Our actions for sustainability

Mitigating climate change means decarbonizing our economies.

The goal is simple: by 2050, we must not emit any more carbon than we absorb. 

Saint-Gobain made this commitment in 2019, by signing the UN Global Compact’s "Business Ambition for 1.5°C" pledge. Our CO₂ roadmap incorporates the Group’s new commitments through to 2030:

33% reduction in scope 1 and 2 emissions in absolute terms compared to a 2017 baseline
16% reduction in scope 3 emissions compared to 2017
These new targets for 2030 have been validated by the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) which considers them aligned with our 2050 commitment.

To meet our targets, we will dedicate a targeted capital expenditure and R&D budget of around €100 million per year until 2030. 

Two internal carbon prices have also been introduced (€75/tonne of eq. CO₂ for investments, 150€/tonne for R&D projects) to encourage the use of low-carbon technologies.

The circular economy is a resilient growth model suited to changes in available resources. Successfully transitioning to the circular economy will make it possible to continue offering solutions and services over the long term which take into account environmental, labour and societal expectations and balance well-being, sustainability and performance for stakeholders.

Our strategy to develop a circular economy has the following focus areas:

evolve products and solutions to reduce the intensity of virgin raw materials and to promote increased integration of recycled or renewable materials, extend their lifespan and facilitate their recycling or reuse in order to reduce the resource intensity of the solutions;
develop new manufacturing processes;
work with stakeholders to develop new business models and value chains.

We have succeeded over the years in reducing the environmental footprint of our solutions and we will continue to do so thanks to our Eco-Innovation policy.  In order to contribute to a more resource efficient economy, we develop waste recycling solutions and increase the recycled contents of our products.

We promote the use of life cycle assessments (LCAs) in the building industry and carry out LCAs for all our products, to know and improve their environmental footprint. To give confidence in our communicated LCA results, our environmental product declarations (EPDs) are verified by an independent third party.

You can recognise our commitments for Life Cycle Assessments and verified Environmental Product Declarations with the “EPD verified” pictogram.

Saint-Gobain’s Water policy confirms our desire to reduce the impacts of the Group’s activities on water resources as much as possible, whether in terms of water intake or discharge.
The long-term objective is to withdraw as little water as possible and to aim for “zero discharge” of industrial water in liquid form while avoiding generating new impacts for other natural environments and/or for other stakeholders. To this end, Saint-Gobain does its utmost to:

reduce water withdrawals from the natural environment and optimize processes to minimize water consumption;
reuse “process” water whenever possible;
recycle on-site or off-site with appropriate treatments;
not degrade water quality by reducing and controlling discharges into the natural environment and preventing any accidental pollution;
not compete with local populations for access to drinking water.