INNOVATION CULTURE AND COMPETITIVENESS

Sharing a vision and projects for the future

Innovation is an integral part of Eiffage and APRR’s business culture. The two groups predict major emerging social trends and harness new technologies in their effort to devise new mobility solutions.

This commitment is reflected in the Group’s organisation, which fosters and rewards employees’ innovative flair in improving the travel experience. All employees are encouraged to imagine ways to make travel a more comfortable experience.

Encouraging creative instincts

For Eiffage, acknowledging and leveraging employees’ innovative flair is essential. This policy is illustrated by the Eiffage Innovation Awards and the establishment of the Phosphore research programme.

The Innovation Awards, introduced in 2007, encourage innovative thinking and practical applications. The biennial awards are organised under the responsibility of the Group and the divisions’ sustainable development departments. All Eiffage employees are entitled to take part, either individually or in teams. The awards are presented in recognition of innovative solutions that uphold the social and environmental principles of sustainable development and showcase the creative initiative of Eiffage employees. More than 350 entries from across all Eiffage Group divisions were submitted for the fifth edition of the Eiffage Innovation Awards, reflecting the strength of the innovative flair pervading the Group. Award-winning initiatives included geothermally-heated roads, mycoremediation-based soil decontamination and a project to use social media to communicate directly with people living near a construction site.

In the area of urban development, Eiffage operates the Phosphore forward-looking research programme, which was launched in 2007. Phosphore’s mission is to imagine and design innovative, sustainable urban development and mobility solutions.

All of the Group’s businesses contribute to the Phosphore programme, and expert employees are encouraged to think outside the box to imagine a sustainable city,. This blue-sky thinking is finding immediate applications, such as GreEn-Er, the new energy and natural resource management innovation centre developed by Grenoble University’s Research and Higher Education Institute (PRES) in partnership with Eiffage.

PROTECTION AND MODERNISATION, THE DRIVERS OF INVESTMENT

APRR invests in the network to maintain and protect the assets entrusted to it by the State, but also to respond to future mobility needs. By carrying out constant maintenance, but also thanks to the construction of new developments, APRR makes travelling conditions easier for its customers.

INNOVATION IN PRACTICE

A combination of social change and technological revolutions is prompting a profound shift in our attitude to travel. In response to these changes, APRR is supporting the development of new means of transport (electric vehicles) and new practices such as car pooling and car sharing.

START.LAB, THE APRR INNOVATION PROGRAMME

APRR’s Horizon 2020 programme encourages all employees to think about and design tomorrow’s motorways and services. Over a 16-month period, 110 employees tackled challenges posed by a series of Start.lab workshops.