was able to reuse 30% of the excavated material as building material.