Limit Our Environmental Impact

ENVIRONMENT

Committed To Setting The Example

Saint-Gobain works to preserve the environment from the potential impacts of its processes and services. Four priorities have been identified to fight against climate change:

• Assess and manage risks.
• Implement best existing techniques and practices.
• Innovate to invent the best future techniques and practices.
• Involve employees over the long term in protecting the environment.

Tools have been developed to help all Group sites make progress on the basis of a shared methodology.

Long-term objectives:

• Zero environmental accidents,
• Minimum impact from Saint-Gobain activities on the environment.

Major Environmental Challenges

Raw Materials And Waste

Reducing waste is a priority for the Group. In addition to recovering its own production waste, Saint-Gobain also uses recycled materials from outside sources, such as cullet and recovered scrap metal, to optimize its raw material consumption. The primary method for reducing resource consumption in glass furnaces is to include cullet (crushed recycled glass) among the raw materials.

Objective for 2025:

• Reduce non-recovered waste by 50% (base 2010),
• Long-term objective: Zero.

Energy, Atmospheric Emissions And Climate Change

Objective: Understand and share best practices and techniques and deploy action plans to consume the least energy and produce the least atmospheric emissions possible.

CO2 is the main greenhouse gas emitted by the Group's activities. A carbon assessment was conducted at 31 Saint-Gobain companies in France, representing 75% of the Group's total workforce, taking into account emissions from energy use, processes, shipping, commuting and business travel and raw material purchasing.

Saint-Gobain has participated in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) since 2003.

Water

Saint-Gobain's water policy, published in 2011, applies to all Group sites worldwide. It confirms the Group's commitment to reducing the quantitative and qualitative impact of its activities on water resources as much as possible, both in terms of withdrawals and discharges.

Since 2012, the Group has participated in the CDP Water Disclosure, which is designed to encourage companies to produce a detailed report of the risks and opportunities in their water management and to communicate the results in a transparent manner.

Objective for 2025:

• Reduce industrial effluent by 80% (base 2010),
• Long-term objective: Zero.

Biodiversity

Objective: Carry out local biodiversity studies for new sites and quarries and restore sites and quarries in cooperation with stakeholders, taking local biodiversity into account.

The Group operates 151 underground and open-cast quarries worldwide. Of these, 79% belong to the Gypsum Activity, which has issued a biodiversity charter for its quarries. The Group's quarries are operated with the goal of preserving the environment, in compliance with local regulations

A biodiversity action program has been launched at the Group scale to improve knowledge of Saint-Gobain's natural assets. This method represents a first step in developing a cross-functional policy.