On Friday, 14 September, Chairman and CEO Yves Gabriel awarded the prizes for Bouygues Construction's 4th Innovation Competition. The ceremony took place at Challenger, the Group's headquarters⁽¹⁾.  
  
Launched in 2006, the two-yearly Innovation Competition rewards the best ideas from Group employees, in France and elsewhere, and in all the Group's lines of business. The event has enjoyed growing success: nearly 2,000 people took part in the present edition, twice as many as in the first competition in 2006. 
  
A shortlist of entries was chosen by a panel of acknowledged experts from within the Group and outside, then submitted by the Group's R&D and Innovation Committee to the jury from Bouygues Construction's General Management. Prizes were awarded to 36 out of the nearly 700 entries. Some innovations are already in operational use and all of them will be circulated groupwide. 
  
The first prizes in each category include: 
  
Works/Operation/Services: First prize was awarded to an on-site application for improving the control and commissioning of projects, work package by work package, which provides access to technical drawings and datasheets. It runs on a tablet PC and can be used to enter the progress of tests and inspections and to follow up the making-good of snagging-list items. 
  
Sales and Marketing: First prize was awarded to Ecolycée, a "green high school" project. The initiative was designed to get pupils in technology programmes at a high school in Clichy-sous-Bois, near Paris, involved in reducing the energy costs of their school. 
  
Purchasing/Logistics/Equipment: First prize in the Equipment category was awarded to a lifting-sling spacer, a device which automatically positions slings on each side of the component to be hoisted. First prize in the Purchasing category went to a barcode-based supplies management system, also awarded a Special Jury Prize. First prize in the Logistics category was awarded to a plant room thatis entirely prefabricated, fitted out and tested at the factory before being installed on the building roof. 
  
Technology: First prize was awarded to a new wind turbine erection system that is quicker and cheaper than existing solutions. This patented innovation was also awarded a Special Jury Prize. 
  
Management/Accounts/Finance/Legal Affairs/Administration: First prize was awarded to a web portal that brings together all the necessary information for the effective management of the administrative, legal, financial and technical aspects of a project. 
  
Human Resources/Communication: First prize in the Human Resources category was awarded to an internet information platform for job applicants. First prize in the Communication category went to the organisation of a Street Art-based public relations event on a major worksite. 
  
Innovation in the field: First prize was awarded to a joint grouting machine, a wheeled hopper for placing grout in the longitudinal joints of hollow-core slabs. 
  
In addition, this year a special Safety prize was awarded to a 1,000-m² training centre in Hong Kong devoted entirely to safety, and a special Health prize to three initiatives that illustrate Bouygues Construction's determination to reduce its people's exposure to risk. 
  
Over and above the prize-winning ideas themselves, the competition demonstrates Bouygues Construction's determination to use innovation to drive progress. Coupled with an ambitious R&D policy, the growing culture of innovation within the corporate mindset should help Bouygues Construction to lead the way in sustainable construction. 
  
⁽¹⁾ Challenger is currently being renovated using highly innovative technologies that will reduce the building's energy consumption by a factor of ten and halve its water consumption.