Saint Gobain - Registration document 2016

2 ONE AMBITION: TO IMPROVE THE WELL-BEING OF ALL 2. Creating great living places

2.3.2

The Multi-Comfort program, demonstrating solution effectiveness

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.

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2.4

SUSTAINABLE AND COMFORTABLE SOLUTIONS

2.4.1

Developing sustainable and comfortable solutions

characteristics of the products selected. This tool streamlines the LEED building certification procedure. 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 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 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. 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. For this purpose, in 2015 and 2016, the Habitat Committees in the Group’s main countries were tasked with speeding up the Formulating and demonstrating the 2.4.2 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. 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; ‹

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 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 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, 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. CertainTeed provides a calculator, the ecoScorecard, for researching, evaluating and recording the environmental

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SAINT-GOBAIN - REGISTRATION DOCUMENT 2016