We minimise our environmental footprint by:

• Integrating our sustainability approach at each stage of the product life cycle, from the extraction of the raw materials, to production, through to our end-of-life recycling process;
• Locating our global manufacturing facilities as close as possible to the main construction hotspots, ensuring that our response is prompt and that our materials are local to minimise transportation;
• Participating in large-scale land restoration of gypsum quarries ;
• Limiting our impact on natural resources and biodiversity;
• Minimizing our energy consumption and CO2 emissions; and  
• Reducing the levels of water withdrawal and water discharge in liquid form (aiming for zero discharge).

Environmental impacts and initiatives

We support the vigorous monitoring of, and openly communicate about, our environmental impacts and initiatives, while participating in the “walking the talk” movement with the Green Building Councils for example.

Perform plasterboard and plaster Life Cycle Assessments (LCA)

We perform plasterboard and plaster Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) as standard, to assess the environmental impacts of our products and to produce transparent data, which our customers can study to ensure that our approach is in line with international building label certifications such as LEED, BREEAM, DGNB, GREEN MARK, etc. Read about Saint-Gobain’s contributions to LEED* and BREEAM*.

Adhere to circular economy principles

We adhere to circular economy principles, aiming for zero non-recovered waste, by recycling internal waste in all of our plants and by implementing a recycling service for construction waste on jobsites in most countries, which increases the recycled content of our products and avoidss landfilling.

Saint-Gobain eco-innovation process

We develop new products through our Saint-Gobain eco-innovation process, to improve the environmental profile of our solutions while also enhancing the performance, well-being and comfort aspects in all of our buildings.

Responsible sourcing

We promote responsible sourcing through our eco-logistics initiatives and apply the Saint-Gobain Sustainable procurement policy throughout the supply chain.

Improve the comfort, safety, health and well-being of the occupiers and users of our buildings

Our mission is to improve the comfort, safety, health and well-being of the occupiers and users of our buildings across our many market sectors. We engage in dialogue with our stakeholders and partners at each stage of construction to ensure that we incorporate valuable feedback into the continuous innovation and improvements in the performance of our products, systems, and processes.

Dedicated training programmes

We instigate dedicated training programmes for professionals and entrepreneurs to inspire lifelong learning. Moreover, our staff teams are continuously trained in order to build an extensive internal knowledge base about sustainable construction and to embed sustainability in every function and task carried out.

Share internal sustainability best practices

Together, with our community of local sustainability ambassadors, we share internal sustainability best practices between our countries of operation, so that we remain an industry leader in setting exemplary sustainability standards.