Situation

The site is located next to industrial and agricultural areas, except to the south-east, where there is a residential area with houses. The plant is around 1,250 m upstream from a groundwater capture zone. The nearest water course is the Mauldre (400 m) into which the site discharges its stormwater.

Initial ISO 14001 certification earned in 2000. 

The plant renewed its certification for three years in May 2003, and again in May 2006.

Download :

- site's environmental policy (french)

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Water consumption

Since 2002, the site has reduced its water consumption by 60%. Consumption increased slightly in 2007, after building work on the site. These positive results on consumption are the result of several actions:

• stoppage of a cooling tower,

• systematic check for leaks,

• setting up monitoring of the installations by the technical departments and setting up the water consumption monitoring system.

• Raising staff awareness of the importance of saving energy and installation of water-saving flushes and taps.

Consumption in 2007 was 14,235 m3, which is 7.6 m3 per person per year.

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Water-borne effluents

Sanitary wastewater is discharged to the local treatment plant. There is no liquid effluent. There is no wastewater treatment facility or open-loop cooling system at i-DVU. 

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SO2 and greenhouse gas emissions

The low level of SO2 emissions can be attributed to the use of gas as a fuel. Greenhouse gas discharges are almost totally due to the operation of the boilers.

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Waste

HIW tonnage increased in 2007 due to building work to seal the roofing on several buildings. At the same time, OIW tonnage decreased by 20% in 2007. That result was achieved by fundamental action:

• Reusing packaging from prototype parts,

• Recovering and reselling unused automotive parts.

In addition, numerous communications actions were performed to stress the importance of sorting and recycling. The recovery rate for waste at I-DVU is 98%, with a materials recovery rate of around 70%.

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Energy

In 2007, i-DVU set up an energy-saving committee to monitor consumption continuously to avoid wastage and to define actions that could be implemented to optimize or reduce our energy consumption.

In the past few years, various actions have been implemented to reduce consumption, ranging from technical improvements (lighting, heating, air conditioning, self-regulation, etc.) to actions to change behaviour (quiz, exhibition, communications campaigns, etc.).

In 2007, the site reduced its electricity consumption by 1% on a like-for-like basis (weather, scope, process).

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Highlights

 

 Environmental, Safety and Working Conditions Manager at i-DVU.

Through its policy, i-DVU clearly stresses its commitment to environmental protection. That commitment takes the form of actions integrated into day-to-day work to reduce the impact of the business on the environment and to achieve the highest level of environmental risk prevention.

The main actions implemented in recent years include:

• Degreasing machines 

All machines for degreasing mechanical parts have been replaced by biological systems that produce less waste and emit no VOCs.

• VOC recovery at service stations 

The site's service station has implemented a process for recovering VOCs emitted during fuel transfer operations.

• Solar-powered hot water tank 

To limit boiler operation during the summer, a hot water tank powered by a photovoltaic (solar power) cell has been installed to supply offices with domestic hot water.

 

• Retention in PC J8 area

To avoid any risk of chemicals seeping into the ground, the containment basin in the PC storage area was sealed (resin coating).

• Containment basin

During the site improvement work, the rainwater recovery network was restructured. The volume of the containment basin was increased and an oil separator added.

 

• Cooling tower replaced

To eliminate the risk of Legionnaires’ disease, the last cooling tower on the site was replaced with a refrigerating unit, which is used to cool the engine test benches.