Situation

The Renault Cléon site is located on the Elbeuf meander of the River Seine in the locality of Cléon, in the south of the Seine Maritime region of Normandy in northern France. The site is 1 km east of the town centre of Cléon and 4 km from the town centre of Elbeuf. The city of Rouen lies 20 km to the north. The nearest houses (mostly site personnel homes) are about 150 m south-east of the site. The Cléon site covers an area of 135 ha.

Initial ISO 14001 certification earned in 1999.

Certification was renewed in 2002 and 2005. The site earned the Highly Protected Risk (HPR) label in 1991 and has it renewed annually after the insurance audit.

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Water consumption

The plant’s water consumption has been decreasing since 1988 with the installation of a closed-loop cooling system, optimized use of existing cooling towers, and the shutdown of old workshops.

Consumption of drinking water has remained relatively stable because pipes are inspected and leaks repaired.  New facilities make it easier to achieve water consumption reduction targets, in particular because specifications provide for a closed-loop mode for cooling water.

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Water-borne effluents

Daily flows of Organic Matter (OM) are reduced continuously by increasing bath service life, providing the workshops and outside companies with information on cutting water consumption, and following the cleaning processes.

In order to reduce pollution at the wastewater treatment facility, an evaporator operates in one building. Equipment upgrades to optimize operation (upstream deoiling and filtration) as well as the installation of a distillation system are scheduled for 2008.

Future projects are being examined to deal with pollution at source (2009 - 2012).

 

 

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SO2 and greenhouse gas emissions

The boiler system uses natural gas as its main fuel. In 2006, gas became the only fossil fuel used by the plant.

A boiler system master plan is under way, with investments planned for the period 2008 to 2012.

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Waste

In the production workshops, a collection system set up by the waste management service provider has provided the basis for discussion with Renault staff about at-source waste sorting. 

Together with additional logistics systems (trays, collection software, etc.), this brought the plant’s waste recovery rate up to more than 98% in 2007. Operations by outside companies come under particular scrutiny, especially during the periods of major maintenance in August and December, when environment and safety audits are conducted to correct malfunctions as they appear.

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Energy

A working group including the energy supplier and the various manufacturing sectors is headed by the maintenance department.  Management of machine breakdowns outside production time yielded positive results in the last half-year.

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Highlights

 

 Martine Martin: 

" In April 2007, a new manager was appointed to the Cléon plant. We updated the environmental policy (lien hypertexte) with management’s commitment. World Environment Day and the forum for outside companies were opportunities for everyone to familiarize themselves with the new policy.

Our environmental results in 2007 were in line with previous years. Performance of the EMS is measured by our environment indicators, which are now discussed every month at management committee meetings. At the same time, 2007 was a year of audits and inspections, which took up a total of 22 days and confirmed our environmental management performance. "

• Waste

Global waste management is outsourced to a service provider. The contract was renewed in June with clearly identified points for improvement. Monthly meetings with the plant’s environment network and the installation of audit software to monitor container collection means that malfunctions can be dealt with quickly and organization adapted to changes in the workshops. A total of 1,000 waste collection containers were replaced in 2007 to comply with a new waste collection organization (introduction of plastics sorting, optimized sorting of paper, etc.).

Small skips in the industrial effluent pipe galleries were tested for three months to study the effectiveness of settling and recovery of swarf deposits. Some 40 small skips will be installed on the site in 2008.

13m3 lined skips will also be installed to recover swarf deposits before they are sent to outside waste processors. A study on the installation of two swarf tub grinders was completed with our waste management provider.

• Emissions to air

The clement weather last winter and pilot energy saving measures optimized boiler operation and production of compressed air.

The energy savings steering committee was active, the results of weekly measurements made it possible to identify points for improvement and enhance information.

• Liquid effluents

The wastewater treatment facility had trouble processing pollution peaks when liquid effluent baths were drained. As a result, 400 tonnes of effluent were outsourced to waste management providers for destruction at the end of the year.

• Risk prevention

To prevent soil pollution, systematic measures are implemented during excavation and building work. For example, coring and soil samples are taken before - and in some cases during - the work to monitor subsoil quality. Special provisions were also implemented at new facilities to prevent the risk of subsoil pollution.
A project to categorize soil quality was started on a storage area for machining swarf.

• Management

After the November audit, the Seine-Normandy water board renewed its approval for management of the physical/chemical wastewater treatment facility, oversight of the network, and waste management.

An exhibition of the plant’s environmental projects (zero liquid effluents, energy savings and JIT elimination of swarf) was organized for World Environment Day.