Bouygues Bâtiment Ile-de-France has signed the first Guarantee of Energy Results on a new build school project for the City of Paris. This undertaking was made in the context of the construction of a 10-class nursery school and the upgrading of two existing junior schools that comprise the Binet schools complex, located in a green setting in northern Paris. This exemplary project has been designed by DeSo Associés, the commissioned architects, and Betom-Cap Terre, consulting engineers.                                                    

The City of Paris called for a high level environmental performance. It stipulated compliance with its Climate Plan, setting energy consumption targets of less than 80 kWhPE/m²/year⁽¹⁾ for the refurbished schools and below 50 kWhPE/m²/year for the new school. A further demand was HQE^® certification for the new nursery school, with three targets (energy management, maintenance and hygrothermal comfort) at "high performance" level.

Bouygues Bâtiment Ile-de-France has committed to going beyond the targets set for the new nursery school, proposing to improve the HQE^® profile on several targets (low-nuisance construction site, olfactory comfort, air and water quality). The company has also offered a guarantee of heating consumption for the nursery school.

In addition, anxious to comply with the demands of the City of Paris' Biodiversity Plan and to take active steps to protect the local environment, Bouygues Bâtiment Ile-de-France has introduced measures designed to preserve biodiversity in the school. The company collaborated with an ecological specialist, who will monitor the project throughout the duration of the works, to specify the forms of greenery (gardens, trees) and animal species (blackbirds, blue tits, hedge sparrows) present on the site and plan a works schedule that will optimise their protection. The company has undertaken to test the Binet operation according to Urban Biodiversity reference guidelines developed by Elan, a subsidiary of Bouygues Bâtiment Ile-de-France. These guidelines are used to assess the extent to which biodiversity issues are factored into property operations in urban areas.

This contract exemplifies the strategy of Bouygues Construction, which is seeking to become a leader in sustainable construction. The Group is a pioneer in improving the energy performance of buildings and it is also strongly committed to promoting biodiversity. In December 2010, Bouygues Construction signed the first energy performance contract in the housing sector, followed by the first energy performance contract in a condominium block in February 2012. It has also signed energy performance guarantees on such major projects as the future French Ministry of Defence at Balard and the future Paris Law Courts.

⁽¹⁾ Unit for measuring the consumption of primary energy per square metre per year.