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ONE AMBITION: TO IMPROVE THE WELL-BEING OF ALL
2. Creating great living places
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SAINT-GOBAIN
- REGISTRATION DOCUMENT 2016
The Multi-Comfort program, demonstrating solution effectiveness
2.3.2
influencers – long-term innovations that will shape our
surroundings and improve our quality of life.
For Saint-Gobain, innovation is also about new ways of
thinking. The Group is leveraging the breadth of its portfolio
of Activities to develop new systems and solutions for
developing new systems that reinforce building performance.
Through its innovation centers, Saint-Gobain designs and
develops – in close partnership with customers and other
In addition to its innovation centers, “demo houses” are built
to illustrate the Multi-Comfort program and prove that the
recommended solutions are not just theoretical, but rather
that they function as real buildings. This constitutes
indispensable support for the program.
and South America, and Asia, making them representative of
the diversity of users’ expectations in response to their
culture and subjective perception of comfort.
The data from the 27 new operational projects refine the
understanding of Multi-Comfort and thus the credibility of the
approach. These projects cover 18 countries in Europe, North
The Multi-Comfort program is being applied to several market
segments, newbuilding and renovation, individual and
collective housing, and non-residential building.
SUSTAINABLE AND COMFORTABLE SOLUTIONS
2.4
Developing sustainable and
2.4.1
comfortable solutions
Saint-Gobain has launched discussions on an integrated
approach to analyzing products and the portfolio of
construction solutions according to sustainability criteria.
buildings, as well as preserving natural resources.
Saint-Gobain develops innovative solutions for construction
and renovation which foster the development of
energy-efficient, comfortable, healthy and attractive
These discussions draw on tools such as:
the EHS Check-list, introduced in 2008 and part of the
Saint-Gobain gate process in R&D;
the Eco-Innovation approach, and the associated tool box
which began development in 2013;
made in 1990.
the Environmental Product Declarations, setting out the
environmental impacts. The first of these declarations was
cycle. With regard to hazardous substances, the aim is to
prevent the use of new substances and reduce their use in
raw materials while reducing and controlling exposure levels.
These tools address the challenges of sustainable
construction in terms of environmental footprint in the
design, production and use of the Group’s solutions. They
reduce product environmental impacts and provide clear,
accurate environmental information on the contribution of
these sustainable solutions for use in obtaining a building
label. The EHS checklist also permits to qualitatively assess
substances integrated into product formulations and to
identify and reduce EHS impacts associated with product life
CertainTeed provides a calculator, the ecoScorecard, for
researching, evaluating and recording the environmental
characteristics of the products selected. This tool streamlines
the LEED building certification procedure.
Targeted communication for users and specifiers on the labels
in place strengthens the approach. Numerous local initiatives
are emerging, such as possible multi-brand brochures. Begun
in Spain, the idea has been adopted in Poland, the Czech
Republic and Italy, to promote Saint-Gobain’s comprehensive
line of sustainable solutions. Other activities or countries have
developed good digital practices. In the United States,
operational workshops alternating with guest speakers from
the following organizations who set out their vision for the
sustainable construction market: World Green Building
Council, World Business Council for Sustainable
Development, GRESB, etc.
In November 2016, the first-ever joint Multi-Comfort &
Sustainable Construction days brought together some
120 managers from Saint-Gobain’s marketing and R&D
centers. Presentations were given throughout these days on
the challenges of the Group’s sustainable construction
strategy and its Multi-Comfort program, with in-house
In addition to these actions, in 2016 Saint-Gobain initiated a
product stewardship policy, which will come true in 2017 by
the implementation of two pilots evaluating the CSR benefits
of a portfolio of products, a necessary stage before a
deployment on the overall Group.
Formulating and demonstrating the
2.4.2
Group’s value proposition
Significant effort has been required in terms of training,
explanation and demonstration to redefine the value
proposition, which is focused on comfort and sustainable
development, and this will continue to be the case.
development of physical premises where products can be
displayed and especially, where their features and impacts
can be easily demonstrated to a broad, non-expert audience.
For this purpose, in 2015 and 2016, the Habitat Committees in
the Group’s main countries were tasked with speeding up the
Following the Domolab, which opened in Aubervilliers in 2011,
and its equivalents in Russia, Italy and Spain, 2016 saw the
opening or renovation of a large number of these educational
showrooms:
in the Capivari R&D center in Brazil;
in the Chennai R&D center in India;
at the premises of the General Delegation in Copenhagen;